Best Toilet (brands)

[simpsongal]

I know this came up recently, what's the best toilet? I want to replace the toilet on our main floor (it's awful!)

I googled and found some folks talking about Toto? Was that the brand you were all talking about a few weeks ago?

TIA! Bonus if you recommend a source (Lowes, online, etc.)

[FoxInFiji]

LOL yes it was Toto. They are the bomb.com.

A few nesties got theirs from homeclick.com. I got mine from faucetdirect.com and had them price match homeclick.

I tried looking up my long post about them on the nest but I'm not finding it yet. Dang I should have c&p'd it before the nest removed our ability to search for psots we've commented on!

[kaylie]

H and I were discussing toilets last night and I brought up that post! I was like 'we are getting a Toto'. He's never heard of them and was totally confused as to why I had such strong feelings on a toilet.

[FoxInFiji]

Yay thank you Firefox history search! Let's see how well this pastes in here with the links and pics...OK pics and links readded and I combined some follow up comments from other toilet posts that same day.

We bought ours at faucetdirect (price matched to some other websites I didn't trust as much online) but we saw some in person first at two local plumbing showrooms (they aren't nationwide or I'd recommend them). These weren't listed on Toto's website so you have hope! Call around and see what showrooms in your area carry or check out their websites. Ferguson in our area at least doesn't carry them because they have a big contract with Kohler and Kohler prohibits them from carrying Toto since they are a competitor. All 3 of the Ferguson showroom people said Toto is what they would or have bought for toilets though.

Personally the last thing I want to worry about is my toilet. If it's clogged, finding replacement parts, or having to replace one. We had issue after issue with our old toilets. We would replace parts that seemed to work at first only to find the toilet running continuously a few days later. A toilet is the last appliance/fixture I want to worry about or be working on every week! We were really nervous about this remodel because it involved demoing out 2 or our 3 bathrooms. If the basement toilet started acting up again we were screwed! I'd rather just buy a good one now and never have to worry about it. I'll spend my time and money decorating the house instead.

There is really only a few things you need to see in person to decide. Do you want the G-max (same as E-max only that uses 1.28 gal) or the Dual Cyclone technology. Both are good. The G-max has been around the block longer but the dual cyclone is supposed to clean your bowl better. In the showroom you can look at how each performs. Take off the lids and compare the "innards" of the Toto to any other brand. I was impressed. That plus the recommendation to use them from pretty much ever pluming engineer I work with, ever plumber we know, and all of the plumbing show people I talked to made it a no-brainer for us. We have the G-max mainly because I fell in love with the look of the Lloyd...LOL yes I just thought it was the most craftsman Toto option. We've had it in for over a month now and let me tell you it's kind of freakin' amazing...for a toilet that is. We went from only having 7 gallon/flush toilets down to a 1.28 gal/flush and we were worried there would be a reduction in performance. Not one clog to date nor has there been *cough* skid marks left behind that needed to be cleaned even though we are only using 18% of the water flow of our old toilet. We have a lot of friends and family with low flow toilets (most with toilets that wouldn't meet today's 1.6 gal requirements) and I have never seen one as powerful as ours and we voluntarily went with a lower 1.28 gal one. No joke the first thing my Dad did when he saw our almost finished bathroom is go check out the toilet. He has had a massive amount of issues with his various low flows and they are mid-range Kohlers and American Standards.

Once you have that figured out you can start looking at the details.

ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bath/msg0905262914854.html

ADA height and elongated bowl is what most people prefer. If you have very short family members non-ADA might be preferred. Personally I think the women in the house should be the deciding factor on comfort height or not because we have to sit on them much more than the males. [] Go to a plumbing showroom and sit on each. The difference is small (14" from floor to seat vs. 16") but some notice it more than others. Comfort height is ideal for elderly or people with bad hip/knee joints. It's standard in nursing homes and hospitals...and why you can buy those plastic seats that go over your standard height toilet. I'm tall and this is our forever home that we plan to grow old in so we went with comfort height. I love it so far!

Almost all of Toto's bowls are elongated and originally I thought I didn't want that because some elongated bowls look so huge and stick out so far. Well Toto is great because they have made the elongated bowl fit in the same footprint of a round bowl and it doesn't stick out like some other brands do. That in addition to being able to use a Unifit adapter for different rough-in sizes makes them much more compact in a tight space...great for remodeling an old home. We ended up having to get a 10" Unifit rough-in and having bought a skirted toilet made it possible to use it (saving us a lot of time and money!). Had we had a regular toilet we would have had to eat that cost and buy a different one after the fact. Here's an example of a Toto with the Unifit and a Kohler Cadet:






www.terrylove.com/wc/unifit.htm

Note even without the 14" unifit the Toto still saves space compared to the Kohler and they both have an elongated bowl.

Don't get a dual flow. They sound like a great idea but they physically don't work well. There is a lot of design that goes into how the water flows in a toilet and there is no possibly way for both a low and higher flow to both work effectively if you are at a low flow setting already. The only dual flows that work very well are ones that are like 6 gal/ 3 gal. At 1.6 or 1.28 gallons there is very little water so there is really no need to go down to a 0.5 gal flush. Our plumbing department says they are the #1 most complained about and replaced plumbing fixture in green buildings...and we're talking about commercial products here so a totally different flushing mechanism than residential. We actually have one at work and you never want to use it for the #2 flow because it literally splashes water at you. No joke.

1 pieces are nice because there isn't that seam between the tank and the bottom. As crazy as it sounds it's easier to clean with the smooth curve there. Not a big deal but if you have strong preference either way go for it.
Skirted is nice not only for looks but for cleaning. Ours is skirted but the smooth skirt stops 5" or so up from the floor. No idea why but cleaning around looks easy. Plus like I said because we went with skirted we were able to compensate for a non-12" rough-in.

SanaGloss is supposed to be nice but there is barely any difference between Toto models. They all have a nice smooth finish (though not in the trap itself because that causes clogging...cheaper toilets do this because it cost less to finish all of the porcelain the same way but light things like toilet paper cling to smooth surfaces better because of capillary actions...just another way Toto rocks). According to some of the showroom people they will soon be getting rid of this feature and making it standard on all toilets. Our model didn't come with this option.

One more feature I forgot in the first post...the soft close seat is genius. Just genius. Both the lid and the seat just need to be tipped and they slowly close with no slam. DH is especially smitten with it and promised to never again leave the seat up (it was very rare before but still)! It came standard on ours but you can upgrade any Toto to have it.

Then it just comes down to looks and price.

Like I said we love ours and will be buying two more as we finish the other two bathrooms. We have the Eco Lloyd. But we seriously considered the Soiree which is our next favorite and cheaper. I saw the Guinevere (which is exactly the same as the Soriee just with a different look) in the showroom and didn't like the side flushing handle. Another one to consider is one of the many Drake models which are by far the most popular and economical. The Clayton is another one with a more classic/vintage look.

BTW did you see this rating chart (www.terrylove.com/crtoilet.htm) by the king of toilets I posted late in the other toilet post? It doesn't have all of the Toto styles but all styles are comparable to the ones he has listed. The owner comments are a nice feature.

PS. Wax ring note: Make sure to get just the standard wax rings. The ones with the horns can be hard to install correctly and lead to more problems than they are worth. Our plumber suggested to use the standard ring and double up two of them if we needed an extra tall one (which we did because Toto's Unifit has a large area for the ring). No issues with that so far. Also wax rings are a one shot deal if you put the toilet on it and need to adjust it or take it back off get a new ring. They cost $1 and are the most likely thing to fail so always go with a new one and get extra.


HTH!

[ssmjlm]

OMG I need this info for our hall bath. We don't have enough room for the same elongated bowl look as our other 2 baths, but DH likes a "man sized toilet" lol.

[kyliek29]

My husband is a plumber, so one of the first remodels in our house was the bathroom. I'm not sure what brand of toilet we have, but it's a power flush - amazing!!! I would definitely that feature!