Pressure Assisted Toilets

tzzzz216

any opinions on pressure assisted toilets, They seem to work great, but what a bear to get to the tank bolts.



Try to send these jobs overseas !!

TimNJ

The only thing I notice about them is that the tank lid tends to rattle when they are flushed. Maybe put a couple foam pads on the lid???

smellslike$tome

I would take any Toto with G-Max over any pressure assist anyday. Simple design, quiet, very powerful, never had a complaint. I usually install the Drake with a regular seat. I'm getting tank, bowl and seat for right at $200 from local supply house. Pressure assist can be a lot of problems and they scare little children!

locofoco

I try to buy American when I can. When we built 2 years ago salesman recommended Toto, a Japanese brand. This thing acts like a pressure assisted toilet but isn't. Never a need to flush twice. It's great. There may be a comparable American product now?

smellslike$tome

American Standard came out with their Champion series, (I think it's called Champion). They have some slick marketing where they flush, I don't know I think it's 40 golf balls or something, but how many golf ball sized items typically get flushed? Now, 40 peeled bananas, that would impress me. I installed 4 of them in a house about 18 months ago 2 of them had to be sent back right out of the box for obvious defects. A third had to be monkeyed with for close to an hour to get it to work correctly. I haven't installed one since. Toto is Japanese, it's true, and I wish that one of our American companies would produce something as good or better but they don't. I'm not generally stuck on any particular brand until you start talking about water closets. I'll install whatever my customer wants, with a few exceptions, but until someone in America starts producing something as good, I will continue to point them to Toto.

Song Dog

Kohler has a stool called the Cimarron. I have installed a couple and work nicely. Also, put a TOTO in and the customer says he has never had to flush twice.

God Bless,

Song Dog

747

In one of my bathrooms the toliet is original to the house 1963 It says crane oxford still in great clean shape. I had my plumber install all new components in the tank. I thinks its a 5 gallon flush. The other bathroom is a i think 3.5 gallon flush toliet. I never going to replace them because there white clean and maxium flush can't buy those anymore. All i have to do is change the toliet seat to update the appearance.

cmwacasey

lamoso sahara made in mexico,in my opinion,is the best toilet out there. i have installed many in the last ten years.they flush better than the majority of the high end toilets.at a price of less than 75.00,they get little respect.people like to pay for those name brands so as to impress the neighbors.

Double-A

Their china would rank only as a mid to low B grade china compared to most US made china. Their ballcocks are a Mansfield knock off and you can't get replacement lids for the tanks unless you get lucky and find someone with a busted tank, but good lid. I'm not a fan of steel tank-to-bowl bolts either. They are just cheap. Yes, they work well, but spending $75.00 on a toilet that is gonna ruin the floor in a few years when those tank-to-bowl bolts rust out is not economical in my book. For a 'disposable' WC, I guess they're OK, but I don't want one, thanks. Toto G-Max is the cat's meow right now.

Pressure assisted are nice in many ways, but unnecessary IMHO. If I were to go to a pressure actuated WC, I'd skip the tank altogether and just go for a flushometer. They work well, parts are available at any plumbing supply house at a reasonable price. Only downside is getting the water volume to the bathroom to run them. (Think big water service and big water line to bathroom.)

You can't say that about power assisted tank models. The main replacement part for the Sloan unit is about $50.00 plumber's cost.

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

smellslike$tome

Never heard of them!

I'm curious though, assuming you are a plumbing service provider (which is not particularly clear), why are you pointing your clients to the cheap product, especially when the more expensive product is superior in design, construction, and performance? If people want the name brand let them have it. Are you not marking up all of your materials by a certain percentage? If not you should be and if so then you make more money simply by providing a higher end product, which the customer may want and be perfectly willing to pay for if only he knows that it is an option!

STOP ASSUMING THAT CONSUMERS WANT THE CHEAPEST THING AVAILABLE!!! Especially when the cheapest thing available is not very good.

Educate your customers to the advantages of one product over another. Present them with their options and let them decide. If they choose a cheaper product, fine, install it after you warn them about the potential performance, durability, maintenance issues, but stop assuming that they want the cheapest!!! At least give them the opportunity to choose.

P.S. Having said all that, make sure that the "name brand" is a quality product and not simply a well known name resulting from extensive marketing. For example: I personally do not like Kohler toilets at all and have cautioned many about the problems I have encountered with them. However, many people like them and I will certainly install them if that is what the client wants after hearing my council. Until something better comes along or until future production changes diminish their quality, Toto with G-max is the only toilet I recomend. I have found nothing so far that outperforms them and I charge a good price to install them.

Double-A

Lowes carries these. I've never seen them available from anyone else.

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Atricaudatus

I've also had a lot of quality defects and performance problems with the champions. They are also not very installer-friendly. I like the toto's ok, but I have ahd a few fill valve failures and water level adjustment problems with them. Lately I have been using the AS Colony line. It's cheaper, but has the traditional design mechanisms. I cheat the float on the flapper chain to allow it to remain open longer and blatantly violate the federal gpf guidelines. It gulps twice for each push of the lever.
The Kohlers and Mansfields are ok too.

__________________
-Rhett
Licensed electrician and plumber

cmwacasey

most of my clients want kohlers and i happily will install them.as for me and my house we have been quite happy with our lamosa sahara.