Ugh - Toilet Problems

I understand that installing a toilet is a pretty simple job, but I’m just done taking on these types of tasks. I’ve never done it before and the likelihood of screwing up my first try is enough that I’m just not willing to try. In a separate thread I talked about changing out the fill tube. Sure, it was an easy job but, I cross threaded the threads at the bottom of the fill tube. I had to go back to the store and get another one. The second time I got the upgraded one with the brass threads. That worked great. I should have bought that on in the first place. It’s stuff like that that I’ve had enough with. I’ll focus on the things I know how to handle and this isn’t one of them. Plus, I need my shut off valves replaced. Since a plumber is coming anyway, the whole job is hers. She charges $160 for each toilet and $80 for each fill. So for $480, I’m not worried about farming this one out.

I did end up ordering the Toto Drake. It’s the higher height elongated model with the 1.6 gallons per flush. I’m pretty sure that’s what I had in my previous home. To the couple responses that said keep it simple, I took that to heart but I like the Toto. I did check and make sure that the parts for a Toto (fill valve and flapper) are readily available at Home Depot.

I found the Drake On Amazon for $255 versus at HD for $458. I’m a little worried about it being shipped without damage, but for the savings I figured it’s worth the risk. The Amazon toilet doesn’t come with a seat but one of our toilets uses a bidet seat (which we’ll keep and use) and I bought a Toto soft close seat that matches for $56. So for both toilets and shut off valves installed, with taxes, I’m looking at just under $1100. I don’t even think that’s BTD territory.

They should be delivered Jan 3rd. I’ll update when they’re installed. Thank you all for your input.
 
I’m a little worried about it being shipped without damage
Click to expand...

Reminds me of my first Toto order - I was home when the delivery guy unloaded the box and it sounded like a wind chime. We agreed that it must have been broken and he took it back right there and then and brought a new one in another day or two.
 
Jerry1 said:
I understand that installing a toilet is a pretty simple job, but I’m just done taking on these types of tasks. I’ve never done it before and the likelihood of screwing up my first try is enough that I’m just not willing to try. In a separate thread I talked about changing out the fill tube. Sure, it was an easy job but, I cross threaded the threads at the bottom of the fill tube. I had to go back to the store and get another one. The second time I got the upgraded one with the brass threads. That worked great. I should have bought that on in the first place. It’s stuff like that that I’ve had enough with. I’ll focus on the things I know how to handle and this isn’t one of them. Plus, I need my shut off valves replaced. Since a plumber is coming anyway, the whole job is hers. She charges $160 for each toilet and $80 for each fill. So for $480, I’m not worried about farming this one out.

I did end up ordering the Toto Drake. It’s the higher height elongated model with the 1.6 gallons per flush. I’m pretty sure that’s what I had in my previous home. To the couple responses that said keep it simple, I took that to heart but I like the Toto. I did check and make sure that the parts for a Toto (fill valve and flapper) are readily available at Home Depot.

I found the Drake On Amazon for $255 versus at HD for $458. I’m a little worried about it being shipped without damage, but for the savings I figured it’s worth the risk. The Amazon toilet doesn’t come with a seat but one of our toilets uses a bidet seat (which we’ll keep and use) and I bought a Toto soft close seat that matches for $56. So for both toilets and shut off valves installed, with taxes, I’m looking at just under $1100. I don’t even think that’s BTD territory.

They should be delivered Jan 3rd. I’ll update when they’re installed. Thank you all for your input.
Click to expand...

You're probably fine, but be careful about plumbing stuff on Amazon. I'm a Vine Voices reviewer and have ordered a lot of plumbing stuff. I'm done with Amazon for most plumbing items. Too many problems with these products.

There are fake Totos out there, believe it or not. Hopefully, yours is sold or fulfilled by Amazon and it should be real.
 
JoeWras said:
There are fake Totos out there, believe it or not. Hopefully, yours is sold or fulfilled by Amazon and it should be real.
Click to expand...

Yes, sold and shipped by Amazon. Fingers crossed. There was one review that said the toilet was broke when received but they also said Amazon shipped out a new one right away with no problems.
 
Costco has the Toto. It seems to be a good toilet, we put one in our new house build and it flushes fine.

The Costco kit comes with the wax ring and everything, but leaking around the base of yours means either your floor was very unlevel or someone didn't know how to install a wax ring. They should last longer than 8 years.

https://www.costco.com/toto-drake-2-piece-elongated-toilet.product.4000101786.html
 
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Jerry1 said:
Yeah, I’m not sure what happened. The floor is level. I’m on a cement slab. I had new tile installed and I don’t ever recall the toilet wobbling at all.
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Tile jobs around toilets usually means you need to thicker wax ring to make up for the tile thickness. Maybe they put in a standard thickness wax ring after the tile job and it failed over the years.
 
aja8888 said:
Tile jobs around toilets usually means you need to thicker wax ring to make up for the tile thickness. Maybe they put in a standard thickness wax ring after the tile job and it failed over the years.
Click to expand...

Not sure if a thicker ring was used, but without any movement, I’m not sure why it would fail. If it sealed for 7 years, what could have happened for it to fail? I’m still wondering if a crack somehow developed. We’ll see soon enough I guess.
 
One of my toilets leaked and the plumber who came said the wax ring was completed gone (dissolved) after 20 years and it being in a tight corner. If I wasn't nearing my 70 years of age, I would have replaced it myself, but with $125 I am happy to have a young man do it for me.
 
fh2000 said:
One of my toilets leaked and the plumber who came said the wax ring was completed gone (dissolved) after 20 years and it being in a tight corner. If I wasn't nearing my 70 years of age, I would have replaced it myself, but with $125 I am happy to have a young man do it for me.
Click to expand...
Good reason. I'm a little over 70 but would probably still do it myself. Mostly because I don't like (1) finding someone to do such jobs, (2) then waiting on them to do the job, (3) then wondering if they did it right, (4) then paying them for something I know I can still do.

Especially, when I can just jump in the truck, go to Home Depot or Lowes, pickup a new one and have it installed in a ~hour after getting home. It would take me longer to go to the store, buy one, and return home than it would be to do the actual job. But then, the nearest such store is ~50 miles away. :)
 
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Yes the Toto comes with an extra thick wax ring over the standard one but these extra thick wax rings are only about $3 or $4 at North 40. Well worth the extra $0.25 to have that extra wax squishing around and filling all the gaps.

I actually moved our toilet last month from the unfinished downstairs to the upstairs finished bathroom and bought another extra thick ring (you don't want to reuse those lol. This is how I know the price. It took about 15 minutes total to drain and move the toilet ( drained with shop vac). I am 53 though, n not 70 so ymmv.
 
By the way, we used large 24" x 12" porcelain tile in our upstairs bathroom and I bought a diamond hole saw on Amazon for $25 to precisely drill the drain hole (used flowing water from garden hose to drill the tile before installing). After the tile was set, I put in the Oatey flange (pvc with stainless ring) and marked the 6 holes, then used two 1/4" diamond tipped drills from a $14 10-pack on Amazon to drill those flange mounting holes through the tile. I made a dam around each hole with plumbers putty so I could have a bit of water in there. No chips and the flange sits on top of the porcelain and the toilet sits perfectly on the tile.

You might not get this type of detail work with a standard tradesperson.
 
I love the Toto one we had installed by a plumber!
Only toilet in the house that we have not had subsequent problems with.
 
fh2000 said:
One of my toilets leaked and the plumber who came said the wax ring was completed gone (dissolved) after 20 years and it being in a tight corner. If I wasn't nearing my 70 years of age, I would have replaced it myself, but with $125 I am happy to have a young man do it for me.
Click to expand...

Same here at my rental, so I called a plumber to fix it as I wasn't close at the time. It only cost me $150.
 
Just a tip for those willing to listen....
Had a water leak at the gasket area where the back tank mounts to the base...
Called a relative thats been a plumber for a long time...
He asked if we recently installed one of those toilet cleaner tabs in the tank.
He stated those are very corrosive & will deteriorate seals...
Just a week before the wife happen to get a few & drop them in our toilets...
No more cleaner tablets!!!
 
A class 5 toilet is one of life's easiest joys when you reach FIRE. Get off before you flush or you migh go with.
 
Another thanks to a great post. The master toilet bowl water level has been too low since we moved in. Low enough so that it would sometimes spit at you when flushing. So this post inspired me to research fixing it. Easy fix, the hose had popped out. Re-inserted it and the level is correct now.
 
Our toilet was flushing poorly, I thought maybe it was hard water deposits, as I could see some at the bottom where the hole is for water to push stuff out.

After a couple of times of: emptying the toilet with water off, and filling the bowl with vinegar and not using the toilet for days, it dissolved some of the deposits.

But the real answer was to raise the water level in the bowl (after I replaced the insides) as the water level was a couple of inches too low.

Now everything goes down with 1 flush :D

I'll still do the vinegar thing when we go away as it can't hurt the bowl and might fix it more.
 
We have Toto toilets and they’re great.
 
Sunset said:
Our toilet was flushing poorly, I thought maybe it was hard water deposits, as I could see some at the bottom where the hole is for water to push stuff out.
Click to expand...

If that ever happens again, here's a trick that always works for me.

Turn off the water supply, empty the tank by flushing it, pull up the flapper and pour a couple of cups of muriatic acid in the hole. Let it sit for 20 minutes to a half hour then flush. You'll see all kinds of nasty deposits get flushed out. Repeat if necessary, though it's rarely necessary.

This will remove all the deposits under the rim where the water enters the bowl. If the holes under the rim are blocked up and the water doesn't flow freely, this will cause poor or incomplete flushes.

This is a lot quicker and less expensive than replacing the toilet.
 
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freedomatlast said:
If that ever happens again, here's a trick that always works for me.

Turn off the water supply, empty the tank by flushing it, pull up the flapper and pour a couple of cups of muriatic acid in the hole. Let it sit for 20 minutes to a half hour then flush. You'll see all kinds of nasty deposits get flushed out. Repeat if necessary, though it's rarely necessary.

This will remove all the deposits under the rim where the water enters the bowl. If the holes under the rim are blocked up and the water doesn't flow freely, this will cause poor or incomplete flushes.

This is a lot quicker and less expensive than replacing the toilet.
Click to expand...

Thanks....
I'll try with vinegar first, as I had a jug of muriatic acid and wanted to get rid of it , so I poured it on my rock pathway and it sizzled and melted/ate away a bunch of the rocks giving off some smoke/fumes.
I stayed away from that path for a few days until after some rain.

The thought of being in a small bathroom trying to pour that stuff down into the hole without splashing it all around is just too scary for me. :eek:

If the vinegar doesn't do it, I'll look for weak muriatic acid, or really strong vinegar.
 
Have 4 American Standards Vortex House built in 2017. Double flappers have all been replaced 2x. Had to replace the tank seals on one. Rubber just deteriorated and we don't uses any cakes etc. In ALL cases I called American Standard vs ordering parts. They sent out NEW replacements for FREE> Said something about a 5-year warranty. I am guessing the next time it's on me to pay.
 
I like my Toto's but even with them I have recently had to replace a fill valve and drain valve myself. Yes, it was warranted, but they are slow to send new ones and it's easier just to get replacements off of Amazon. They were cheap and so I ordered spares. I used Korky brand who seem to be identical at a far better price. Korky 528 fro my Toto was $7.87 with free shipping.

I've had horrible problems with poor porcelain on cheaper brands, especially up under the rim. This breeds smells I didn't like. I don't believe in American Standards because of this. I pair a lot for my last one at Lowes and tossed it in a year. What junk.
 
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