Cadet 3

I have heard that there is a 1 piece cadet 3 available and was wondering if there was any difference in performance with the 1 piece vs the 2. I have been told that the Ultramax by Toto is essentially a 1 piece Drake, but not quite as good as the 2 piece Drake itself.

According to the latest MaP report, the 1-piece Cadet 3 flushes the same as the two piece version. Actually the Drake is a two-piece version of the Ultramax, for which the technology was first developed. The higher head pressure due to the higher water level in the Drake tank makes its performance somewhat better than the Ultramax.

Many quality issues have be reported on Cadet 3 toilets. If you get a good one, they seem to work OK, but often they won't set level and have other problems. Many of the pros on this forum will not deal with them because they can't afford to be running back to the supplier until they finally get the good one.

I have been doing a lot of reading of this and other sites. It seems like the cadets are pretty similar to the Drakes but a little cheaper. I have also read that there might be a little difference between the dealer products than the big box store products as far as quality is concerned. It also sounds like the Cadets have recently been well liked. Price is somewhat of an issue as well. The Cadet one piece is 516$ while the Drake is 453 and the Ultramax is 710$. With 5 kids (including a couple still working on their aim), I would like to have something that will be easy to clean and not clog all the time.

Gary Swart-Many quality issues have be reported on Cadet 3 toilets. If you get a good one, they seem to work OK, but often they won't set level and have other problems. Many of the pros on this forum will not deal with them because they can't afford to be running back to the supplier until they finally get the good one.

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I agree fully with this... Am. Std. hasn't built a quality toilet in years! IMHO they should have closed their doors when 1.6 GPF was mandated. Moving production to Mexico and Central America hasn't helped! A customer supplied Am. Std is the only way I install them!

Looking at the one-piece toilets, which by the way are easier to clean if you have boys, and should be elongated, you could look at the:

Toto Ultramax elongated, $399.99
Toto Soiree elongated, $595, Even easier cleaning
Toto Ultimate, round, $359.99

There are a few one-piece at the home centers that I remove every so often. Sometimes I have a customer that wants a little more performance, so they change one, and then they change them all.

The Cadet 3 would work okay too if you have time to open the box and check it before you bring it home.
I buy toilets 20-40 at a time, and it's not worth it to me to buy products that way.
It's hard for me to sell an open box, even if it means that I opened it to inspect it.
So to sell something like the Cadet, if would be leave the box unopened, sell it. Let the customer open the box, and then make a second trip if it's not good enough to sell or install.
I don't think so.
That's why they pay them the big bucks at the home centers to take back defects.
I like doing things, just once.