TOTO Eco Drake HET Watersense toilet review and comments. EcoDrake

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Lego

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I'm looking for one in Calgary.. found a non-Eco Drake model (ADA) for $401.

I believe all ADA models are elongated.

Terry should start a Canadian section for this stuff, might prove useful for others.
 

Terry

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Terry should start a Canadian section for this stuff, might prove useful for others.

With the Canadian dollar being worth more than the US dollar, I'm getting quite a few Canadians driving down and buying toilets from me.
 

KeithA

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I'm looking for one in Calgary.. found a non-Eco Drake model (ADA) for $401.
You're doing better than I am! Who did you check with? I'm waiting a call back on Monday from Bathrooms by Design as their catalog didn't even have the Eco-Drake, however, I'm not holding out any hope as the regular Drake was $550.

I have 4 toilets in my house to replace (from 13Lpf) and I cannot afford to pay "designer" prices for a HET toilet (I guess that's just the "It's Calgary - you must be doing well" tax in effect).

The American Standard Flo-Wise might be the only HET toilet to fit into my budget given the Toto pricing in Calgary and lack of other options!
 

KeithA

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Which toilet are you looking at Drake Eco Regular , Elongated or ADA?

If it's round front you should be paying around $245.00 plus taxes
I'm in Ontario
Is that wholesale or something? Calgary appears to be at least twice that price!
 

Sofa King

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With the Canadian dollar being worth more than the US dollar, I'm getting quite a few Canadians driving down and buying toilets from me

Huh? U know sumptin I don't, last time i checked the canook $ was about .90, used to be .73 for the longest time. If we stop being the worlds police it will over take the euro ;) We should look out for ourselves like our european neighbors, see no evil hear no evil blah blah blah
 

Jadnashua

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Looked up today's rates, and they are exactly on par. In the summer, it was worth more than the US dollar by a fair amount, then dropped, but is back up. NH is getting lots of Canadians here shopping.
 

Lego

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Sorry, I was off by a bit on that toilet.

I picked up the Eco Drake from Frontier Plumbing (403-259-6671) yesterday, it came out to $401 for the bowl and tank. Seat and taxes were extra.

I got the Elongated ADA model of the Eco Drake. I haven't installed it yet, as the rough-in ring cracked when I took out the old toilet.

Unfortunately, I'm too far to drive down to where you are, Terry - otherwise I woulda done it.
 

tipk99

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So to all of you who have used the Eco Drake, can you please comment on how well it gets rid of the waste, how likely it is to clog, and how likely staining is with the smaller water spot?

I love the idea of this toilet, but I'm nervous!

Thanks!

Tom
 

CarlH

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So to all of you who have used the Eco Drake, can you please comment on how well it gets rid of the waste, how likely it is to clog, and how likely staining is with the smaller water spot?

I have had my Eco Drake elongated in for a little over two weeks. Also, I have a regular Drake round front which I can use for comparison. Since I have two different bowl shapes (round vs. elongated) it is a bit difficult to make a direct comparison to certain aspects.

Clogging: I would not expect it to be any more prone to clogging than the 1.6g flush version. The trap shape and size is very similar if not the same between the Eco and non-Eco versions.

Water spot: I can't make a direct comparison, but I suspect there is no difference in the size of the water spot between Eco and non-Eco versions of the Drake. Did somewhere state that it has a smaller water spot? I would rate the size of the water spot as acceptable. I'll have to go take a better look at my two Drakes, but I do not think the water spot shrunk any with the Eco version. Actually, I think the spot is larger both width and length on the elongated Eco Drake than the round non-Eco Drake. Less water per flush means that there will be less bowl wash. The only time we had a mark that persisted in the round Drake for any more than a few flushes was one at the rear of the bowl which get very little wash.


Clearing the bowl: Too early for me to give a full comment on this and I have not run any intentional tests to test the limits. I have not had any trouble with bowl clearing under normal use and I do not hold the handle for extra water. One thing I noticed is that the flushing stops so quickly after the waste exits the bowl you almost expect to see something significant return when some of the water washes back from the trapway. I have seen a few small bits of waste return on one occasion, but my old Briggs 1.5g would do the same thing. I do not use the non-Eco Drake with any regularity and do not know if the same would occur with it.

The Eco is in the master bath and hasn't gone through the test of my kids and the extra TP that they use at times. So far, I have no complaints and this is much better than the toilet that it replaced.
 

malpower

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Drake Eco

Hello everyone, new to the site. I cant believe how much research involved in getting a new toilet today, glad I found this site.

I have narrowed my search to this toilet, but no one has a review or comments on how good it is. Can anyone that has this let me know how is working, thanks.

Oh, Im in Canada and checked out getting it, they said its brand new and they should have it in about 2 weeks, but they want $399 and I see it in Terry's store for about $220, can believe the difference in price.

I'm not in Canada but northern California but thought I'd make some comments to your posting!

I FINALLY replaced two old (one pre-1980 and one from 1985) water guzzlers. I had been waiting until the water district here in Marin County put the Drake Eco on its rebate list (will only give rebates on the Drake Eco and the Aquia) and they finally made the list recently.

The price here was $256 for the EcoDrake EL and $48 for the soft close seats - we figured that was a pretty standard price and grabbed two. I gather that they can't keep them in stock for very long -- they tell me they've been very popular.

I couldn't be happier with mine -- what a difference from the old ones. Flush is really fast and quiet compared to the old ones too -- startlingly quick. I was worried about so little water to whoosh things away but absolutely no problems there either. Maybe it's just that they're the EL models and my old toilets were all Round, but the Toto seems to be a bit larger and stands out more, especially in my smaller bathroom. But that's really OK and just something to get used to. My friend who installed them had no problems whatsoever and he got them both in and others hauled away in just a couple of hours.

I never thought I'd be having a conversation about toilets and do so much research on them -- but I'm really pleased with these and think I made a great decision. Lots of the credit for that decision goes to Terry, his website and the forums. Thanks!

Kerry
 

ejmiami

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New TOTO Eco Drake Toilet

I searched quite a bit on the internet looking for a new toilet that is on our Miami-Dade County rebate list (up to $100). I have a small 1950's bathroom and the longer elongated seat toilets just wouldn't fit. The local plumbing supply stores still don't know much about HET toilets and the only one I could identify on the list they would sell is the Gerber UltraFlush. I was nervous about putting a complicated (and potentially loud) toilet in my small bathroom right next to the two bedrooms.

I ended up ordering a TOTO EcoDrake ADA elongated toilet. I hesitated on getting the elongated, however the better MaP rating for this model (900 grams) kind of sold me. Plus I liked the idea of having a taller seat.

Does anyone have experience replacing an older 1950's toilet with this EcoDrake (or any similar TOTO models) ? My handyman is really good, however I would like to be able to prepare him for any surprises we might experience during the install.

Thanks for a great site Terry!

toto_eco_drake_box.jpg
 
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malpower

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I searched quite a bit on the internet looking for a new toilet that is on our Miami-Dade County rebate list (up to $100). I have a small 1950's bathroom and the longer elongated seat toilets just wouldn't fit. The local plumbing supply stores still don't know much about HET toilets and the only one I could identify on the list they would sell is the Gerber UltraFlush. I was nervous about putting a complicated (and potentially loud) toilet in my small bathroom right next to the two bedrooms.

I ended up ordering a TOTO EcoDrake ADA elongated toilet. I hesitated on getting the elongated, however the better MaP rating for this model (900 grams) kind of sold me. Plus I liked the idea of having a taller seat.

Does anyone have experience replacing an older 1950's toilet with this EcoDrake (or any similar TOTO models) ? My handyman is really good, however I would like to be able to prepare him for any surprises we might experience during the install.

Thanks for a great site Terry!

Just this morning we were saying that we probably should have bought a round Drake Eco for the small downstairs bathroom just because the elongated one we just put in pokes out towards the tub -- it DOES fit and one has no problems with their knees hitting the tub or anything like that, we have about a 17.5" clearance still, but a round seat would most likely give a slight bit more room and not look so large in the tiny bathroom. Also to consider is that instead of an ADA version which adds an inch or so to the height, we have "Toilevators" which raise the toilets by 3.5" -- so that gives us a bit more room simply because we're sitting higher up. Personally I prefer the round seats and they look more oldfashioned, but the elongated ones seem to be the best choice if there are men in the house! :)

There were absolutely no problems or anything out of the ordinary about installing these toilets and we were putting them on top of the Toilevators, too. As I said in my post above, it took my handyman friend a couple of hours to replace the old toilets and install the two new ones. He did have to shim the one in the older bathroom downstairs because the floors are not level but that wasn't a big deal.

Good luck -- I hope it works out for you!
Kerry
 
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ejmiami

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Just this morning we were saying that we probably should have bought a round Drake Eco for the small downstairs bathroom just because the elongated one we just put in pokes out towards the tub -- it DOES fit and one has no problems with their knees hitting the tub or anything like that, we have about a 17.5" ...

Hi Kerry,

Thanks for the info. Fortunately the toilet is position just to the right of the doorway along the wall and the elongated version will still be an inch inside the door frame, so I'm hoping it will not look too large. I've never had a clogged toilet with the 50 year old one that is in there and didn't want to start having problems with a new toilet.

My only concern is that there are no center bolts on the old toilet mounting- so I suspect we will need to do some modifications on the flange area which could be easy or hard (with the iron waste pipe below).

Liz, Miami, Fl
 

malpower

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Hi Kerry,

Thanks for the info. Fortunately the toilet is position just to the right of the doorway along the wall and the elongated version will still be an inch inside the door frame, so I'm hoping it will not look too large. I've never had a clogged toilet with the 50 year old one that is in there and didn't want to start having problems with a new toilet.

My only concern is that there are no center bolts on the old toilet mounting- so I suspect we will need to do some modifications on the flange area which could be easy or hard (with the iron waste pipe below).

Liz, Miami, Fl

I'm glad that you have room to fit! As to the actual plumbing details, sounds like you know far more than I do! ;) I was happy to just go look at them once they were installed and let my friend deal with the plumbing -- I would have heard about it if there were problems though! Good luck, I hope you get it all hooked up with EASY modifications!

Kerry
 

ziv

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Thanks to Terry and all the posters! I've been researching toilets and this forum is amazing!

I'm thinking about buying the Eco Drake ADA and I have a couple questions:

Is there some flexibility with the rough in? I know it is listed at 12"

Also, what kind of materials does one use to shim? Standard wood shims?

Thanks,
Ziv
 

Nate R

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No, there are plastic shims available specifically for shimming toilets.

shim_it.jpg
 
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ziv

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Thanks Nate, I found the plastic shims.
And thank you Terry - I think the 11-1/8" measurement is exactly what I have to work with.

One more question:

From the Toto spec sheet I see that they recommend the supply line 8" off the floor. My supply lines are only 3" from the floor - will this be a problem?

Thanks again,
Ziv
 

Terry

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My supply lines are only 3" from the floor - will this be a problem?

Only if the water supply were to be right behind the toilet.
I almost never see that.
Most likely, a 12" or longer toilet supply will work fine.

ecodrake_supply.jpg
 
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