I fixed my Champion toilet today !!!!

I have two success stories that you may want to share with Champion toilet users:
I've had one since 2003. It rarely flushed reliably. To their credit, the American Standard folks sent me many free parts, even after the toilet was out of warranty. Recently, I replaced the flush mechanism (again) but this time with the Champion IV version. Things looked hopeful for a while, but soon it was up to its old tricks. The problem became compounded by very slow refill. If someone needed to flush a second time, they had to wait an excruciatingly long time for the tank to refill. I solved that problem by removing a light-greenish-colored bullet-shaped piece of foam plastic inside the base of the fill valve. Voila !!!!
Success # 2 happened today and I should have thought of this years ago: I flushed the toilet with the tank-top off and it went ka-woosh, like it should. I then wondered if it was possible for the tank-top to form such a perfect fit that no air could enter the tank, resulting in a vacuum as the water emptied. (Like when you try to put gas in your lawn mower and forget to open the gas can’s air vent) "Nah", I thought. That's too simple. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. To quickly test my theory, I clipped one of those giant paper clips (the kind with the two squeeze handles) on the lip of the tank and put the top back on. The paper clip left just enough of a gap that air could rush in during a flush. I flushed the toilet...ka-woosh. I repeated that 3 or 4 times and it worked every time. A few hours later my son asked me if I had done anything to fix the toilet. That was music to my ears.
I answered "Yep, I fixed it with a paper clip."
My "Air-Flow Version 2.0" will replace the paper clip with something that won't rust.

Hope this helps.
Malcolm Papworth
Delaware, Ohio

Congratulations on doing what Am Std couldn't do....

Toto molds a small notch in the top edge of the tank....some think it's a defect...it isn't, it's just better engineering.

The AS Champion that I have has the same notch. You can't see it in this picture, but the tank says "made in U.S.A.". Pretty sure this bad boy comes with a 10-year warranty, so you should be covered for another 3 years.

Aha...The notch in maddog's "terlet" proves they were aware of the problem. I can't believe they never suggested a work-around.
Oh well...Seven years later it's finally working as advertsed.

PS-- Hey maddog, what is the white piece hanging on the back of the tank, in the refill line?

It's a bowl cleaner. Since putting chemicals into the tank are frowned upon, because it softens and ruins the flapper valve and other seals, this version has the bowl refill line run through the chemicals, and those bypass the tank. Several companies make them, and I have no idea how effective.

That is one made by Fluidmaster "Flush N Sparkle"

That's right ===> http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1796962 . It helps keep the bowl clean, but you still have to clean it periodically.

Just as another data point, my American Standard Champion 4 (cast in 2008) was "fixed by factory" with two features that help get the "air behind water" and they seemingly work really well. The one feature is a raised rounded profile on the tank that elevates the lid a little and the other feature is two cast notches on the lid that open to the outside (you can actually fit two fingers into these two notches). I've never had any problems present with my ASC4 but I understand they have historically had pretty pesky problems. I asked about this in another thread but the AS technical line told me they totally redesigned the toilet in 2007 and according to them allll the problems in the past were fixed. I think some posts stating that the current toilet has troubles are confusing when the toilet was purchased vs. when it was manufactured; in other words my new ASC4 was purchased 05/2010 but it was manufactured way back when in 2008. I'm still trying to really figure out fully if the redesigned toilets have any problems at all. So far mine has functioned flawlessly. Again, just as another data point.

"Air-Flow Version 2.0"

Good info TurboCruiser.

I replaced the big paper clip with an off-white plastic clip. It's actually a plastic cable clamp I had in my "Junque box", and it clipped on the lip of the tank-top nicely. You can hardly see it, so Mama likes it better.

FYI: Mine was cast in Sept of '03.
I'm still amazed by two things:
1) That two ceramic pieces could form such a good air seal.
2) That it never dawned on me what could be causing the problem. (But maybe that's because of # 1)