Best Bang For The Buck Toilet?

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PM5K

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I didn't know you had to drain toilets and fill the trap with some type of antifreeze before winter in an unheated home.

So I need a new toilet. I wasn't very happy with the all-in-one budget toilet I put in there in the first place, and now that the tank is cracked I need to replace it.

I'm sure there's an article somewhere, but what's the best bang for your buck toilet I can get for a rental home? I know Toto is the bomb diggity, but I am under the impression they aren't cheap.

TIA!
 

Terry

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Round front TOTO Drake CST743E for $199.99

Or you can find bowls for less too.
American Standard has their Cadet 3 and Kohler their Wellworth.

Seats are ordered separately on two-piece toilets.

Some water districts are offering rebates on the new Watersense products.
Where I am, it varies between $100 and $30
 
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I'm not sure I totally understood your answer Terry , at least the second sentence of it, but if TOTO makes a toilet for 199.99 I'll probably go in that direction. Does it come with the lid?
 

Gary Swart

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Seats and lids are not included in 2 piece toilets, but are available at any hardware store or plumbing shop. They are standard for all toilets. Round seats for round bowls, elongated seats for elongated bowls.
 

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The MSRP from the TOTO website says the Drake starts at over 300.00, I don't recall the exact price. Lowe's doesn't have a lot of Kohler but they do have American Standard. It seems there's like a million Cadet 3's to choose from though. The last toilet I put in was an American Standard and I've been pretty happy with that. I'm leaning towards that unless the stores have the TOTO at a much lower price than the MSRP, which I suppose is possible, and of course if you're saying it's much better than the Cadet 3. Once nice advantage is that I can get one here and if I have any problems the Lowe's is right around the corner in the other city where the toilet will be installed. The TOTO place isn't close to where I live here, and I have no idea if they have one in the city where the toilet will be installed.

I'm also not sure about elongated or not. The American Standard I put in is elongated but other than being longer I'm not sure what the advantage is. The bathroom I'm putting the toilet in is only about 60 inches deep, but from what I gather an elongated toilet is only a couple of inches or so longer than a round so it shouldn't make much difference. Most of the well reviewed AS toilets at Lowe's are the elongated type.

Not sure which to pick though because they all seem fairly similar:

Toilet 1

Toilet 2

Toilet 3

TIA for any suggestions or insight.
 

Cookie

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I would vote for door number, I mean toilet # 1. I like its looks. :)
 

PM5K

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Went to a couple of TOTO dealers and the cheapest I could find a Drake was 299.99, but the worst part is that it would take one to two weeks to get it, and I need something ASAP.

At first I wasn't sure about elongated vs round for a small bathroom, but that first one is a space saver and is the same size as a round toilet.

Is elongated vs round just a personal preference?
 

SteveW

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I look at purchasing a toilet as, hopefully, a once-in-a-house's-lifetime purchase. If you get a Toto, you've got a really good chance of that happening.

If you buy a toilet from the big box stores, from what I've read from Terry and other pros on this site (who install hundreds of toilets per year), you have actually a pretty fair chance of getting a dud. It could show up immediately, as in having a cracked bowl or tank, or may show up down the road when it starts to clog frequently because the clay has "slumped" during manufacture.

I want to do the job right the first time, and really don't relish the thought of pulling up a bad toilet I installed a year ago trying to save money.

RE: round vs elongated, ever use a round bowl? I would strongly recommend elongated.
 

PM5K

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I think right now because of time constraints and to some extent budget, I'm going to go with one of the AS toilets from Lowe's, probably the first one listed since it has one vote, and it's a space saving elongated which would be perfect for that little bathroom.

I'll take any other suggestions though.
 

Gary Swart

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You should know that AS dumps there factory rejects on the market through Lowes and possibly other discount houses. These have a very high rate of unacceptable defects. For that reason many of the pros on this forum will not install AS. They waste too much time dealing with the problems. If you do go this route, I would urge you to take the toilet from the boxes while at the store and examine them very carefully. Make sure the bowl sets level on the floor all the way around, see that the bowl surface is level across the top. Look for holes that were patched. These are some of the problems that have been reported.
 

Donn2390

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I recently replaced three toilets in a rental unit, and was looking for a less expensive toilet. After many hours reading this forum, I bite the bullet and purchased three Toto's. They were about $60 each more than the standared brand the plumbing supplier was pushing, but I'm so impessed with the Toto's I have in my own home, I decided to buy the best and never worry about them again.
So the rental has three new Totos, the renter is thrilled, and I'm broke but happy.
I get $95 per toilet back from the city which helped the decision. They actually sent a guy out from the City to see the toilets in place before they would pay. I guess they didn't trust me...!!!
My advice to everyone, forget saving money, buy a Toto and live happily ever after...!!
 

Gary Swart

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You can find lots of cheap toilets. They are all worth about what you pay for them. Problem is, you buy a cheap toilet, then find it is prone to frequent clogs and does not flush 100% for the turds. So then you either live with the piece of junk for 20 years or scrape it and get the Toto you should have bought in the first place. Oh yeah, the Toto may cost $60 more. Over 20 years, that's $3 per year. Guess that's your choice to make.
 

Terry

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One of my bigger customers tried a few of the American Standard Cadet 3 toilets.
He won't install them anymore. He now buys Toto.
And frankly, he's all about the money.
But he pays a bit more upfront and does less maintenance later. There's initial cost, and then there recurring costs.
 
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