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Dealer sent me a Toto Drake II bowl and Toto Promenade tank. Will they work together?
This is sort of a strange question. Is there any reason a Promenade 1.28 gpf tank won't work with a Drake II 1.28GPF bowl?
I ordered a Drake II off a prominent website that sells toilets. The toilet arrived today. While looking at it a few minutes ago, I realized I received Drake II bowl and a Promenade tank. Both of these are 1.28 gpf models, but the Promenade has a significantly lower map rating (800 vs 400) and some of the in-tank parts have different part numbers. I assume the major difference in the map ratings is because the Drake II has the dual cyclone bowl design while the Promenade has their "Emax" flushing system. Both have 3" flush valves.
But, the house we just bought was built in the 1920s, so the more ornate trip lever and lid design on the Promenade would actually fit in well with our home's trim. Normally I would raise heck with the seller and get this fixed without a second to spare, but the tank and bowl don't clash, cosmetically. I'm just worried about any functional issues. If they'll work together fine, cosmetically this isn't an issue. If they won't work, I'll contact the seller and get this fixed.
What say you?
Attached are pics of the Drake II and the Promenade.
Toto Eco Promenade
http://www.totousa.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=398
Toto Drake II
http://www.totousa.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductId=407
Last edited by stephenk; 12-06-2012 at 11:26 PM.
Here's the Frankenstein's monster they sent me. Promenade tank with ridges on the lid and the and more ornate trip lever. Drake II bowl with the Cyclone flush. The bowl is also missing the ridges found on the Promenade bowl. The pieces seem to fit together well.
Note - I just set it up in the garage. This is obviously not the bathroom in which it would be installed.
Terry will probably be able to give you a straight yay or nay.
But just to see how well I could reason this out...here goes.
As a general rule, you can't match gravity tanks to pressure bowls, or vice-versa, because they function radically-differently. That's not a problem here, because all the items here are gravity.
As you point out, the "correct" tank has essentially the same 3" flush valve as the tank you have. The function of a gravity tank is to drop a measured amount of water through the flush valve, then close and refill. The "incorrect" tank is perfectly-capable of doing that. I have some concern as to whether the refill ratio is the same on both tanks (more particularly their fill valves), and whether your bowl will be overfilled or underfilled, but adjusting the water height in the tank can certainly produce a refill period that will fill, and not overfill, the bowl. Doing so might give you something a bit different from 1.28gpf, but I suspect that that may be a minor point to you as the user. Also, the differing tank design may give you a different-height water column which might affect the water pressure through the flush valve, but I'm guessing that this, too, is not going to be material.
The bigger issue for me would be simply whether the water inlet location, mounting holes, contact points, and flush-valve sponge gasket are equivalent enough that you can mount the tank leak-free and wobble-free. I would also want to be sure that the base provides adequate support for the tank and that the tank isn't too-close to the wall, or too far from it, when mounted on this bowl. If these things aren't an issue, and you like the way it looks, you might give it a shot and see how it works. If you do, I would appreciate a report on your experiment.
PS You probably know from reading this forum that the design water refill level is the level to which the water settles when the bowl is overfilled. That is, you can tell what it should be by adding a little water to the bowl obviously above the level that's expected, and when it settles back after a few minutes you can mark that level and then adjust the water height in the tank so that the tank stops filling when the bowl level achieves that level. (Alternatively, you can swap the fill valve for a Korky 528MP (528MPK at Lowe's), which will easily fit this tank, and allows you to independently adjust the tank level and the refill ratio to achieve the proper bowl refill level at any reasonable designed tank level.)
You probably also know from reading this forum that the consequence of overfilling a bowl is that the excess water is just wasted; it will flow out of the bowl until the water level settles to the level of the weir at the top bend of the trapway. The primary consequence of underfilling the bowl is that the flush will not start with the expected amount of water, which may lead to a less-effective flush than that of which the toilet is capable, and you'll have a smaller water spot than designed. (This is why if the toilet is mounted significantly off-level front-to-back (i.e. tilted back) you get a smaller water spot and a less-effective flush. This is one reason that Terry recommends that if the bowl needs to be shimmed, you pin the front of the bowl down by shimming from the back.)
I also have to say that the Drake II has a nice-looking trapway.
Last edited by wjcandee; 12-07-2012 at 12:28 AM.
The holes in the tank and bowl line up properly when you put them together. Both toilets use the same part number for the tank to bowl gasket, so that should be the same.Originally Posted by wjcandee
But, the more I think about it the more I'm not really interested in experimenting. If the fill valve and the other internals were the same part numbers, I'd probably give it a shot. But, since they're different part numbers, that tells me there are at least some differences. They may be minor differences, such as a taller fill tube due to a thinner, taller tank, or something.
I just called seller and they are having Fedex pick up the wrong tank on Monday and shipping me a new tank.
Last edited by Terry; 12-07-2012 at 08:59 AM.
I don't think there would have been an issue.
At the worst, saying the bowl didn't refill just right, you could have installed the Korky MaxPerformance valve, which allows bowl adjustment.
Yeah. In two sentences Terry gives the essence of what I took 3 paragraphs to describe, including that the 528MP could solve any bowl refill issues.
Seems like I scared the poster off with my lengthy analysis -- even if it did ultimately encourage him to give it a shot.
Next time I'll just shut up and wait for Terry to weigh in.
Nope, not scared off. I just decided I'd rather have parts that are guaranteed to work together. I know swapping a fill valve isn't a big job, as I've actually done it before. But I'd rather not have to worry about tinkering with a brand new toilet if the tank/bowl didn't work together.
We'll see how the exchange goes. So far, the company has handled it well. I already received an email confirmation regarding the replacement tank order, at no charge, of course.
The new tank arrived super quick.
I called them around noon on Friday and Fedex delivered the new tank and pickup up the incorrect tank at 8:45 a.m. on Monday.
I installed my new Drake II yesterday.
The floor is pretty bowed in this bathroom because it's a 90-year-old house that has settled a decent amount. It took several plastic shims, but it's installed and working.
I was one of the people who didn't have much luck getting the tank to contact the bowl on the three contact points. Some people here claim it doesn't need to touch, but the installation manual is very clear that the tank should contact the bowl in three places. On mine, the front two were touching but the rear point wasn't. I used one of my extra plastic shims to fill the gap in the back, as I didn't want to crank down on the bolts anymore. I was very careful to tighten the bolts evenly, so I don't think that's an issue.
Here's a pic, minus the seat, of course.
Last edited by stephenk; 12-11-2012 at 08:30 PM.
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