1955 Standard Compton " Please Identify This Toilet

[Shahid Nigro]

Greetings, all!

I need to replace a toilet tank lid but I don't have the old one so I don't have a part number. I've posted some pics of the only part numbers or brands listed on the rest of the toilet, but I still cannot identify the model number or find the part number for the replacement lid. Please help!

 

[WJcandee]

How about a picture of the whole toilet? Just giving us a bunch of pictures of the inside of the tank is only part of the process.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Smooky]

See if you can find it here:

https://www.plumbingsupply.com/american-standard-toilets.html

http://cheaptoilettanklids.com/store/index.php?route=common/home

https://www.plumbingsupply.com/tanklids.html

 

[hj]

It is 60+ years old, so the ONLY place you might find it is at a second hand store or the site which specializes in tank lids.

 

[Gary Swart]

Time to come into the 21st century.

 

[Shahid Nigro]

It is 60+ years old, so the ONLY place you might find it is at a second hand store or the site which specializes in tank lids.

Is there any way to identify the toilet from these numbers, which I guess amount to some kind of serialization or model numbers? Any way to know the part number for the tank top?

 

[Shahid Nigro]

Time to come into the 21st century.

Thanks, I guess... This is a toilet in a family member's basement, and it's not particularly old or outdated or obsolete. It looks just like any other toilet out there. I'm just looking for a way to find the part number to replace the tank top.

 

[Shahid Nigro]

It is 60+ years old, so the ONLY place you might find it is at a second hand store or the site which specializes in tank lids.

The owner of the house has let me know that the house is just about 60yrs old, and the toilet is as old as the house.

Still, in order to search any such secondhand store as you have mentioned, I would need to know the model of the toilet or the part number of the tank lid. Is there any way to determine the model of the toilet based on the serial numbers in these pictures?

 

[Shahid Nigro]

How about a picture of the whole toilet? Just giving us a bunch of pictures of the inside of the tank is only part of the process.

Thanks for your reply, please see attached. Please excuse its state of disrepair; there was some flooding recently and we're just cleaning up.

 

[Gary Swart]

And you think a 60 year old toilet is not obsolete? Where have you been for the last 25 years or so? The thing you have uses at least 3 gallons of water per flush and perhaps as much as 3.5 gallons. A new low flush toilet uses lest than 1 gallon per flush. Do you still drive a 1957 car?

 

[hj]

It probably uses 5 gallons of water and the bowl is a "washdown" model which has basically been obsolete since the 30s even though they were still made for decades after that. Standard (Sanitary), was the original name, then it became American Radiator and Standard Sanitary, and finally American Standard. So your toilet tank which is probably a model #392, (later an F-o392), is well back in the lineage of the company.

 

[ToiletEnthusiast]

1955 "Standard" Compton toilet. Go to www.plumbingsupply.com and you will most likely find a lid there.

 

[Dana]

Try this store (for a reproduction, not original.) It'll probably set you back $75 + shipping.

But for less money you can probably find a pretty good used code-legal low volume flush unit on the local craigslist or Habitat For Humanity Restore. Even with a new set of gaskets, flapper & fill valve, flange & wax seal it'll be about the same or less than a reproduction lid for the "mid-century modern" antique. Unless you really LOVE the thing, it's not worth investing any money in it.

If replacing it, measure the distance from the floor bolts to the wall for the rough measurements, and get something similar. There were still some 16" rough toilets then (don't know if this was one of them), which are a bit rarer today, where 12" rough-in dimensions are most common, but there are 14" & 10" versions too.

If for some reason you're keeping it, Plumbing Supply has the internals & gaskets, but not the ceramic components.

 

[hj]

The compton has a straight front, but his appears to have the two ends on an angle.

 

[Dana]

The compton has a straight front, but his appears to have the two ends on an angle.

PlumbingSupply.com's drawing of the Compton shows an angled front, and a similar footprint to the one in Shahid's photos:

 

[WJcandee]

We have one old-timer like that in a rarely-used little toilet closet by the laundry room. It was made in 1927, the year my Dad was born, and he's still around, so we're keeping it. Like I say, it's rarely-used. I chucked the Rube Goldberg fill valve and put in a Korky 528, which indeed goes high enough to fill it properly with the zillion gallons of water that it needs. I took out the toilet-ball-style flush valve, and dropped in an old-style Korky 50BP flapper with the ring that just wraps around the overflow riser. http://www.supplyhouse.com/Korky-50...LV4buTnO0LlJZT8kcDT0BM2nrRPazygAaAqIOEALw_wcB

Both worked perfectly, and continue to do so some 3-4 years later.

One wrinkle was that the flapper chain wasn't long enough, so I just stole some chain from a flapper I was tossing away and attached it to the chain on the 50BP. A little adjusting of the length to get the thing to flush reliably every time, and voila! I also dressed it up with a Moen handle that I don't think they make anymore, which had a lot of leverage to seamlessly lift the flapper under the huge water column in this thing, which the old handle struggled to do.

It was:
Moen DN8401PB CSI Preston Tank Lever (Turns out there are still a few available online.)

 

[Treeman]

If this Ebay ad is correct, it appears to be a model 4043, and there seems to be lots of lids available:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/401479122802?ul_noapp=true

https://www.ebay.com/i/303119041023?rt=nc&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIM.MBE&ao=2&asc=20160908110712&meid=7cc9cd19e25f497e95a8d8e7a5da7df2&pid=100677&rk=5&rkt=30&sd=142640885363&itm=303119041023

 

[WJcandee]

Wow. Those Ebay links are scary. Someone wants $695 for a zillion-gallon toilet that works horribly? I guess PT Barnum was right about a sucker being born every minute...

I just tossed one with a similar tank (but a non-washdown bowl) that I replaced with a Toto Clayton. If only I had known that I could have made money from doing the replacement and selling the old one!

Of course, I wouldn't, because I believe that to do so is illegal. Wonder whether I should notify Ebay that that proposed $695 sale is illegal. That's why the Toilet Tank Lids place only sells lids.

 

[Terry]

Gary left this world in 2017. I miss him and his answers on this forum.
I last saw him in Ellensburg WA when I met him to deliver a TOTO ADA Drake toilet for his home in Yakima.

Gary Swart in 2009

Terry Love and Gary Swart in December of 2009 in Ellensburg WA
Gary picked up a TOTO ADA Drake for his Yakima home that day, we met at a friends home there.
Gary had 8,114 posts on this forum. He died in December of 2017. I was just thinking of him yesterday, wondering how he was doing, and found his obituary doing an Internet search. I'm so surprised that his name came up today. Here are the pictures I have of our meeting.

 

[ToiletEnthusiast]

When I move on from this place, I will let Gary know. He left this world in 2017. I miss him and his answers on this forum.
I last saw him in Ellensburg WA when I met him to deliver a TOTO ADA Drake toilet for his home in Yakima.

Gary Swart in 2009

Terry Love and Gary Swart in December of 2009 in Ellensburg WA
Gary picked up a TOTO ADA Drake for his Yakima home that day, we met at a friends home there.
Gary had 8,114 posts on this forum. He died in December of 2017. I was just thinking of him yesterday, wondering how he was doing, and found his obituary doing an Internet search. I'm so surprised that his name came up today. Here are the pictures I have of our meeting.

I lurked on this forum long before I actually joined, and I always loved Gary's input. I had no idea he passed. He always gave great advice and ideas. Rest easy, kind sir.