American Standard Cadet: quality control problem or design?

[Plumbledon]

On a quest of a decent toilet (two) that doesn't break the bank, wasn't happy with Kohler quality control so tried American Standard Cadet series, there's one in the house already from prior owner, I like the flush and simple flapper design that you can adjust. Got a Cadet 3 and a Cadet Ovation, but qc seems to be bad here too, or maybe my standards are too high. It's mostly glazing issues, incomplete glazed trapway, flush chamber and rim jet area.

Two pics here, first is the flush chamber, aside from appearing to have glazed Mr. Hankey from South Park in there, it's completely missing any glazing in a large area. Second pic, the rim jet area is not glazed at all???? It almost looks intentional, missing evenly all the way around on both toilets. Don't you need that "Everclean" coating here?? The Cadet in the house (probably 4-5years old) has is glazed.....I don't get it.... is this just a bad batch, low qc, or is there a reason for this?

 

[Sylvan]

I have never seen the word "Quality" only the "bold look" with kohler

AS seems to be lacking with their toilets for the past 2 decades

A Gerber Avalanche is low cost and it works great

I installed over 1,500 in a school and not a single call back and a total over 4,000 again not a single call back

Also Crane toilets with a Sloan royal flushometer also work great

 

[Sponsor]

 

[John Gayewski]

We like Gerber and Toto.

 

[Plumbledon]

Thanks for the alternatives, I'll look into those.

But as for these AS's here, the rim jet area just blew me away, so perfectly missing, on both toilets, and it's one of the areas that gets gross over time. I'm not crazy right, there SHOULD be a nice coat of glazing in these areas yes?

 

[Plumbledon]

Thanks for the alternatives, I'll look into those.

But as for these AS's here, the rim jet area just blew me away, so perfectly missing, on both toilets, and it's one of the areas that gets gross over time. I'm not crazy right, there SHOULD be a nice coat of glazing in these areas yes?

Any comments? There should be glaze on the rim jet area yeah? I've see a couple screen shots here and there on the web where maybe that's not the case, i just have a hard time believing that's normal or acceptable?

 

[Breplum]

There is no "should" on the water jet glazing issue. It is out of sight and hard porcelain.
I have two recent, different Am.Std. WCs and I think they avoid that glaze on purpose in that area.
Any way, use of squirt-on WC bowl cleaner from any mfr and a good bowl brush keeps it looking fine.

 

[Plumbledon]

Thanks for the feedback, I guess it's hard to square that with the marketing they do with the "Everclean" coating they're supposed to have on the bowl, but on one of the areas that's harder to keep clean, there's no glaze at all?

I checked a couple at HD and Lowe's and all the ones I checked (cadet, champion) were the same way, so it's got to be on purpose. The skirted cadet 3 I have upstairs (a few years old) DOES have glaze on the rim jet area, so it seems like a shortcut to me. Is there any design reason to do it or not, or maybe it's just a manufacturing decision, cheaper to not do it?

 

[PGB1]

Thanks for the alternatives, I'll look into those.

But as for these AS's here, the rim jet area just blew me away, so perfectly missing, on both toilets, and it's one of the areas that gets gross over time. I'm not crazy right, there SHOULD be a nice coat of glazing in these areas yes?

I'm quite late to this thread, but I recently needed a 10" rough, round bowl, standard height. Out of all the local places, only American Standard Cadet Pro was available at one of the supply houses. (This included the wholesalers with whom I've done business for hydronics over the years.)

It does not have glazing under the rim.

I asked American Standard and was told it is on purpose so the glazing does not end up closing the holes when firing. (Sounds kind of far fetched to me. Got plugs?)

I checked our 30 year old Cadets and they are not glazed either. One gets moldy and one doesn't. We also have an Atlas LaMosa from the 80's. It is glazed under the rim.

In a supply house showroom, I checked some random toilets of other brands. Glazing in the rim wash area was rare.

Odd, isn't it?

Paul
PS: The quality control was really bad. The tank lid had a thumb sized dent on the front edge. The bowl had lots of glazing missing and, believe it or not, most of the bowl's passage where the water passes from tank to bowl was closed with clay stringers. (Nicely glazed clay stringers.) The bottom edge wasn't flat either. The bowl even had a slump in the clay. The supplier had to open several boxes to get a good bowl & lid.

 

[Eman85]

If you were going to buy a new toilet which one?

Wanting to replace the toilet and I'm looking for suggestions. Here's what we want, a white round bowl standard height quality toilet. We want one that uses standard replacement parts. looking for something that is simple, functional and quality.

terrylove.com

Here's my thread and my experience with AS. I found their castings poor and the finish worse than most any other brand. The only bowl I looked at that had a worse under rim finish was the Lowes store brand.

 

[Fitter30]

Did u call the customer service number from the manufacturer? I would ask for a supervisor or tech can't hurt starting up the food chain.

 

[Eman85]

Did u call the customer service number from the manufacturer? I would ask for a supervisor or tech can't hurt starting up the food chain.

I called many times, you get someone working from home that is willing to do whatever it takes to get you off of the phone. They would send me replacement bowls as long as I was willing to accept them. No one wanted to hear about their poor quality or that they shouldn't ship them Fedex unless they packed them properly. They were very willing to give me my money back. They have done the math and it's cheaper to make junk and bet that the percentage of returns/complaints is offset by the profits from the ones that accept the junk.

 

[John Gayewski]

I also hate Fred ex. They are horrible in my area.