Who Made Sears Brand Toilets In 1980?

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Gusherb94

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Im wondering as long before i was born, In my parents first house that they bought in 1980 and redid the bathroom then, they replaced the toilet with a sears brand toilet, and my mom talks about that toilet as if it were a saint and how it really held up to three kids (my siblings), so i wanted to do some research on that and find out who made it.


Thanks
Jonathan

sears-toilet-01.jpg
 
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Redwood

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Did it have a rather strange flush valve that tilted looking somethin like the one pictured below?

UniversalRundle1_000.jpg
 

Redwood

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I think sears used to sell them...
Not 100% sure though...

Back then I still did things that affected memory...:cool:
 

hj

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toilet

The toilet was a Lady Kenmore made by Universal Rundle. They used Schaible, Milwaukee, Youngstown, and a couple of other rebranded makes for their faucets. The kitchen sinks all had the holes at 6" centers which limited the makes of faucets which would fit them.
 

SewerRatz

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My mom's house was a Sears built home which had all the Re-branded American Standard Push/Pull faucets, and had the Universal Rundle water closets. First thing my father did was rip out the water closets and installed Kohler Welsworth elongated bowls, In his bathroom he put in a new vanity with a Chicago Faucet. The Tub and Shower faucet in his bath was recently changed to a Delta that my brother got free from Delta. The other bath has Moen Chateau lav faucets (duel lav sink) and recently replaced the Push/Pull shower faucet with a Moentrol.

I have seen a few of the other Sears Re-branded faucets you mentioned If I recall they also used Valley Faucets too. None of the others were anywhere as good as the American Standards. Granted now try to find the parts for a Push/Pull its a heck of a search if you do not know where to go.
 

Gusherb94

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My mom's house was a Sears built home which had all the Re-branded American Standard Push/Pull faucets, and had the Universal Rundle water closets. First thing my father did was rip out the water closets and installed Kohler Welsworth elongated bowls, In his bathroom he put in a new vanity with a Chicago Faucet. The Tub and Shower faucet in his bath was recently changed to a Delta that my brother got free from Delta. The other bath has Moen Chateau lav faucets (duel lav sink) and recently replaced the Push/Pull shower faucet with a Moentrol.

I have seen a few of the other Sears Re-branded faucets you mentioned If I recall they also used Valley Faucets too. None of the others were anywhere as good as the American Standards. Granted now try to find the parts for a Push/Pull its a heck of a search if you do not know where to go.

How old is that house? I know someone who lives in a sears built house from 1930
 

Gusherb94

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My parents old house was built in 1964 and there were two toilets one was the sears which was in the main bath and my mom says it had a swirly marble finish and never ever clogged, she wanted to bring that one with to our current house 20 years ago and didn't (I think she's still kicking herself about that:mad::D) then the other was in a powder room which had the original American Standard Cadet which they say worked flawlessly too.
 

Achutch

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Swirly Finish

That was definitely a Universal Rundle. When my friends bought their house in 1984, they had one with the marbled glaze and the bucket tilt valve like in the pictures above. "Yours truly" got the job of cleaning it up and getting rid of all the scale that had built up under the rim; I guess you can say that this was the first toilet that I "restored". I also gave them a stern warning to keep it clean, and not allow it to get into the condition it was when they moved in.

In the 1960's, Universal Rundle made the "Sculptura" line for Sears, which included a one piece toilet and a two piece model with side handles (actually tried out a 2-piece in 1965 at the tender age of 10 -- it was green (before avocado green), and it was in Greenwich Connecticut, my father's home town). The sink also had the Sculptura faucets, which as I recall had square handles that you pulled forward.

"Homart" was also a Sears line made by Universal Rundle. They included the "economy model" with the trap at the front of the bowl with a jet that shot out a flat sheet of water, and the "good" model reverse trap toilet which had a large rectangular "mouth" in the bottom of the bowl that resembled a tunnel entrance and was described in their catalog as "neater in appearance than ordinary washdown toilets with trap in bulge at front".

In the late '80s and '90, you could find the Universal Rundle Atlas that was also sold as the Sears, and featured in 1990's Consumer Reports as one of the two best 1.6 toilets of the time (I had one of those too for a while and went back to reconditioned 5 gallon toilets until finally replacing them with the 1.6 Drake and Cadet 3).

In 1997, my next door neighbor moved and took his toilet with him (a 1957 Mansfield with the trap to the front, which he installed in his master bedroom replacing a Mansfield ADA height toilet which he hated. That bathroom had once had a Universal Rundle toilet with the marble glaze, and they had it stored in their garage because they were going to eventually install it at their camp. They also removed the remaining 2 Universal Rundle toilets (harvest yellow and washed out blue) and replaced them with early 1960's Eljer toilets that I had refurbished.

He took the Borg-Warner 5 gallon economy model with "Whirlpool Flush" that had been removed from his office building, cleaned it up, and installed it in his condo a week or two before he moved. It's still there now, and the newest owners of the condo use it a lot, especially in the evening. It seems to flush at least 8 times an hour, possibly related to the unusual quantity of wine-in-a-box containers that I see in their recycle bin on Fridays. I would hate to be paying their water bill, which will be high. By the way, Borg-Warner sold their plumbing line which became Artesian, and then Artesian was bought out by Crane.

So, there you have a little more toilet history and a little trivia that you can enjoy and learn from!

acutch
 

Achutch

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No, that comes later, especially if you work in a place where the powers that be are trying to turn its work force into little bots.
 

Gusherb94

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That was definitely a Universal Rundle. When my friends bought their house in 1984, they had one with the marbled glaze and the bucket tilt valve like in the pictures above. "Yours truly" got the job of cleaning it up and getting rid of all the scale that had built up under the rim; I guess you can say that this was the first toilet that I "restored". I also gave them a stern warning to keep it clean, and not allow it to get into the condition it was when they moved in.

In the 1960's, Universal Rundle made the "Sculptura" line for Sears, which included a one piece toilet and a two piece model with side handles (actually tried out a 2-piece in 1965 at the tender age of 10 -- it was green (before avocado green), and it was in Greenwich Connecticut, my father's home town). The sink also had the Sculptura faucets, which as I recall had square handles that you pulled forward.

"Homart" was also a Sears line made by Universal Rundle. They included the "economy model" with the trap at the front of the bowl with a jet that shot out a flat sheet of water, and the "good" model reverse trap toilet which had a large rectangular "mouth" in the bottom of the bowl that resembled a tunnel entrance and was described in their catalog as "neater in appearance than ordinary washdown toilets with trap in bulge at front".

In the late '80s and '90, you could find the Universal Rundle Atlas that was also sold as the Sears, and featured in 1990's Consumer Reports as one of the two best 1.6 toilets of the time (I had one of those too for a while and went back to reconditioned 5 gallon toilets until finally replacing them with the 1.6 Drake and Cadet 3).

In 1997, my next door neighbor moved and took his toilet with him (a 1957 Mansfield with the trap to the front, which he installed in his master bedroom replacing a Mansfield ADA height toilet which he hated. That bathroom had once had a Universal Rundle toilet with the marble glaze, and they had it stored in their garage because they were going to eventually install it at their camp. They also removed the remaining 2 Universal Rundle toilets (harvest yellow and washed out blue) and replaced them with early 1960's Eljer toilets that I had refurbished.

He took the Borg-Warner 5 gallon economy model with "Whirlpool Flush" that had been removed from his office building, cleaned it up, and installed it in his condo a week or two before he moved. It's still there now, and the newest owners of the condo use it a lot, especially in the evening. It seems to flush at least 8 times an hour, possibly related to the unusual quantity of wine-in-a-box containers that I see in their recycle bin on Fridays. I would hate to be paying their water bill, which will be high. By the way, Borg-Warner sold their plumbing line which became Artesian, and then Artesian was bought out by Crane.

So, there you have a little more toilet history and a little trivia that you can enjoy and learn from!

acutch

Thanks for all that info!!! now I just need to find a picture of that toilet.
 

Achutch

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Thanks for all that info!!! now I just need to find a picture of that toilet.

I'm writing you privately and sending you a few links. I've located a tank cover with the marble finish, but also found some other sites you might like, which show your model Cadet.

I think your 1980 Sears was probably 3.5
 

Gusherb94

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I'm writing you privately and sending you a few links. I've located a tank cover with the marble finish, but also found some other sites you might like, which show your model Cadet.

I think your 1980 Sears was probably 3.5

Thanks for those links, there were much more creative options for bathrooms and kitchens back then, and there were even lots more mechanical options, my grandmas house was built in 1950 and in 1960 they put an addition on and redid the kitchen and it was top of the line back then with an in-wall oven with clock timer and the oven burner even modulates, the stove is a cooktop with a back burner that has a modulating thermostatic control something unheard of today! and the original fridge was a side by side with an icemaker, and of course i cant forget the dishwasher, all of this is still there, the dishwasher is a Kitchenaid and the stove & oven are made by Caloric all in 1960s brown color.

My Cadet toilet was part of that room addition, one of these days when i get over there I'm going to make a video of that bathroom and kitchen and post it on my youtube page.

Jonathan
 
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