Toto VS American Standard

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boykins

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Small bathroom. House built in 1978. Narrowed search to two toilets. Toto Guinevere or American Standard Portsmouth Champion 4.
 

Gary Swart

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I see this is your first post on this forum. Welcome. Had you spent time here in the past, you would know that AS has a high rate of defects, especially those sold by discount home centers. Toto toilets on the other hand have less than 1% defects. Toto is the largest manufacturer of toilets in the world. Many are made in the US, although even those made in Asia have to meet Toto's ridged quality control standards. Go with the Toto.
 

boykins

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Thank you for your help. I'm probably going to go with the Toto but I have one more question. I've read lots of reviews about a "drip" noise with the Toto. Is this really an issue?
 

Terry

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A drip noise was reported in the old units. The unifit adapter was redesigned and they are perfectly silent now.
I have one in my main bath now; it's quiet.

It was a redesign of the shaping.
 
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Toolaholic

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A drip noise was reported in the old units. The unifit adapter was redesigned and they are perfectly silent now.
I have one in my main bath now; it's quiet.

Thanks Terry. I have a customer complaining about the drip on Her Toto. Die tested, no leak! Now I know.
 

WJcandee

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No drip noise on our Carlyle II. Was listening for it due to the reviews and couldn't figure out what people were talking about. Thanks for the info, Terry
 

Jadnashua

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The original UniFit adapter (used on some Toto toilets) was all plastic. The newer version (from what I understand) has some sound deadening material applied to it. On ANY toilet, when you add something in, something goes out...it's generally filled to it's brim (weir), and that trickle can make a sound. It is damped quite a bit on an all-porcelain toilet. The newer Unifit damps it well, too.
 

KingJerky

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The original UniFit adapter (used on some Toto toilets) was all plastic. The newer version (from what I understand) has some sound deadening material applied to it. On ANY toilet, when you add something in, something goes out...it's generally filled to it's brim (weir), and that trickle can make a sound. It is damped quite a bit on an all-porcelain toilet. The newer Unifit damps it well, too.

Is there a new SKU for the updated unifit adapter? I would like to get one, but would really like to know i am getting a "quiet" v2 version. I have a Carlyle 2 that was installed about 3 or 4 years ago with the dripping noise after a tank fill. It lasts about 15 seconds.

Looking forward to the silence... Thank u everyone esp. u Terry.
 

Reach4

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I have a Carlyle 2 that was installed about 3 or 4 years ago with the dripping noise after a tank fill. It lasts about 15 seconds.
I wonder how wrapping sound deadening mat around the Unifit adapter would work.
 

Jadnashua

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Is there a new SKU for the updated unifit adapter? I would like to get one, but would really like to know i am getting a "quiet" v2 version. I have a Carlyle 2 that was installed about 3 or 4 years ago with the dripping noise after a tank fill. It lasts about 15 seconds.

Looking forward to the silence... Thank u everyone esp. u Terry.
You might get the same result if you just sprayed it with some foam or stuffed a bunch of fiberglass in there around it. I have not had a chance to compare them, nor actually heard one of the new ones. Personally, I do not find it at all annoying and wouldn't spend any money or effort to change it since it does only last a very short time and isn't all that loud in the first place. Someone may have an old data sheet that showed the numbers...I do not know if they actually changed it. Most of the time, I do not even notice it...sort of like living next to a highway or airport, or having a grandfather's clock...your brain filters those things out once it recognizes them, and they fall into the background.
 

WJcandee

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I have a Carlyle 2 that was installed about 3 or 4 years ago with the dripping noise after a tank fill. It lasts about 15 seconds.

You know, the dripping sound is from the water dripping over the weir as the water in the bowl settles to its design level from the amount of water put into the bowl during refill. If you could throttle the refill percentage back a little bit, so that the bowl was full-but-not-overfilled on shutoff of the tank, that would reduce the duration of (or eliminate) the dripping noise following shutoff. The danger is that each flush isn't absolutely-identical, so you could cut it too much and then the bowl wouldn't start off full, potentially leading to reduced flush performance.

If you have the original fill valve, you can swap it for the Korky 528 MaxPerformance, the silver cap one that has a little knob that lets you adjust the refill percentage (on the Carlyle it's about 28%). http://www.homedepot.com/p/Korky-QuietFill-MaxPERFORMANCE-Fill-Valve-528MCM/203145423
It's a valve that's recommended all the time by Terry.
 

Reach4

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Each time you add to the bowl contents, that same amount of water goes over the weir. Also, the Unifit passes sounds as upstream drains flow water.
 

Terry

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The new Unifit adapters have an R in the numbering. Must be for "revised".

I have a Vespin II with Unifit in the home, and it's not an issue. It's a great setup, and I've sold hundreds.
I have to laugh at some of the comments sometimes. I've even heard from people that say they like loud bathroom fans so that they don't have to listen to their bodily functions while they are in there. Really?

The TOTO Guinevere is way nicer than an AS Champion. Hands down better.
 

KingJerky

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You know, the dripping sound is from the water dripping over the weir as the water in the bowl settles to its design level from the amount of water put into the bowl during refill. If you could throttle the refill percentage back a little bit, so that the bowl was full-but-not-overfilled on shutoff of the tank, that would reduce the duration of (or eliminate) the dripping noise following shutoff. The danger is that each flush isn't absolutely-identical, so you could cut it too much and then the bowl wouldn't start off full, potentially leading to reduced flush performance.

If you have the original fill valve, you can swap it for the Korky 528 MaxPerformance, the silver cap one that has a little knob that lets you adjust the refill percentage (on the Carlyle it's about 28%). http://www.homedepot.com/p/Korky-QuietFill-MaxPERFORMANCE-Fill-Valve-528MCM/203145423
It's a valve that's recommended all the time by Terry.


Thanks for the information everyone. I actually put that very fill valve in about a year ago. It works very well, but the dripping sound continued so I was happy to see a revised unifit trapway is available. I'm going to give that a go and make for a happier wife... resulting in a happier life.

Cheers and thanks again to all 3 responders!
 

WJcandee

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Great. If you have that fill valve, then throttle the bowl-refill-water back a smidge. Since we know that the dripping is from the bowl settling following refill, if you cut back a bit on the bowl-refill-water, you may reduce/eliminate the dripping.
 

lennyk

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Toto all the way, have ours a few months now and there is no comparison.
Only issue is sometimes with big loads the powerful flushing out causes skid marks as the load moves out, lol.
 

Gary Swart

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This "Toto vs Brand X" seems to come up fairly often. It's like folks can't believe Toto is a superior product. Why do you suppose Toto has over half the world market in toilet sales even though they do not advertise and even though they are not widely stocked in stores? How can they beat the old, well known brands? There's a simple answer, superior products.
 

Rich B

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I installed a Vespin about 4 years ago and it does the trickling sound and is very annoying to me. This bathroom is above a kitchen and the noise is easy to hear when that toilet is used above. I came here to ask about a fix and also thought about spraying some foam around the plastic trap way adapter. If the new revised adapter is a sure cure I will have to get one and change it out. I have another bathroom to redo and the Toto Vespin has been perfect other than the trickling noise. I planned to buy one for that bathroom. Both are small bathrooms and a 14" adapter works for both. The Vespin I have is a 1.8 gallon model. Flushes very well and stays clean. Hopefully the newer lower water use units flush just as well and with no trickling noise...
 
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