Basement Toilet

[ljsmom]

Last April we replaced our basement toilet with a Toto Ultimate MS854114. It has been horrible. Our teenage son clogs it often. We have a Toto CST703 in our upstairs bathroom and love it. After reading some posts, I discovered that because it's in a basement, power gravity may not have been the best way to go.

Which Toto should we replace it with? I can't deal with the clogs anymore and cost is an issue (especially since we paid $400 for the Ultimate).

 

[Jadnashua]

The location of the toilet isn't an issue...it sounds like you may have other problems with the drain line. Does the stuff get out of the toilet, but not flow? Or, does it just swirl around? If you take say a 5-gallon bucket and dump it into the toilet, does it all go down? When it was installed, the wax ring could have slipped and be blocking a good portion of the flange. Somebody could have tried to flush a toothbrush, or something else down the thing. I'd pull it up and verify there's no problems both within and downstream before blaming the toilet.

It makes no difference the type of toilet or the location, but the condition of the install and the drain line will make a huge difference.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Pippin]

I have a similar problem with only the basement toilet and I think it is a venting problem but let me toss this out to the group to see what you think.
Here are the details.

1. The upstairs toilet is directly above the basement toilet.

2. When the upstairs toilet is flushed the bowl water level in the basement toilet is greatly reduced.

3. No other water use affects the basement toilet.

My thoughts are if their is not enough water in the bowl then the siphon will not work very well and thus the constant clogs.

My question; if I don't fix the venting will putting a different toilet in the basement make any difference?

Regards,

Pippin

 

[Redwood]

Pippin, It does sound like you have an improperly vented basement toilet and the bowl water level being low is causing a weak flush. A different toilet will have the same problem.

 

[SamC]

Technically the CST 703 does have somewhat better flushing ability than the ultimate, simply because it is a two-piece design. The water level in the tank is higher, giving it more head pressure. But the flushing ability of the Ultimate should be more than sufficient for the task. You could try simply switching the two toilets. It would only cost the price of two new wax rings and some time, rather than a new toilet. If that solves the problem, then you will know that your son does indeed require a better flushing toilet than the rest of the family. If not, then you will know that you need to investigate the basement drain further. Either way, you have not had to invest in another toilet.

 

[ljsmom]

When it clogs, stuff just swirls around. The toilet was removed shortly after installation to check on the wax ring thing. It was fine. I wanted my DH to switch the 2 toilets but he insists there's nothing wrong with the Ultimate. Our old toilet worked great - only it used lots of water. I didn't try the 5 gallon water test - I couldn't find a big bucket.

 

[Jadnashua]

Try the biggest bucket you have...doesn't have to be 5-gallons, just see if it can handle just water. If it can flush just water, but solids give it a problem, there could be something like a pen, pencil, toy, whatever caught in the trap of the toilet.

It's rare, but possible the toilet is defective. A much bigger possibility is if there is something caught in the trap or a problem in the drain. A toilet auger only sometimes catches something like this occasionally.

 

[ljsmom]

It passed the water test. I'm pretty sure nothing (like a tooth brush or pencil) is stuck in there. When we first installed it we thought it was defective but the place we bought it from didn't think that was possible. The good news - I was able to brush away the scratches from the auger with Bar Keepers Friend!