Narrow tank toilets?

[Juliejules66]

I'm looking for a new toilet ideally with tank to replace an old round bowl with flushometer. Very narrow space (pre-war NYC apartment) since existing bowl is in between riser and bathtub and waste hole is centered between wall and tub, not riser and tub. Super tells me I can't get anything wider than a 10" tank but the only model I've found so far is the Kohler Saile and it doesn't appear to have good ratings/reviews. Question: is there a decent model that will fit or do I need to stick with tankless bowl and flushometer (new bowl, new flush)? Also I measured from wall to bolt and it looks like an 11" rough in, not 12". HELP!

 

[Reach4]

I suspect the super may have been saying that you would need a 10 inch rough-in toilet. Is that possible? With a tape measure, you could measure the width of the space where the toilet tank will need to fit. What do you measure?

If you do need that narrow tank, the Kohler Persuade seems to be the 2-piece version similar to the Saile, so it is cheaper. Its heaviest piece would be lighter to make setting the toilet require less strength. However 2-piece toilets require more assembly, and they are not as prestigious.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

No one would make a toilet with a 10" tank, (and you should have at least a 30" wide space for the toilet anyway), but flushometer toilets are typically installed with a 10", or less, rough in dimension. Have you considered how you will get the 1" water line for the flush valve, which is probably 30" above the floor, converted to a 1/2" line 8" above the floor?

 

[Juliejules66]

I suspect the super may have been saying that you would need a 10 inch rough-in toilet. Is that possible? With a tape measure, you could measure the width of the space where the toilet tank will need to fit. What do you measure?

If you do need that narrow tank, the Kohler Persuade seems to be the 2-piece version similar to the Saile, so it is cheaper. Its heaviest piece would be lighter to make setting the toilet require less strength. However 2-piece toilets require more assembly, and they are not as prestigious.

The "rough in" is 11". The 10" Super is suggesting is not the rough in or the bowl but the tank itself. THe current toilet bowl is a round bowl that is 14" at its widest point. The space that the toilet is in is a width of 21" from left wall to the tub on the right side. Very narrow. Because of the steam pipe/riser that is on the left side of the area where the toilet is, and because it is 3" out from the wall, the total width for a tank is less than 15-16" that many of the toilets are.

 

[hj]

A 10" wide tank, if any manufacturer even considered it because YOU might be the only person in the whole world who would buy one, would be VERY expensive given the limited demand and the cost of development and production. It would ONLY be 5" from the center to the side and I am not sure how you would get a flush valve AND a fill valve in a 5" space, plus the trip lever might not work if it were only 5" long. In addition, it would have to be VERY tall to hold enough water for a good flush.

 

[WJcandee]

Given that you're set up for a flushometer, you would have to do some meaningful plumbing to go to a tank. As HJ points out, you have a full 1", well-pressurized pipe coming into your flushometer, and a typical tank toilet is looking for max 1/2", coming from a different location. So if you want to do a bunch of retiling and stuff, have at it, but it seems like a waste. Instead, you could get a nice Toto bowl and maybe a cool automatic flushometer or something, for not a lot of money. And an 11" rough-in is effectively a 10" rough-in because they only make 10" and 12" (and 14") toilets. 12" is now standard. And as HJ said, 10" is common for flushometer bowls.

Why not exploit the good, reliable flush that you get with a flushometer toilet and snazz it up a bit with cool hardware? Much cheaper than all the tile-breaking and plumbing you will need to do for a tank model.

Here are some ideas:

That's a Toto CT705ELNG (the "G" means it has Toto's CEFIONTECT (CeFiONtect) coating in the bowl, which helps a lot in keeping it nice and clean.

Spec sheet: http://assets.nationalbuildersupply.com/ul_pdfs/toto-Spec-ct705elng.pdf

The street price on this is a lot less than MSRP, and should be just a bit more than $200, and about $40 less without the CEFIONTECT (same number without the "G"). It doesn't include the flushometer, and Toto makes a variety of them that look nice, from a simple manual one to the automatic one shown, priced well.

You could consider something like a TET6NC automatic valve, which you can get as a kit with associated parts included for under $450 (for the kit you add -32 to the number, so TET6GNC-32). It comes in polished chrome.

Or, for a nice manual valve, the TMT1LN32 kit can be had for around $175, and looks cool:

You obviously can use any elongated seat on this toilet's standard bolt hole placement, like a nice Toto SS114 softclose seat:

I don't know if you have a building plumber or your Super has a preferred plumber, but I can recommend a company that is licensed, bonded and insured that has done a bunch of work for us. Come on back with any questions, and let us know how it's going.

 

[hj]

The Toto valve is a 'piston model' and I do NOT like piston model flush valves, unless it is a very low pressure situation.

 

[WJcandee]

Here is Sloan Valve's white paper on the piston-versus-diaphragm debate. Of course, the evaluation is made in light of typical high-traffic commercial use.

http://www.sloanvalve.com/Water_Efficiency/SLV3583-Diaphragm_Piston_White-Paper.pdf

Sloan, of course, is a highly-regarded valve maker that makes valves and kits that would work quite happily on your Toto toilet.