Toilet Model Comparison

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Maconi

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I'm finally upgrading the toilets that came with the house. What I want/need in a toilet is something that can clean its own bowl fairly well (removing skidmarks when needed) as well as complete flushes (no bits of debris left in the water after a flush requiring a second round). Clogging shouldn't be an issue (at least it hasn't been with the current Mansfield 160 toilets in the house). The amount of water used also doesn't matter to me, I just want the best performer.

I'll preface this by saying I know most people around here prefer Toto. I've had my eye on the Drake II (which seems to perform better than the Drake as far as self-cleaning due to the Double-Cyclone?) but to be fair I've been trying to look at the competition for it which brought me to American Standard.

So as far as the AS competitors it looks like there's the H2Option and VorMax. The VorMax looks like it's the direct competitor to the Drake II but how does the H2Option compare? They advertise its "PowerWash Rim" as "scrubbing" the bowl, but would the vortex style flush of the Drake II/VorMax clean better?

Speaking of which, do the vortex style toilets (Drake II/VorMax) flush/clean better than the original 1.6 rim style toilets (Drake/Champion)?

Also, are there any other models/brands worth throwing into the mix?

Thanks. :cool:
 
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Gary Swart

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You don't have too many options when it comes to water usage. New laws mandate low flow. As far as brands are concerned, I am a Toto fan. The Drake II would be a great choice both from performance and cost. Cost should never be a major factor in purchasing a toilet, of course there are the super fancy models that cost upward to a $1000, and that would rule out them for most of us mere mortals, and stay away from the Big Box $99 specials and similar cheapos. Keep in mind a toilet is an expense that most of us only make once or twice in a lifetime, so get a good one to begin with.
 

Plumbs Away

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The one exception to the $99 Big Box special is the white AquaSource. I have one and it is an excellent product. It works every bit as well as my AS Champion 4 one-piece and my AS Vormax, and my temperamental digestive system gives them a true "real world" workout. The only complaint seems to unanimously be the flimsiness of the included seat. I personally didn't like the fill valve so I replaced mine with a valve and seat I liked better. So, for roughly $150, I got a great toilet that holds its own with the big boys. It's also available in 'biscuit' for $165. The standard height round bowl model is sold under the Project Source name for $85.
 
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Wallijonn

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For a more complete bowl wash you may need to go with a Commercial toilet with an exposed manual flush valve system. I don't know if they can be installed in homes, though. I saw one at work that seemed to have something like over a dozen jets (it may have been two or three dozen jets working all together to cleaned different levels of the bowl) that really cleaned the bowl.

On my Drake skid marks are usually cleaned on subsequent urine flushes. Not really a problem. With is a problem is top of the water debris. The Cycleone system will probably work much better there.

As far as H2O/Vormax, there's some reviews and YouTube videos for you to compare.
 

Maconi

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Cost doesn't matter much (although I'd rather not approach the quadruple-digit mark lol).

I saw the video comparing the Drake II/VorMax (although it's hard to know if it's a fair test considering it's AS's video). I haven't seen anything comparing the H2O/Vormax though (from what I can gather the H2O and other "dual-flush" systems are obsolete at this point as it was proven the 1.28 systems clean/save just as much with simpler internals?).

I'll check the Kohler Cimarron out, thanks. :)
 

Plumbs Away

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In re AS Vormax vs. Toto Double Cyclone, I'd lean more toward Toto. I have the Vormax and it's great, but the flapper assembly in the Vormax is overly complicated and is apparently proprietary. The cost of the Vormax flapper assembly is around $35, last I checked. American Standard gives a 10-year limited warranty on the parts, but that doesn't help much if you're out of commission and waiting for the parts to arrive.
 
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