Toto Dealer in Central Illinois?

[Don Gwinn]

I live near Springfield, IL and, although I think you've convinced me I want either a Toto Drake or an Aquia, I haven't found a dealer closer than Champaign-Urbana, Chicago, or St. Louis. St. Louis is the closest of the three, but it's still a good haul.

I'd much rather drive to a dealer, see the showroom, get my questions answered and bring my toilet home myself than pay an extra $95 to have the thing put on a pallet so it can be shipped (as one online retailer suggests.)

Does anybody know of a Toto dealer in central Illinois besides the one in Champaign-Urbana? If there's not one in Springfield or Decatur, I'm guessing not, but I figured I'd ask.

 

[Terry]

Holt Supply Company
104 S. County Fair Drive
Champaign IL 61821
Phone: 217-351-1000

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Don Gwinn]

I found a closer place, Winnelson Plumbing Supply in Edwardsville. Not really a lot closer milewise, but they're on this side of St. Louis so I don't have to go through the city. That's really never that much fun!

The crazy thing (to me) is that Winnelson quoted me $206 for a round-front Toto Drake.

Lowes charges about $270 for the Eljer Titan I was considering before I found this forum. So much for the big box discounts. I knew they rarely beat my local lumber yard, but if the Titan really is a Drake knockoff, that's ridiculous.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Out of the 7 Toto dealers I called in the St. Louis area, ONE place had ONE Aquia in stock.

I asked one guy how long backorder would take and he asked (I am not making this up, kids) how close I am to retirement. I'm not even sure that means what he thinks it means, but I gathered that the wait for a Toto Aquia is a long one.

Everybody said they're great, but "out of the mainstream."

The guy at Atlas Supply chuckled when I asked to reserve his lone, solitary in-stock Aquia, telling me "Nobody's going to buy that toilet in the next day or two."

If we work together on future projects, and he gets to know me a little better, we will look back on this day and laugh and laugh. I could create a fantastic DIY training montage set to the music from "Bloodsport" if only I had thought to film my long, sad career of watching the last of whatever DIY product I needed that day being carried out by someone else who arrived five minutes before me.

So, here's my question: If you reserve a toilet with a credit card, are you officially some kind of DIY plumbing weirdo?

What if you make an all-day fun family trip out of a 5-hour round-trip drive to buy a toilet?

I mean, you know, this IS just a toilet.
Right?

 

[Markts30]

So, here's my question: If you reserve a toilet with a credit card, are you officially some kind of DIY plumbing weirdo?

What if you make an all-day fun family trip out of a 5-hour round-trip drive to buy a toilet?

I mean, you know, this IS just a toilet.
Right?

In answer to this question, you are only a DIY weirdo if you post about it on the net for the world to read...
LMAO

 

[Jadnashua]

While others have had bad problems with shipping toilets, I've bought 4 this way and not had problems...I'd rather do that than drive 5-hours. WIth the costs of gas and the wear and tear on a vehicle, at the federal rates for business, that's probably about 300-miles, or nearly $150 in real costs.

 

[Furd]

It was six years and three days ago that I bought two Toto Carlyle toilets through my local distributor. They didn't normally carry the Carlyle and the nearest ones were in Salt Lake City. Additional freight charges were $48. and the total including freight, tax and all was $727.46. Not too bad for toilets that had a list price of more than $600. each.

Plus, I got an $80. rebate from the local sewer utility for changing from 3.5gpf models making my real cost less than $325. a piece for a very nice one-piece toilet.

Now if I could only finish the floor in the back bathroom and install the second toilet.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Now if I could only finish the floor in the back bathroom and install the second toilet.

Is that you, Ghost of Christmas Future? Showing me my fate?

Furd, your point is well taken, but we like St. Louis so we just made it a family day trip and had fun with it. It was actually a pretty good day. We followed up the toilet-shopping with a trip to the Galleria and my wife got to spend money on some newfangled makeup that feels good on your skin and doesn't make you break out. I didn't really understand it, myself. There was this extremely low-cut dress that was about her size, but she wouldn't get it because it was $70. Then she comes back from the makeup place with $75 worth of makeup. Maybe it's the Y chromosome talking, but my feeling is that if there's a choice to be made, the slinky dress should always take precedence. My kids got to have pizza and Ben & Jerry's for supper, so they were basically happy. I had a pretty good sandwich and spent about three hours in a bookstore, which is about as good as a day gets when you think about it. I used maybe half a tank of gas; that minivan cruises right along on the highway.

Atlas Supply is in a terrible part of St. Louis (Martin Luther King Street--you know what Chris Rock says about that street) and they apparently don't see a lot of guys buying one toilet for a DIY project. But they treated me right and, frankly, I think their location and the nature of their business is the only reason they still had one Aquia in stock. I would venture to guess that there are more yuppies using this toilet than rednecks like myself, and they probably don't think to call Atlas.

 

[Furd]

If you can make a family outing of the trip then by all means do so. What you end up with is spending time with each other, doing things that you all can enjoy and take a little side trip to buy a toilet.

For me, going to SLC would have been a major excursion with no other reason but to get the toilets. As it was I simply made a detour from my regular route home after work, probably didn't add another hour to my commute.

Concerning the back bathroom...there are a few reasons and a whole lot of excuses for it. I strongly suspect that if I didn't live alone that I would have finished (or had someone else finish) it long ago.