Toto Ultramax 10-year review
Installed my Ultramax ten years ago, thanks to advice from Terry's website. Overall it has been good, not great. I should mention we are a family of three, we do not abuse the fixtures, I am under 190 lbs, another family member is 120 lbs, third is about 75 lbs.
The good:
--"Does the job" as Terry says. That is the most important feature. Reasonably quiet. Attractive appearance with the low-profile one-piece styling.
The bad:
--Just about all the moving parts have failed and required replacement:
--Soft-close seat: bumpers broke within a couple years. Rather than buy the expensive Toto replacement that was just as cheaply made, I bought a Kohler soft-close seat that fit pretty well and has had no problems.
--Fill valve failed after about two years. Purchased the correct Toto replacement part, expensive, it failed after about two more years. Worst of all--when they failed, they leaked water onto the floor, just enough not to notice until we saw water dripping into the basement. Replaced with generic hardware store valve, no problems since.
--Yesterday the trip lever failed. During a party with many guests. "Hey, the toilet won't flush." Inspection revealed that a concealed piece of the pot metal casting had worn completely through, so it would no longer engage the brass lift bar. Fortunately I was able to jury rig a fix with a wire tie, which will hold until a new trip lever arrives from the Internet plumbing supply. Had noticed the trip lever action had been sloppy in recent months.
--I also ordered a new flapper. The flapper on this toilet has long been too quick to close, requiring user to hold down lever for 5 seconds or so to ensure a complete flush. It's possible that behavior was an early symptom of the trip lever wear.
This is a product with good fundamental design and disappointing quality. The parts that failed were cheaply executed--inadequate materials. The main one-piece casting has held up well and still looks good.
I have been around long enough, lived with enough toilets, to say I've never seen so many problems like this. On the other hand, with many of those others, a plunger was a permanent accessory stored next to the toilet. I have needed to plunge this one maybe half-a-dozen times in ten years. And it just about always needs only one flush.
If I were going to spend $500 today on a new toilet, I would look at the current alternatives before buying another Toto, although would still consider Toto.
With that said, I am grateful to Terry for his site, I learned a lot here. Without Terry's site I probably would have bought a low-flow system with poor performance, which cannot be fixed no matter how good the ancillary hardware might be.