Which toilet seal...

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cc66

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There are so many different types of seals; wax, sani seal, danco perfect seal, frenco wax free.

So which is your preferred seal and why? Thanks for your replies.
 

FullySprinklered

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Wax. It's tried and true. New stuff scares me, partly because I don't want to experiment with a new product on someone else's house.
 

WJcandee

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For a DIY, a seal like the Korky or the Sani Seal offers really only one advantage, and that is that you can pull and reset the bowl without having to degunk the thing and put in a new wax ring. So you might be inclined to pull it up to make-perfect the alignment or the shimming or any of several things that can go wrong the first time you bolt it down. If you have used wax, you don't get a do-over, and your really cannot even move the thing around once you have smushed it down on the wax without leaving a gap and breaking the seal. With a Korky waxless seal or a Saniseal, you just pull it up and put it back down.

A secondary advantage is that the waxless seal is easy to adjust or stack to fill the larger gap between flange and bowl that occurs when the top of the flange is below or just level with the floor. Most pros just stack a second wax ring if necessary after eyeballing the flange height, but it isn't as intuitive for a DIY installer.

For someone like Terry and his folks, who are going to get it right the first time, wax is a tried-and-true, economical, and very-reliable medium. I, too, have exclusively used wax, and have had to pull it up, scrape it off, and drop a new wax ring. It's no big deal, but you can save time and inconvenience on the reset of the bowl by not having to do so.

Korky at Lowe's, no need to stack them, usually: http://www.lowes.com/pd_586597-868-6000PK___?productId=50150240&pl=1&Ntt=korky

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Sani-Seal at Lowe's, easy to stack: http://www.lowes.com/pd_470197-31904-BL01___?Ntt=sani-seal&UserSearch=sani-seal&productId=4650525
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Wallijonn

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If a rubber flapper can get blisters and scum (which usually causes slow leaks and the water valve is always turning on and off) then I doubt that plastic and rubber seals will be able to last 30 to 50 years like a wax seal. The second you start to smell sewer gases probably means that the seal should be replaced. I'd rather do it once and forget it - even if it takes me three times to do it right in two week's time.
 

dinotoad

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After about 10 years of no problems, I now smell sewer gas from my Toto toilet. I used a wax seal and had no problem for about 8 years.

This house is now only used in the winter. It is in Arizona (hot) and in the summer it is left with no air conditioning. Two year ago I started having roaches in that bathroom while gone for the summer. I taped all the drains and put saran wrap on the toilet seat, but still found more roaches when I returned. Now I smell sewer gas.

I never had this problem before (when I lived there all year round) and I wonder if the wax seal could have melted due to the hot house in summer (probably in the 90's) or if roaches could have eaten the softened wax and breached the seal. I never have any roaches in the house at any other time. I taped around the base of the toilet and the sewer gas smell seems much better.

So I wonder if I would be better off with one of non-wax toilet seals and if so which one.

I await the wisdom of Terr Love's forum.
 
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You have to remove the toilet. Don't hack around it with tape.

It is not big deal to remove a toilet. I do it all the time just to 'inspect', find that nothing is wrong, and then a $2 new wax ring gets reinstalled.

I have used many waxless seals too, and they are all very different depending on what the toilet and what the flange is. I don't know how long soft rubber can last vs. undisturbed wax, but considering how resiliant polymers are today, waxless seals aren't really any different from longevity of PVC water supply hoses, PEX pipes, ABS, and whatever they use to make chrome plastic Moen shower heads.

Wax is organic material, and does break down. Just because it's "tried and true" doesn't make it the best. If we still thought that way, Dahl ball valves wouldn't belong with toilets, people would believe unsanded grout is better than epoxy, and Schulter Systems would never give birth.
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Reach4

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I would avoid the Fernco offering. People report that it will only stick onto a new toilet, plus it sure looks harder to position. One of the choices that goes onto the closet flange first, with the toilet then dropped on top, looks much easier.
 

Rich B

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I removed a toilet a few months ago that I installed at least 30 years ago. Brass flange, lead bend....not soldered where the flange sits over the lead and the lead bend at the flange is not in very good shape. I have the ceiling open underneath the toilet also. There is almost no evidence of any kind of leak and I used a wax seal with the plastic horn extension.....plywood was in good condition. I did remove the plywood and put down all new wood since it is a small bathroom at 5x8. When I install a new Toto toilet I will probably use the wax seal and it's very easy on the Toto with the unifit adapter. I already did another bathroom just like this one and used a wax seal there as well. I used a Toto Vespin toilet.
 
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