A review of Toto toilets and Terry Love’s Plumbing and Remodel

[chrisbell86]

I purchased a townhome with two and a half baths, and a total of three toilets. One toilet was a double flush, the second was a triple flush, and the third needed to be flushed so many times that we lost count and stopped using it. I had a Consumer Reports membership at the time, so I went out to their website and read all about toilets, and decided to purchase their recommended toilet, which was the American Standard.

I contacted Terry Love's Plumbing and Remodel to purchase and install the toilets, however, when I told them I wanted the American Standard they let me know that there were issues with the quality of this toilet and that I should consider the expense of the required maintenance on this brand of toilet before making the purchase, they also suggested that I look at the Toto before purchasing. They weren’t pushy about it, but they were clear that there were maintenance issues with the American Standard. At the time I was pretty sure that this was an attempt to up sale me into a more expensive toilet, so I cancelled the sale. Then I went online and read about the toilets. Needless to say, I discovered this wasn't an underhanded attempt at an up sale, that this was actually sound advice. I went back to their company and purchased the Toto toilets for two bathrooms. (I haven't replaced the third yet, it's only a double flush so I'm not in as much of a hurry on that one. )

After six months with the Toto's I can honestly say, I haven't even thought about them. They just work, all of the time, and I have never had to double flush. Needless to say, my third toilet will also be a Toto.

Any future work with plumbing will be with Terry Love's company, their customer service is amazing. I don't know a lot about plumbing, but I do know that knowledgeable people usually like to share their skills with others, which is how I gauge whether or not someone knows what they’re doing. When I asked the guy from Love's plumbing if I could watch him work and ask him a few questions he was fine with that. This guy actually walked me through his entire installation, step by step, he explained why he did certain things, shortcuts to avoid and why, and how to evaluate the work when it’s done. I was impressed with how much he knew, and very impressed with how willing he was to share this knowledge with a customer.

 

[plumbtired]

Another "atta boy" for Terry Love and company...

I live over 200 miles south of Terry Love's business so I have to deal with the "locals." However, because of this terrific Terry Love web forum site, I have been able to not only evaluate my past and current, as well as potential, problems with the American Standard Champion toilets I had (notice that I use the term, "had"!). I quickly discovered that the Toto is the brand of choice per all of the knowledgeable people--as well as Terry, of course--who participate in this forum.

As a result of this forum's information and my belief in the "experts" (like Terry!) and consumers' recommendations of Toto, I ended up "dumping" (Craigslist is a wonderful tool) my two 3-year-old Champions and purchased (locally) two Toto Drakes (in reverse order, of course!). Both Toto installations, using Jamie Love's terrific installation pointers (another bonus from this forum), went very smoothly. The Toto toilets are a vast improvement over the American Standard Champions per noise level (the Toto's are very quiet) and smooth, thorough flushes--although I am still on a learning curve on how to flush solid matter through completely (i.e. how long to hold the handle down, etc.). I am looking forward to years of trouble-free toilets!

So...I want to add my kudos for Terry and his forum compatriots, whether they are part of his Bothell-Bellevue plumbing service and/or part of this forum: Thank you all for making plumbing easier and certainly more understandable. More importantly, an especially big THANK YOU to Terry for setting up and maintaining this valuable website. I have recommended it to all of my acquaintances and family members, too!