Bucket Flush Toilets - Without Flush Assist nor Vacuum Assist, Non-Pressure Assist, e.g., Old Style

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Jerry-L

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Hello Terry,

We have been looking at several flush-assist type toilets and came across the Glacier Bay, Power Flush, Stealth, Elongated, #1004 159 514. We really have two questions. The first is, do you know if this Glacier Bay toilet has a record of any maintenance problems? The second question is, whether there are still any non-pressure assist toilets available that are worth considering. It seems like the bucket flush toilets would have fewer things that can go wrong over the years.

Here's a video that shows how pressure-assist won't allow a bucket flush to work.

Also, regarding maintenance, a friend purchased a pressure-assist, or vacuum assist toilet that only lasted two years before it started going bad, losing power in its flush (it was not one of the brands you've reviewed). Have you seen this to be a problem?


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Breplum

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Pressure assist toilets that use Sloan's systems are completely reliable. In commercial settings that is all we recommend. Any pressure assist from Kohler or American Standard will last for years.
That said, the performance of the Am Std Flowise Cadet 3 (nice price at H. D.) has been clog free for over 1.5 years in my home.
 

John Gayewski

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The pressure assist flushmate brand valves with about any toilet is probably the least clog prone systen I know of. My dad has had one in his common area bathroom that most people use, for about 20 years and ive changed the cartridge once. That glacier bay toilet with two traps looks like it would definately clog regularly. I haven't tried one and I don't know anyone who has, but it has two traps so...
 

Tuttles Revenge

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The pressure assist flushmate brand valves with about any toilet is probably the least clog prone systen I know of. My dad has had one in his common area bathroom that most people use, for about 20 years and ive changed the cartridge once. That glacier bay toilet with two traps looks like it would definately clog regularly. I haven't tried one and I don't know anyone who has, but it has two traps so...
I'm with you on that one.. That particular toilet is not a Pressure assist tho. Something weird that I certainly don't see as a benefit and I didn't think that the waste went down the second trap at first but I can see now that it does.

The OP mentions Bucket flush. Which I took to mean a Glacier Bay style of toilet that literally had a bucket of water inside the tank that you rotated and dumped inside the tank. I had to pull one once to do a drain cleaning.
 

Reach4

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The OP mentions Bucket flush. Which I took to mean a Glacier Bay style of toilet that literally had a bucket of water inside the tank that you rotated and dumped inside the tank. I had to pull one once to do a drain cleaning.
I took it to mean that I would hold a bucket of water above the bowl, dump the water, and get the toilet to flush that way.

That comes up for me when I sanitize my well, which I have only done 3 times. The sanitizing involves a period of recirculating water into the well for a period with the water to the house turned off. So I fill the tub in advance. Then a bucket of water poured down the bowl flushes the toilet. I would then add some more water to do the bowl refill.

But that swinging bucket built inside the tank was pretty novel.
 

John Gayewski

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Yes, bucket flush is shown in the video I posted (which of course may no longer be available). But it is when you pour water into the bowl and it forces water to be flushed down the trap.
Huh? Are you calling a siphonic flush a vacuum assist?
 

Jerry-L

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I'm with you on that one.. That particular toilet is not a Pressure assist tho. Something weird that I certainly don't see as a benefit and I didn't think that the waste went down the second trap at first but I can see now that it does.

The OP mentions Bucket flush. Which I took to mean a Glacier Bay style of toilet that literally had a bucket of water inside the tank that you rotated and dumped inside the tank. I had to pull one once to do a drain cleaning.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

The other poster (Breplum) mentions, "Sloan" type (Cadet 3).

My friend uses a Gerber "FlushMate" and it is VERY noisy. Also, when it was new, you were able to just press the flush handle and release to get a full flush. Now, after a year or so, you have to hold the handle down or it doesn't complete the flush.
 
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Jerry-L

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UPDATE: We got the American Standard Cadet 3 (Elongated) toilet from Home Despot. Model # 207179
Thanks again for all your comments and suggestions.

PRO's:
- It can be flushed using a bucket of water down the bowl.
- It can handle a lot of toilet paper without clogging.
- Two types of flush, lower volume and higher volume. You can press the handle down and release, or you can hold the handle down longer to fully empty the tank.

CON's:
- Slow to refill the tank, 50 seconds. One of the water refill hoses must be smaller than the other toilet we had which refilled faster. (It was a 20-year old Kohler).
- The flush handle tapers to a point so the area where you need to apply pressure is very small. I called the company and they will replace it at no cost for the flat design.
- The flush noise is loud. But the noise does not last as long as our other toilet did since less water volume is being used.

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Eman85

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Just for grins take a mirror and look under the bowl rim. I bought a Cadet, they replaced the bowl twice as the first one had chips. Both of the replacements were broken in shipping so I gave up. All of them had really bad finishing under the, one even had separation in the ceramic between the rim and the lower part of the bowl and little or no glazing under there with a very rough surface.
 

Jerry-L

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Just for grins take a mirror and look under the bowl rim. I bought a Cadet, they replaced the bowl twice as the first one had chips. Both of the replacements were broken in shipping so I gave up. All of them had really bad finishing under the, one even had separation in the ceramic between the rim and the lower part of the bowl and little or no glazing under there with a very rough surface.
Our 20 year old Kohler also had rough, unglazed surface under the rim. I use Clorox Tub and Tile spray with bleach to clean it. Works great to remove mold and mildew. We picked up the toilet from the store, so no extra shipping. Thanks for the heads up.
 
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