Gerber Ultraflush pressure assist toilet review and comments.

Gerber Ultra Flush 1.1

Terry:

Tapping your knowledge, what do you think about the Gerber Ultra Flush 1.1? Will it consistently evacuate waste and clean the bowl? As far as pressure assisted water closets go is 1.6 gallons the magic number? Or have water closet designs advanced to the point of 1.1 gallons being able to successfully do the work of 1.6 gallon units?

I am looking for water efficiency but not at the expense of becoming my own maintenance man. Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

Terry:

Thanks. I know what you mean about the associated noise, but from what I understand if the Gerber 1.6 pressure assisted ever clogs you need a snake not a plunger.

My preference for a pressure assisted water closet is due to a problem with tank sweat. Additionally, even with my large capacity 41 year old AS I occasionally have to use a plunger. Do you know if the Ultra Flush 1.6 provides a good consistent bowl wash to keep The Princess happy about 98% of the time?

The Eco Drake CST744E you suggest . . . Will The Princess be happy with waste evacuation and bowl cleanliness? Will I still need to keep a plunger handy? Is there anything I can do to eliminate tank sweat?

Thank you for your thoughts. I am looking for a product that will perform yet be trouble free in my home as well as rental properties.

 

Old, high volume toilets usually emptied the tank. That, plus running the water longer to fill it meant that the tank ended up with a bunch of cold water. With the new ones, their tank may be the same size, or at least bigger than they would seem to need to provide the flush. They use it for the height to get the oomph from that height, then they cut it off to conserve water. That means that there's a fair amount of water left in the tank. Unless your incoming water is really cold, there's usually enough to temper the water so it doesn't sweat, plus, since it doesn't run much, the water in the line is warmed up, too. Unless you often flush multiple times before it gets a chance to warm up, sweating isn't usually a problem with the new ones.

 

I think the Gerber toilet...just does not look pleasing to the eye in design.

Looks like an oversized tank on that toilet, and the rest of it looks rental property grade.

 

the gerber its not too bad

The Gerber toilet is not too bad looking....
and it has a very solid base on the floor


If you really want to look at a shabby peice of junk,

I just installed an ELJER Patriot yesterday morning
and it literally looks like it was made by a cross-eyed mexican..

the bowl is not level it leans to the left,
the ballcock had to be changed out right from the start
, and the lid literally wobbled a good half inch on top the tank..



I will have to find something better in Biscuit and
install it next week...

this one is going back.

 

Gerber UltraFlush Pressure Assisted

Terry and Other Forum Contributors:

Thank you for your response to this thread, I have made a Toto selection and will post my thoughts after a little experience with our selection.

Again, thank you for your in-put!

 

Gerber Ultraflush toilet

You need to be very careful around these toilets. I have personally experienced a violent explosion that sent shards of the tank into the room. The pressure chamber split open and shattered the tank. I have also found another almost identical example on the internet from another source.

I am removing these toilets from my home.

 

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the company with a long and excellent reputation and excellent products sold out to someone whose idea of "how to succeed in making more money" is to cheapen the product in some fashion. SLOAN VALVE has been a business to be proud of for a long, long, long time. In fifty years, I have seen good performance for their products. The same was true for Gerber before it was sold to some outfit from China. Their toilet is NOT a Gerber and its pressure tank system is NOT a SLOAN, no matter what it says on the box. I will not buy a toilet from any company which, itself, is not at least twenty-five years old and which has a "tried and true" product line. Wake up American Business. Off-shore sourcing is NOT the way to go unless you are a "fast buck artist" and plan to get lots of $ for 3-5 years and then leave.
jc.

 

Terry, Thanks for this Web site. A number of years ago, I bought a Gerber w/ a Sloan Flushmate system after reading a review on this site. It has been extremely reliable - and the "flush" is sometimes a part of a tour of our house for 1st time visitors as it has been such a good consumer product and I want to encourage others to use good environmental practices. Last year I bought the the EcoFlushWDI Technology 1.6/1.1 dual flush tank for the bathroom my wife likes to use, even though I understood that the Gerber Brand had been bought out by a company in China. Here's the secret of using this toilet. If you push down on the handle as hard as you would on the original 1.6 Gal Gerber, it doesn't work reliably and you will be disappointed compared to the originally owned Gerber brand. However, if you press the handle down or up with a light touch, it works well.

Anyway, I know you have been pleased with the Toto drake brand toilet. Given that, are there an pressure toilets you would recommend? The noise really doesn't bother anyone I know (stout Mid-western Upbringing and all).

 

So I got the 1.6gal Ultra Flush this past weekend and did the install today (or at least tried to install it today). Everything thing went fine, got the old toilet off and installed the new one without any hiccups. Turned on the water, heard the pressure tank fill, and then flushed... What the heck? Water sprays out from between the tank and the bowl (and it sprays big time!!). The toilet did flush a bit, but nothing like it should. I take off the tank and make sure the seal and everything else is in place. Reattach the tank and try again... water flys out again between the tank and the bowl. Sigh...

So after a few more times of trying to adjust seal etc without any improvement (my bathroom is now soaked by the way, ha), I took a closer look and realize that the hole (where the flush valve assembly slips into) where the water flows into from the tank has standing water in it, and I don't mean a 1/16" of water, I mean the water is almost at the rim. I watch it for a few minutes and see that it is slowly going down and into the bowl (I presume). I get a cup of water and pour it into the hole again and it fills up completely without going down, at least not quickly. This does not seem normal in the least bit.

It seems to me that there is some kind of issue with the internal plumbing of the toilet that is preventing the toilet from flushing correctly, and in turn, causing the "ultra flush" to blow water out from the spud gasket (in between the tank and the bowl). Anyone have thoughts? Dang defective toilet!

Oh, so at the end of the day, I reinstall the old toilet - a total waste of a day. Sigh...

 

I called up Gerber today and told them what was going on (see above story). After hearing the issues, the rep says that yes, the toilet has some type of internal defect and that I need to exchange it. They apologized and are getting a new one sent to the nearest wholesaler for me to exchange the non-working one with. A pain in the ass, but at least they are helping getting the issue resolved.
Cheers.