Just pulled the trigger on (2) Toto Drakes

[Mustard Tiger]

Bought a 47 year old house and the toilets were also 47 years old. A brand called Murray that I've never heard of. There are three toilets in the house, one in the basement, one in the master bath and one is a small, but full bath that's off the kitchen. It's a funky little A-frame style house, all made of cedar, no paint or drywall anywhere in the place. House had one previous owner, she lived there for the last 47.

I'm 6'2, and no way these low, round bowl toilets were going to work. That's to this forum I did dome research and ended up going with two of the Drake models (CST776CEFG#01) and eventually may go with a third for the toilet in the basement.

I am a bit worried about the low 1.28gpf since it's an older home, but it has a brand new septic take that was installed a few weeks ago. The two toilets I'm replacing are on the top floor, but I worry about the lower gif not being enough volume to get the logs all the way down the chute to the tank! I guess time Weill tell, but the toilets that are in there (were in there since they're now removed because all the flooring is being replaced as I type this) were tiny!

But thank you to this forum for making it a pretty easy choice. I've never had to buy a toilet before and never put much thought into it. Was jsut going to go with something off the shelf at HD, but after doing some research it seemed liek there are better options out there and it was worth a little more investment upfront for quality.

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

We've been installing low flow toilets in 100yr old Seattle homes since the 90's and so far I haven't heard any big uproar about it not working. I've seen tests done with clear pipe comparing various amounts of water and no matter what, the liquid outruns the solids at some point.. then the next flush pushes it the rest of the way. Drain systems stay pretty moist, so its unlikely that anything will dry up and cause problems.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jeff H Young]

I been hearing the samething about the low gpf not putting enough water down . 47 years old still probebly means plastic dwv system so I wouldnt be overly concerned either . Ive had less exposure to older homes but thats not even old to me anymore the cast iron of the 20s to basicaly when they stopped cast iron is a good thing we dont make em like we used to older homes tight joist bays , flat lines , horrible venting back to back fixtures on double santees you name it

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

From my experience and in my area of Washington, Cast stacks and Iron Pipe branches ceased in the 60's. some overlap of copper DWV in the 50's.

So in this case, that would make it '77 era construction. In the PNW, that would solidly be ABS DWV system.

 

[Jeff H Young]

1977 thats a new house to us old guys its even got ABS lol pretty safe bet its plastic for sure

 

[oldVermonter]

I installed a Toto Drake in my upstairs bathroom earlier this year. It is so much superior to the Kohler it replaced...the difference in bowl-cleaning ability is startling.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

1977 thats a new house to us old guys its even got ABS lol pretty safe bet its plastic for sure

Yessir, you are correct! It's a cool little house. No paint or drywall anywhere. Cedar tongue and groove on all the walls and ceiling. Heck, even the subfloor is 1.5" tongue and groove cedar. Currently in the process of laying down 1/2" plywood after I ripped up all the 1/2" particleboard and next week start laying tile in the kitchen and bathrooms followed by engineered hardwood in the rest of the place.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

I installed a Toto Drake in my upstairs bathroom earlier this year. It is so much superior to the Kohler it replaced...the difference in bowl-cleaning ability is startling.

Thats great to know. Last two places I've lived including the apartment I'm currently renting while fixing this place up have had horrible toilets that never seemed to clean the bowl completely. The water pattern when flushing never covered the entire bowl. Toilet here in the apartment is some model of American Standard, 15" height and round bowl. Not even sure why people put in these tiny toilets when there's enough space for something larger.

 

[BrendaG]

I installed a Toto Drake in my upstairs bathroom earlier this year. It is so much superior to the Kohler it replaced...the difference in bowl-cleaning ability is startling.

Do you know if the Toto Drake is comparable to the Kohler Wellworth size wise. I am replacing and was debating on getting the same Kohler or to go with the Toto.

 

[oldVermonter]

Do you know if the Toto Drake is comparable to the Kohler Wellworth size wise. I am replacing and was debating on getting the same Kohler or to go with the Toto.

IIRC, my old toilet was a Wellworth...and the size seems similar. But do check measurements carefully, if you are space-limited, I was not.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

It's been some time now and have to say these toilets are fantastic. I installed Kohler M250 bidet seats on each and they work perfectly and don't interfere in any way with the Tornado Flush design unlike other budget bidet seats.

Only problem I'm having is despite both toilets being identical, the water level in one of the toilets is very low. Determined that it's not an incorrectly placed hose going into the fill tube (seems like this is the culprit most of the time when the hose is installed incorrectly and ends up filling the tank and not the fill tube). Both toilets are identical, have identical water levels in the tanks, etc.

Is there a way to manually adjust the water level in the bowl?

 

[Reach4]

Is there a way to manually adjust the water level in the bowl?

Probably, but try this test first: pour an extra quart of water slowly into the bowl. Does the water stay up at the level you desire? If yes, then yes. Can you do it without swapping out the fill valve? I don't know.

But if the water level will not stay up if you slowly add water, then more refill is not going to help.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

If I do the pour test the water level in the bowl increases and stays at the same level as the other toilet that fills correctly.

Also, if I flush the toilet with the lower water level in the bowl, but hold down the handle, which nearly empties the tank it obviously takes longer to fill the tank, and this allows the bowl to fill up to the proper level, which is the same level as the other Drake where the bowl fills the correct level.

Also, both tanks have the same model number and both have identical internal components and the same bowl.

 

[Reach4]

Good result. You have eliminated the hard-to-fix problems.

https://www.terrylove.com/forums/in...hold-the-flush-lever.56174/page-2#post-541231 talks about adjusting the flush tower to drain more water during a flush. So you could do that.

You might want to just replace the fill valve with a valve that has an adjustable fill. The Korky silver top https://www.homedepot.com/p/Korky-QuietFill-Platinum-Fill-Valve-528MCM/203145423 and Fluidmaster https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fluidma...ance-Toilet-Fill-Valve-400H-002-P10/305719514 have adjustable fill.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

Good result. You have eliminated the hard-to-fix problems.

https://www.terrylove.com/forums/in...hold-the-flush-lever.56174/page-2#post-541231 talks about adjusting the flush tower to drain more water during a flush. So you could do that.

You might want to just replace the fill valve with a valve that has an adjustable fill. The Korky silver top https://www.homedepot.com/p/Korky-QuietFill-Platinum-Fill-Valve-528MCM/203145423 and Fluidmaster https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fluidma...ance-Toilet-Fill-Valve-400H-002-P10/305719514 have adjustable fill.

Thank you so much. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

I'll try to adjust the flush tower first (and will be interesting to see if the flush tower on each toilet is adjusted the same, or if they are different), which I'm hoping will solve the issue. If not it's a simple $10-$15 fix and a trip to the local plumbing supply store here in my town that has both parts in stock (always try to go there first before going to HD).