Toilet shopping advice

[Loosie]

I have to shop for two toilets. Would appreciate suggestions:

(1) My new landlord will cover half the cost of the throne of my choice.

Rough-in 12 in. No known water limits below normal 1.6 gal. Would like ADA/comfort height and elongated. Priority: cleanliness (both bowl cleaning and ease of manual cleaning)--without going into gruesome detail, medicals/meds make this a big priority.

(2) Condo I'm moving out of. Tiny bathroom, with toilet on short axis of room (60 in. wide). Developer of old (1927) building put in cheapo toilet that is 4 inches from wall behind it, making it harder to get into shower. I believe rough in is 12 in. I'd like to get new toilet closer to wall without screwing with rough in. Would a Toto Unifit toilet get me closer to the wall?

Thank you much.

 

[Terry]

Would like ADA/comfort height and elongated. Priority: cleanliness (both bowl cleaning and ease of manual cleaning)--without going into gruesome detail, medicals/meds make this a big priority.

For large movements, I like the Caroma or the Kohler pressure assist.
However, for messy bowl cleaning and normal size movements, the TOTO II series bowls are nice. Also many of the Kohler products will rinse well too.
Years ago I had colon cancer and the TOTO II series bowls did an excellent job of rinsing.
https://terrylove.biz/toilets/11-toto-drake-ii-128-gpf.html

The Vespin allows moving the bowl back 2" closer to the wall, but it's an elongated bowl, so you basically gain 1/2" in the room, and 2" for the sitting position with the 14" Unifit.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

Make sure you're measuring your rough-in properly...measure from the finished wall (not the baseboard) to the center of the toilet flange, which normally can be the mounting bolts. For a toilet sitting that far away from the wall, it's probably not a 12" rough-in, but you need to know for sure to investigate your possibilities.

 

[Loosie]

For large movements, I like the Caroma or the Kohler pressure assist.
However, for messy bowl cleaning and normal size movements, the TOTO II series bowls are nice. Also many of the Kohler products will rinse well too.
Years ago I had colon cancer and the TOTO II series bowls did an excellent job of rinsing.
https://terrylove.biz/toilets/11-toto-drake-ii-128-gpf.html

Thanks, Terry. It is more the "messy" issue--unfortunately I don't s..t plastic tubes or golf balls or soybean paste in a nice pattern :-(

The Ultramax II you recommend on the homepage has a couple features I'd like over the Drake and Vespin--one piece, cefiontect. Would that work in such a situation?

 

[Terry]

The Ultramax II should work very well for you then. I've been installing a lot of them, and have one in my home.

 

[Loosie]

Make sure you're measuring your rough-in properly...measure from the finished wall (not the baseboard) to the center of the toilet flange, which normally can be the mounting bolts. For a toilet sitting that far away from the wall, it's probably not a 12" rough-in, but you need to know for sure to investigate your possibilities.

Thank you. I'll look again when I get home.

 

[WorthFlorida]

FYI.. if you do in fact have a ~14" center, TOTO and other brands do offer toilets with 14" centers. It'll place the toilet 2" closer to the wall. The bowl in there now could be a 10" center if the developer went on the cheap, left over stock perhaps. With old buildings and the placement of the toilet may have been a supporting floor joist in the way or old pipe was already there. When the building was built toilets were two pieces with the tank up in the wall.

 

[Reach4]

The Ultramax II you recommend on the homepage has a couple features I'd like over the Drake and Vespin--one piece, cefiontect. Would that work in such a situation?

Vespin has cefiontect, but that feature does not make the difference that you envision IMO. Toto Soiree and others add cefiontect and one-piece, but cost more. For something you do every 40 years, more cost may not be consequential if your cash flow permits.

 

[Loosie]

Vespin has cefiontect, but that feature does not make the difference that you envision IMO. Toto Soiree and others add cefiontect and one-piece, but cost more. For something you do every 40 years, more cost may not be consequential if your cash flow permits.

Is Soiree or another model better at what I think is referred to as "bowl rinse"? You are correct: I'm not worried over a few hundred bucks if it has materially better performance. Though I'm not in the income range for a Neorest.

 

[Jadnashua]

The II designation on a Toto toilet indicates it has their tornado flush...instead of a bunch of holes around the rim draining down, it has two significantly larger holes that discharge water horizontally that swirls down the bowl and essentially, no hidden rim area. It's that swirling flush that makes a difference, and any of their II models have it. On some, the special finish may be optional, but it's standard on most of them.

Really old toilets may have used as much as 7-8 gallons in a flush...go newer, they started to be regulated to a max of 3.5g, and now, 1.6g is required. You cannot clean things up as much with the 1.6g flush as an ancient 7-ga one, but with some engineering, you can do a pretty good job.

 

[Reach4]

Is Soiree or another model better at what I think is referred to as "bowl rinse"? You are correct: I'm not worried over a few hundred bucks if it has materially better performance. Though I'm not in the income range for a Neorest.

Should be good bowl rinse. It is a one piece that takes the Uniifit. Vespin takes Unifit. With a 12 inch rough, you are not limited to those that have Unifit. https://www.totousa.com/eco-soire-one-piece-toilet-128-gpf-elongated-bowl Soiree is one of many that has Tornado Flush.

In looking around, in addition to Tornado Flush, Toto has Dynamax Tornado flush. https://www.totousa.com/dynamax-tornado-flush

The term is new to me.

In Toto, 2 piece toilets don't include the seat, but 1-piece do.

 

[Loosie]

In looking around, in addition to Tornado Flush, Toto has Dynamax Tornado flush.
https://www.totousa.com/dynamax-tornado-flush

The term is new to me.

I did a bit of looking and it seems to be on the Aquia IV, which looks like a more water efficient model.

 

[Jadnashua]

One thing with dual-flush toilets is that the water spot is smaller or shallower (or both) than one that flushes more water. There's really no way around that since you must evacuate the whole bowl with a flush so that there is nothing left behind whether it's solid or liquid. Smaller volume of water also means it's harder to clean the bowl. Engineering only goes so far, so there may be some compromises.