Toto Soft Close Repair?

[Geobrick]

Quakehold gel seems promising. Let us know if it works.
Walmart sells it for about $10.

 

[Kbarb]

I'd like to try that silicone damping fluid you mentioned by indeed it's a bit expensive.
Maybe someone can turn up an inexpensive supply, that is, non turntable damping fluid.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Geobrick]

Quakehold may just be very thick silicone damping fluid marketed as a way to protect glass on shelves. One review online said it contains silicone.

 

[Dhoerl]

I had the same bad experience with "ACE Brand #4095667 Silicone Grease" - that stuff is too thin. The seat closes with some resistance, but makes a big "whack" sound when it hits the porcelain. The original goo was about half gone in each dampener, but stirring it with a small screwdriver showed that it was very very viscous - like really thick cold peanut butter.

 

[Reach4]

You can get a nice new seat for a very reasonable price. You may want to repair your old seat to minimize landfill use for environmental reasons. But a new seat is sure easier. I like the painted wood Bemis Slow Close Never Loosens (STA-TITE ). It tends to be about 3/16 inch longer than the Toto, but that does not bother me. Well under $40. Like many seats, it unsnaps from the mount for easy cleaning.

 

[Dhoerl]

Just poking around again, I found a slew of thick Silicone Oil products rated by viscosity (so at least if one is too stiff or too weak you can try again). "Racers Edge 1,000 Wt Silicone Diff Oil 30 ml" is a 1000 weight oil. That same company makes a 3000 weight one too. A 500,000 weight option: "Traxxas 5039 Differential Oil, 500K Weight" (really 500,000 and not 500?). Anyway, lots of options for these model car differential fluid weights. [No plans to redo my seat just now.]

 

[Jeff Nelson]

All good info here, folks. I have same problem as most of you, toilet damping hinges have leaked their fluid out. After reading all the excellent comments and advice here, I tried refilling my hinges. I happened to have a tube of Dow Corning 111 Valve Lubricant and Sealant Compound. Bought it years ago to lubricate plumbing fixtures, o-rings, etc. It's quite thick (similar to peanut butter) and is silicone based. I disassembled the hinges, cleaned, and refilled with the compound. They now work pretty well, and I think the viscosity of the compound is pretty close to optimal. However, the seat was still closing pretty fast, and the lid was closing pretty slow, so I decided to swap the two hinges. My thinking was that the seat is heavier than the lid, so the apparently-stiffer lid hinge might be right for the heavier seat, and vice versa. Took it apart again, swapped hinges, and there is an improvement in terms of the seat going down a little slower. However (and here's my point, finally), when I took it apart to do the swap, I noticed that the metal rods that the parts pivot on were coated with a thin layer of the grease/compound. This despite the fact that I made sure to wipe everything clean before the first reassembly. On closer examination, I found that both hinges had a slight crack along the inside of the hole where the metal rod slides in. This cleared up the mystery of why the fluid had leaked out in the first place. So, in my case at least, replacement of the seat seems to be the solution. Experience has shown that it is impossible to glue, weld, etc. this type of plastic. Not saying that everyone else's is this way, but if you decide to tackle the repair, clean out the shaft hole really well and look for signs of cracking. I'm going to leave it as is for a while to see how long it lasts, but I expect I'll be ordering a new seat before long.

 

[ForwardLooking]

I just went through all this - used some plumber's grease i had lying around.

Repaired only the seat, not the lid.

Although the seat still closes a little too fast, i'm basically satisfied with the results. Didn't read all the posts carefully enough until just now to notice the part about potential cracking explaining why the original fluid leaked out to begin with... so I'm wondering how long this repair will last.

video...

...to show rate at which lid closes after using the plumber's grease.

 

[Studly]

For those of you who have successfully performed the repair, how long does it take? I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the trouble to fix mine that are closing too fast or if I should just buy new seats for my Totos? Anyone know of a better-built soft-close seat than the Toto? Is the Bemis mentioned earlier in this thread, the best option?

 

[Reach4]

For those of you who have successfully performed the repair, how long does it take? I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the trouble to fix mine that are closing too fast or if I should just buy new seats for my Totos?

It depends on your finances, what you want to do with your time, and possible environmental concerns.

New seat would be the choice for most people, I think.

 

[Mattt Meiners]

I used Sticky Wax. Works great and won't leak

 

[simeon]

@Mattt Meiners how did you use the sticky wax? I hadnt heard of it before but looks like its a glue - did you melt it and use it as glue or am I confused?

these are my cylinders

 

[vstoyko]

@Mattt Meiners how did you use the sticky wax? I hadnt heard of it before but looks like its a glue - did you melt it and use it as glue or am I confused? these are my cylinders

I had the same problem with my seat cylinder. Switched the lid and seat cylinders as the lid cylinder worked and had very little use. This corrected the banging seat problem. Added spark plug silicone dielectric grease in the failed cylinder without cleaning out the approximate 1/3 liquid that remained in cylinder. This worked for the failed cylinder that is now in the lid location but I suspect the remaining original cylinder fluid is doing most of the work as it is very sticky. For those interested I found this supplier with a google search: https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...l?spm=a2700.7724857.main07.118.583d467dCZL0y9

 

[Michael McEwen]

I think Geobrick's suggestion of using damping fluid is correct. I contacted Clearco, who suggested 300,000 cSt (categorized as super high viscosity), which she said her customers use in stadium seating dampeners. At $90 for a pint, it's too expensive. May as well purchase a new seat!

BUT! I found these two sources for smaller quantities: http://turntablebasics.com/silicone.html they have 300,000 cSt and 600,000 cSt in 10cc syringes for $10.

Also: http://siliconesolutions.com/ss-300000.html has a 16 Oz Container for $13.18

Please note: I have not tried these. I rebuilt my leaky Toto hinge and filled it with Silicone grease. It worked pretty well. It's very stiff, but not nearly as stiff as the original fluid, or these damping fluids.

But I agree with others in this stream that un-compromised O Rings and no cracks in the hinge cylinder walls are are critical to success.

 

[Koa]

Kohler makes some nice soft close seats. They snap on and off, plus soft close mechanism is repairable. Kohler has sent me parts for free before. Costco in store had them for less than $30, but don’t know if they were the quick disconnect ones.

 

[bunny1215]

In the question and answer section for the SS154 Soft Close Seat online, a TOTO representative states that glycerol, also called glycerine, is the fluid in the hydraulic mechanism. I happen to have some vegetable glycerine in my medicine cabinet, but it seems to be thin compared to the substance some have described in this forum. I can't get at the mechanism in my toilet seat so I can't try it out, but perhaps someone will find this info useful.

 

[Pat]

After some research, I determined that the material in the damper on my Toto Drake soft close seat is Dimethyl Silicone Oil (found a reference to it on the Alibaba website along with the ability to buy a gazillion gallons of oil or better yet thousands of dampers at $.14 each). I searched for the dimethyl Si oil and it took me to several products including the transmission oil that RC hobbyists use as mentioned by others in the forum. I decided to buy the Traxis 5039 Differential Oil (500,000 (500K) cst) version from amazon for around $10 with free shipping.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015YZJAG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had one leaky damper and could not for the life of me figure out why it leaked. O-rings looked good, no cracks at 10X visual, o-ring seats looked good, maybe there was a piece of stray plastic thread on a seal surface, who knows. The seats are >6 years old and I have only had 1 of 6 dampers fail in the 3 sets of soft close seats I originally purchased so not really complaining.
I disassembled the old damper, inspected it, reassembled it with about 2/3 full of the Si oil to match the fill level of the good damper, and it worked like new. This should work well for you and as others have stated, the disassemble and reassembly is pretty easy if you have any basic mechanical skills.

 

[mickm]

After some research, I determined that the material in the damper on my Toto Drake soft close seat is Dimethyl Silicone Oil (found a reference to it on the Alibaba website along with the ability to buy a gazillion gallons of oil or better yet thousands of dampers at $.14 each). I searched for the dimethyl Si oil and it took me to several products including the transmission oil that RC hobbyists use as mentioned by others in the forum. I decided to buy the Traxis 5039 Differential Oil (500,000 (500K) cst) version from amazon for around $10 with free shipping.


I had one leaky damper and could not for the life of me figure out why it leaked. O-rings looked good, no cracks at 10X visual, o-ring seats looked good, maybe there was a piece of stray plastic thread on a seal surface, who knows. The seats are >6 years old and I have only had 1 of 6 dampers fail in the 3 sets of soft close seats I originally purchased so not really complaining.
I disassembled the old damper, inspected it, reassembled it with about 2/3 full of the Si oil to match the fill level of the good damper, and it worked like new. This should work well for you and as others have stated, the disassemble and reassembly is pretty easy if you have any basic mechanical skills.

Just a heads up, this worked for me. Wanted to pass that along. Thanks for the info!

 

[Brendoni]

I have been following this topic for some time. In my opinion, the older Toto S114 seats are more comfortable and better looking than the newer S114 version, so being able to repair them will be nice. I would assume the easiest thing to do is just replace the cylinders. The good news is Toto DOES sell that part. The bad news is that as far as I can tell, it is only available in Japan. The part number is Toto TCH367S for elongated models and TCH367-1S for rounded ones. Just have to find someone who will ship me a few from there...

 

[Kreemoweet]

Just FYI, the picture just above in Brendoni's post, and any results I get with an internet search on "Toto TCH367S", looks nothing like what I've found
in the soft-close mechanism for Toto elongated soft-close seats SS114#XX.