What is this hole near the end of the trapway?

[ItzRav]

I recently purchased an American Standard Cadet Pro 14-inch rough-in 2-piece 1.28 GPF elongated toilet. The first one that came seemed to have a major defect near the end of the trapway, a hole about 3/4" in diameter. I'm NOT talking about the siphon jet hole in the bowl. I'm talking about if you turn the toilet upside down and look up through the drain hole into the trapway. At any rate, I called American Standard and they said it was a defect, so I returned it and ordered a replacement.

When the replacement came, it had the exact same hole in the same place. So I called American Standard again, and this time they consulted one of their more senior people, and they said it was a "vent hole" and not a defect.

Have people here seen this type of thing before? Do you agree that it's a vent hole? How does it work? Where does it vent to? Thanks for any insight.

 

[Terry]

In the kiln when everything heats up, they need to let the expanding air escape. Above that hole I would guess that there is an open space, that needed venting while being heated up. I've seen that plenty of times.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ItzRav]

In the kiln when everything heats up, they need to let the expanding air escape. Above that hole I would guess that there is an open space, that needed venting while being heated up. I've seen that plenty of times.

Thanks, Terry. My concern is whether water (or worse, #2) can be pushed up into that hole. And if the hole actually goes somewhere (isn't closed at the other end) can whatever goes in dump out where it shouldn't go? It's on the "roof" of the trapway, so hopefully anything that went up would come down, but is this any concern? I've already installed the toilet.