Buying a new toilet may seem totally daunting — one piece or two? round or elongated? what is a rough-in? — but with a little education you can skip ahead to the fun part, like looking at all the different designs, styles and colors. Here's a quick little guide to get you started with the basics…
What's a "rough-in"?
The first thing you'll want do before you go toilet shopping is to measure from the wall to the center of the bolts at the base of the existing toilet. This measurement is called the rough-in. When you're shopping around for toilets you'll see that the standard "rough in" is 12 inches. If you're measurement is anywhere between 11 and 13 inches, you should be OK with a 12 inch. Toilets with 10 and 14 inch rough-ins are also available for odd sized spaces.
One Piece or Two?
You'll find two piece toilets in most standard apartment and home bathrooms. A two piece toilet is just that — one tank and one bowl which attach with bolts. A one piece toilet, as the name suggests, is all contained as one unit. There are a few advantages to a one piece toilet. Aesthetically, having one complete unit means fewer lines and the design is often smoother and more modern. There are also no worries about the two pieces separating or leaking. One piece units, however, are quite heavy. If you're going to be lugging a toilet up one or more flights of stairs, you may want to consider a two piece.
How Low Can You Go?
As I mentioned in a previous post, comfort height toilets sit a little higher than a standard toilet. At a height that's similar to a chair, one mustn't squat quite so low. (They don't call it comfort for nothing!) This is great for anyone with back, knee or hip issues and it will also keep you ADA compliant.
Can You Float?
Floating toilets, which hide the tank and plumbing in the wall, give a fantastically clean and modern look. With fewer exposed parts and a bowl that's suspended over the floor, a floating toilet is also easier to clean. Of course, if you already have a standard toilet with a drain located in the floor, it won't be quite as easy to switch out to a wall mounted unit. But if you are doing a gut rehab or replacing an existing wall mounted toilet, proper installation is of vital importance. As you might expect from something you're going to sit on, floating toilets must be anchored in the wall — they are commonly installed between two studs in the wall. If not properly installed, the toilet may pull away from the wall and cause leaking.
Round or Elongated?:
There are two basic shapes for toilets bowls — round and elongated. Elongated bowls are often considered more comfortable but round toilets can save on space. If you're working in cramped quarters, you may want to consider a round bowl. Or at least measure both shapes out in your bathroom before making a decision. And then there are square shaped toilets. I don't get those. Who has a square butt?
Have you replaced a toilet recently? What's your advice to a novice toilet shopper? Leave you tips, advice and lessons learned in the comments below.
(Images: 1. Laure Joliet / Matt's Eclectic Luxury House Tour. All others: As credited above.)
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Why do we have chairs with square seats? Who has a square butt?
There's one important factor that is never mentioned by reviews, catalogs, websites, or spec sheets: How long the toilet takes to flush and refill. When we redid our bathroom last year, we were focused on price, size, and looks. We went with Mirabelle's "Provincetown" model, which has a cute, rounded tank. The bonus we weren't expecting is that the flush cycle is incredibly fast! Literally less than 12 seconds from when you push the handle to when the tank stops refilling and all is silent again. I don't know if a model could have different flush cycle results based on variables like installation (my partner installed it) or water pressure (I don't think we have anything unusual). This toilet came with a no-slam easy-close lid, and it takes longer for the lid to lower itself than it does for the tank to refill. We were surprised by how much we value this promptness.
To be fair, proper...alignment isn't quite so important on a chair as it is on a toilet.
I'd say you forgot a big choice: single or dual flush. Even if you have a well like I do, the less that well pump kicks on the cheaper my electric bill will be, so I'm going with this guy:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=202045585&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=202045585&cm_mmc=shopping%2d%5f%2dgooglebase%2d%5f%2dD29X%2d%5f%2d202045585#specifications
Although more than likely we'll get the round version to save space.
This may be something you don't want to think about, but you also want to consider how well the toilet actually works. The Alliance for Water Efficiency tests toilet performance and has a downloadable report of over 2,000 models. http://www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/Maximum_Performance_%28MaP%29_Testing.aspx
I got what my plumber said would fit
I had two goals when toilet shopping - dual flush and I was sick and tired of cleaning the crevices of the shaped "pipe" look on older toilet designs. Cleaning behind the toilet is not something I enjoy in the first place and I never understood why something so gross would have so many curves to clean. We went to Toto dual flushes and they are so much easier to clean AND more efficient.
http://www.homeperfect.com/toto-toilets-cst416m-01-aquia-ii-close-coupled-elongated-dual-flush-two-piece-toilet-in-cotton.html?cvsfa=3932&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=746f746373743431366d3031&gclid=COSphfLHsbUCFYFxQgodayoA3A
How difficult and expensive is it to move the toilet drain on a bottom story with a crawl space under the house only and cap another one ? Awkward placement drives me nuts. Have shower drain that I don't need that could be replaced w/ toilet drain with better room placement for the toilet, but afraid all of that is major $$$$$ and I should live with what I have + new toilet. I mean really, who puts a toilet looking directly into the door from the kitchen, angle on, or right inside the door to the kitchen w/ your legs sticking into the doorway...or for that matter, puts two toilets into ostensibly 2 bathrooms, but two bathrooms only because of a dividing door that must be left open to have any natural light in one of the "rooms ? So I have TWO toilets in what I use as ONE bathroom, and use the dark tiny shower stall for storage currently. Sheesh, the things people do. I'm combining the two into one larger bathroom (still not large, trust me), I don't care what the real estate agents say. They're gonna have to carry me out of here in a box, let somebody else add a bathroom..... HELP !
The hole is what's important there, not the actual seat. Square or round seat doesn't matter.
Not to be gross, but humans are designed to squat when going number two. Toilets actually make it harder to do, if you will. So at least for your bowels, a little lower is better.
We have the taller toilets (the house was an estate sale) and when we first moved in I hated them. Now that I've gotten used to them, I prefer them and when peeing at friends' houses, I experience that split second of absolute fear (under the assumption that the seat must be up!) as I fall the extra 1-2". Terrifying.
I wish I had this a few weeks ago. We paid $100 extra for a 1 piece toilet and it is NOT easier to clean. Boo.
Hey Pi. The "square toilets" actually have round seats and bowls. The square look is just for the lid and the outside of the bowl. It's a design decision but they're still practical.
Trapway diameter is important too. A 2"+ diameter trapway will allow bigger poo to move through it than say a 1-3/4" trap. The industry minimum is a scant 1-1/2". Also worth considering: pressure-assisted flushing...same reason...move that poo and keep peace in the house :)
What LBro said. Unless you're accommodating someone with mobility issues, lower is better.
The elongated shape works better for boy bits. So I'm told.
It's not water pressure - in 2006 we installed two different Toto commodes, and have completely different flush experiences. The Drake with GMAX was cheap, and it is awesome at both clearing the bowl in one flush AND refilling quickly. The Carrollton is sub par on both counts. I'm looking forward to installing dual flush. Maybe next renovation...
What if you want a squat toilet like Japanese use?
The toilet to rule them all! The NUMI by Kohler.
I didn't claw my way up the food chain to squat when I go
One important thing to remember is toilets usually don't come with seats. So, if you buy a toilet and hope to install and use it that day, and you are female, remember to buy a seat! (I learned that the hard way!)
Yes! In my homecountry in Malaysia, we still have toilets that are similar to a hole in the ground, made of porcelain I think, with a hole in the middle. I have trouble going number two this way, but that's how folks would do their business back in the day :)
We bought a Japanese toilet that is a low flow flush that flushes everything without splashing. A year or so later we remodeled another bathroom and bought an American made toilet that flushes well, but it splashes. Really irritating. So we've learned to put the lid down before flushing, but I feel queazy when washing the toilet seat and lid. It bugs me that the flush mechanism splashes the lid and underside of the seat. If I have to buy another toilet, I'll research the splashing issue or go back to the Japanese model.
To the extent possible, I would try it out prior to purchasing. I have a dual flush Aquia and I'm disappointed w. the 0.9 gal flush.
That's exactly what I was about to say! In other parts of the world, a toilet that's flush with the floor -- appropriately called a squat toilet -- is the norm.
FYI on wall-hung--the healthcare facility where I work installed them on the newest unit. Nice looking, easy to clean under--or they were. Now almost all of them have jacks underneath to keep them from pulling away from the wall when someone plops down. So unless you & all your friends & relations are a) skinny, & b) capable of sitting down vvveerryy gently ALL the time......
But doesn't everyone want a geyser in the BR?
In regards to squatting or not squatting, with our western toilets we can assume a semi squat with one of these. I plan to purchase one. I have been testing the position by putting my feet on a overturned plastic wash tub and I enjoy it.
My bad. You can assume a full squat with this.
I just replaced mine last week with a Glacier Bay dual flush. Consumer reports listed it as the best dual flush out there. It even was a close contender for some of the single flush toilets. That's right. It beat out a $750 Toto Aquia!
At $98 from Home Depot it was a no brainer. My plumber cost $108 to install it. I can't wait to see what this does for the water bill!
After remodeling my master bathroom...my word of advice is to hang on to the old toilet (if it is decent) until the end of the project. I ended up putting my 1920s toilet back in. When we unboxed the new/efficient Kohler, it was feeble and cheap feeling in comparison. Though, I'd prefer to have the efficiency, I can get away with the inefficient version as I have an older home...and we adjusted the float down to make it as efficient as possible...
We just completed a gut renovation of our house. I allowed the architect to talk us into a wall mounted toilet, and I'm regretting it. No issues so far but I absolutely HATE the idea of the plumbing hiding in the wall. I know everyone loves Toto toilets but we had them in a previous place and I'm not that jazzed about them. One had a slanted lid so you couldn't really keep anything on top of it - I think that's a basic model. A small but annoying detail. Another one, the Guinevere model, looked nice but we had constant problems with the flushing mechanism. And we found that neither was particularly good at flushing. I have nothing bad to say about the plain old American Standard Cadet we installed in our second bathroom.
I've recently run into a couple of other important things to check regarding toilets (this sure is the glamorous side of interior design!): I just did a reno in an apartment that had a rear-outlet toilet. That means the waste exited out the back into a waste line in the wall instead of straight down. Some toilets are designed for this and some can be adapted -- but not all so check the specs before you buy a replacement. Another thing to look for in the specs is the recommended location for the shutoff valve. I really like easy-to-clean skirted dual-flush toilets like the Kohler Persuade and the Toto Aquia, and these both have a 'skirt' which goes close to the wall. Make sure your shutoff will clear it (measured from the center of the toilet, while you're down there looking at the rough in) to save a plumber's bill for moving it.
We have an Eljer toilet with a strangely squared-off seat. There are ZERO standard seats that fit. Had to make numerous calls, and visit a specialty plumbing store to get a new one when the old one cracked in half. Then got there and found out there were a half-dozen shades of beige, so ours doesn't quite match. And it was expensive. If I ever have to install a toilet, I'm getting a NORMAL one.
LBro is right. When sitting in a standard chair position, you get a kink in the bowel which can make the whole process more difficult. Squatting, or getting as close to squatting as you can, straightens that kink and makes it easier and quicker.
So unless you have a condition of some kind that makes squatting difficult or impossible, getting the lowest toilet you can is best.
This is so helpful, and at the same time a bit overwhelming. I'm trying to pick out a toilet or 2 right now. I want a water efficient, modern clean look, reliable performance/no need to call a specialist, sturdy (I'm not naming names but someone around here seems to land on the toilet from a freefall -- which also makes me think the higher ADA type might be good).
I really like the idea of the high tech toilets like the neorest but I really don't want something that requires a manual or needs a software update. Electronics tend to break down a lot sooner than toilets and I don't want to worry about having the toilet go offline, or stop working.
Then there's the whole "does this brand's white match that brand's white?" part of the equation. I gave myself 6 months to plan the bath remodel and I'm starting to think it isn't enough time.
Oh, the tragedy of the ten-inch rough in. Is anyone else cursed with one? Do you have recommendations? Or has anyone tried those adapter kits that give you a twelve-inch?
This corner toilet saved my knees in a tight spot:
http://www.eljer.com/productDetail.aspx?id=2502
We replaced every toilet in our house with TOTO ultramax 2's and love them! They're HETs (high efficiency toilets saving at least 20% on water) + everything comes in one piece meaning one box for easy install. Typically toilet seats are sold separately, strange right? We chose all elongated because it's accommodates the male anatomy.... Oh, and they're reliable than dual flush systems. My husband is a plumbing rep so I let him take the reigns on this design choice!
We've never had a "problem" with these toilets, they work awesome! Except for the time a small digital camera got stuck deep inside at one of our Christmas parties!
CORRECTION: they are MORE reliable than dual flush systems...