Flutterby™! : Toilets 2010-08-31 15:12:20.811226+00

Toilets

2010-08-31 15:12:20.811226+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

The vagaries of modern rubber flapper valves (and ancient American Standard 3 gallon per flush toilets) are driving me nuts. I'm about to pull the trigger on a Toto Aquia® Dual Flush, 1.6 GPF / 0.9 GPF CST414M toilet, and put a Washlet S300 seat on it.

Anyone wanna talk me out of it? Or into some better option? The thing we like about the CST414M is that it mounts flush against the wall, so other options should mount similarly.

I would not personally burn $500 on a toilet even if it wiped my ass for me, but knock yourself out.

Todd, a year or more ago, Charlene and I were hanging out in a high end kitchen and bath place, Charlene used the restroom and said "hey, that's really cool!". Then this spring, Eric and I spent a long evening down in the YouTube legal building as a part of WhereCamp, and at least one of their toilets had one of these seats on it. I used it, and...

As discussed on fb, you can't sit on the closed lid of a washlet. At least not the one built into my Neorest 600 (hell, I spent almost $5k on a toilet that wipes my ass for me). But I don't find that a critical problem. More annoying was that I couldn't put my foot up on it while drying off after the shower, but a small wooden stool (which also works for shorter guests to reach for things on the high shelves I have in my bathroom) works fine as a footrest and sit-down when absolutely needed.

Dave, one of the use cases for the bathroom is that Charlene's developmentally disabled brother comes to visit us a few times a year, and he will sit on the seat while putting his clothes on after a shower (small bathroom). So the lid issue is a non-starter; it will get broken when he visits.

The Coway BA-13 appears to have a beefy seat and be pretty close functionality wise to the S300, but we'd like to see one first. I'm also not convinced that the stainless steel is going to be as maintenance free as the plastic of the Toto, and I read something else about a reservoir, even though it's supposedly continuous instant heating.

Unfortunately, the dealers closest to us are in the South Bay and don't appear to have web sites.

We may see whether we can hit the local marine electronics dealer up for some plastics and mill a replacement lid that's beefier. I doubt there'll be a color match there, though. I'd do it in wood, but anything where one side is continuously exposed to the humidity of standing water doesn't give me faith in the long-term...

I don't think the maintenance for stainless is going to be significantly worse than the Toto's white plastic. Both are going to need a periodic wipe-down.

I suspect the mechanism supporting the seat on the Toto isn't robust enough to handle a heaver lid and someone sitting on it, even if you make a replacement. I'm certain the mechanism on my Neorest wouldn't, since it's auto-open and if you simply bump the lid while it's opening, it shuts off and closes the lid again.

Dave, yeah, auto-open/close was one of the features we were willing to skip, but we're going to go down to the kitchen & bath place this weekend and look at the possibility of making a stronger lid, and if that's a no-go we'll find a way to look at the Coway.