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Jan. 30th, 2009 12:47 pmLast week we discovered we had a crack in the tank of one of our toilets. We tried to use our home warranty, but the warranty plumber said the crack wasn't from normal wear and tear, alas. It must have been there before we bought the house. The plumber wanted $450 to install a new one, $250 if we supplied the toilet. We decided to pass.
Judson started shopping online and discovered there were a number of toilets right around $100. We went to Lowe's thinking no problem, we'll just choose the cheapest. When we got to Lowe's, the lady in the plumbing department gave us an education. The lower the rating of the toilet, the more you'll have to plunge. Suddenly we were looking at flap sizes and valve sizes. The difficulty was compounded because we wanted an elongated bowl (like we have in the other toilets) and the standard height; most of the elongated bowls now are chair height, which is just weird. We shopped at Lowe's, then Home Depot, then went home for more research.
We ended up choosing the Space Saver Cadet 3 from American Standard, and we paid Lowe's to install it--which really means that a boy from Dixie Drains who looked about 15 years old came today and very professionally and quickly installed the toilet. After watching him do it, I'm very glad we didn't try to do it ourselves. For one thing, the old bolts had to be sawed off. Plus it was nasty. Honestly, the process wasn't quite as nasty as I had imagined, but I still would not have wanted to do it.
There were 3 layers of flooring under the toilet where no one had removed it to put in new flooring. The new toilet has a smaller footprint, so now the edges of the linoleum show. I guess we'll have to replace the linoleum before we sell, but in the meantime we'll probably just use caulk creatively. The valve that controls the water coming from the wall to the toilet also seems to be leaking a bit-the plumber pointed it out to us, but it's part of the house rather than the toilet, so not included in installation. We're waiting to see if it's really leaking or not. The plumber said it wouldn't be hard to fix it ourselves, but we'll see.
All in all, a fairly positive experience. The new toilet flushes amazingly fast and uses very little water. Price including installation: $270.
Judson started shopping online and discovered there were a number of toilets right around $100. We went to Lowe's thinking no problem, we'll just choose the cheapest. When we got to Lowe's, the lady in the plumbing department gave us an education. The lower the rating of the toilet, the more you'll have to plunge. Suddenly we were looking at flap sizes and valve sizes. The difficulty was compounded because we wanted an elongated bowl (like we have in the other toilets) and the standard height; most of the elongated bowls now are chair height, which is just weird. We shopped at Lowe's, then Home Depot, then went home for more research.
We ended up choosing the Space Saver Cadet 3 from American Standard, and we paid Lowe's to install it--which really means that a boy from Dixie Drains who looked about 15 years old came today and very professionally and quickly installed the toilet. After watching him do it, I'm very glad we didn't try to do it ourselves. For one thing, the old bolts had to be sawed off. Plus it was nasty. Honestly, the process wasn't quite as nasty as I had imagined, but I still would not have wanted to do it.
There were 3 layers of flooring under the toilet where no one had removed it to put in new flooring. The new toilet has a smaller footprint, so now the edges of the linoleum show. I guess we'll have to replace the linoleum before we sell, but in the meantime we'll probably just use caulk creatively. The valve that controls the water coming from the wall to the toilet also seems to be leaking a bit-the plumber pointed it out to us, but it's part of the house rather than the toilet, so not included in installation. We're waiting to see if it's really leaking or not. The plumber said it wouldn't be hard to fix it ourselves, but we'll see.
All in all, a fairly positive experience. The new toilet flushes amazingly fast and uses very little water. Price including installation: $270.