I’ve been having problems with my toilets not disposing of the their content on the first try. I’ve plunged. I’ve augured. I’ve read a lot of home repair books. As this was affecting all three toilets, it was logical to suspect something was clogged in the sewer line, the kind of repair that I don’t want to undertake. I called a plumber.
According to him, my toilets were worn out. Thinking that was a load of … you know what… I did more research. And continued to plunge and augur. Over the last few months, the problem got worse: often it would take three or four flushes. I called another plumber.
He took a quick look and said my toilets were worn out. When I looked skeptical, he asserted that the hard water and wearing down of the legal-age-for-drinking porcelain innards disrupts the flow. It sorta makes sense, though I can’t prove it. He made some recommendations for toilets, then thumbed through a price book to generate estimates. Let’s just say three toilets, plus professional installation, and hauling away the old ones would cost more than my bike. When I mentioned that I would have to consult my financial adviser, he provided an estimate based on my procuring the toilets and having him install them. “Or you can install one now and do the other two later.”
This is one of those reasons I love the Internets: there are several sources of these toilets. As my weekends through October are at a premium, I wimped out and paid to have them installed. What would have taken me a full day, including time for procrastination, took this dude an hour. The net savings over the first estimate was about $900.
They work great.
Now playing: Collective Soul – The World I Know
I like the features of your new fixtures:
> G-Max Technology uses 3″ flush valve.
> Powerful, quiet flush every time
I’m not sure what the “G” in “G-Max” is, but I figure it’s either Gravity, or Goo. “Powerful” sounds like just the ticket, though.
I have a “slow-roller” amongst our three, so I may have to make a similar purchase, with the elongated bowl (my personal preference). I prefer having a little wiggle-room.
When my parents redid theirs, they put in an ADA model. No more stooping!
I was amused at how they’re spinning the technology. It’s not too different from the dryers or any other appliance:
Excited marketer: “Its G-Max uses a 3-inch flush valve!”
Me: “It has a bigger hole for the water to go through. That’s it? There’s no Gasoline powered MAXimum-torque flotsam destroying turbine? Or background music soundtrack?”
EM: “Uh, yeah.”
We’ve been thinking about Dual flush toilets for when we have to redo ours. Our water and sewer authority just raised our water rates for the third time in three years. I don’t want to have to use more water than absolutely necessary.
Interesting — I would have responded with the same skepticism to the claim that the toilets “wore out”; I’ve never heard of this sort of aging effect. But it seems to have been true! Good to know. (Thanks for sharing.)
Kiri – as skeptical as I was,, it seems to have solved the problem. There’s been a weird period of adjustment because I’m used to the particular sounds of the old toilet, specifically: listening for the water, waiting for the gurgle a minute later then, when not hearing it, waiting for the tank to fill to try again. With this one, the gurgle is immediate. The tank also fills faster as it’s less than half the previous’.
Woodstock – let me know what you and TGF do. One of my toilets is under a counter top (yeah, it’s weird), making it hard to access the innards. As it’s also been the most problematic (chain gets caught), I didn’t want a more complicated mechanism than necessary. I didn’t think it was worth the extra, but consider I’m going from 3.5 gallon (times multiple flushes) to a 1.6 gallon.