Let’s talk about toilets. Did you know that if you have a toilet older than 1994 that it probably uses about 3 gallons of water per flush? Crazy right! All toilets now are required to be NO more than 1.6 gallons per flush. So by updating your toilet you could save on water, lots of water.
Well because our toilet was old and we were redoing the drain to the toilet, we decided it was time for a new one! But what toilet, there are so so many options.
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ONE or TWO pieces
There are several toilet types. A two-piece, in which the tank bolts on top of the bowl, or a one-piece, can be easier to clean because they have no seams. Then there is also a wall-mounted option but I am not going to get into that one.
How many GPF (gallons per flush)
Most of the toilets we looked at were either 1.6 GPF (gallons per flush) or 1.28. There are also ones that offer dual flushing which uses less water.
The size or bowl height
There are different sizes of toilets, traditionally the distance from the floor to the top rim of the bowl was 14-15″. But now there are higher options 16-18″.
The shape of the bowl
Most people find that an elongated toilet bowl to be a more comfortable option. But in a small bathroom, a round bowl can save some space (about 2″). Make sure to measure the space for this one…
MaP performance rating
This rating is for the flushing performance of a toilet. A great flushing performance rating (highly recommended) is 1000g-600g.
Color
This one is pretty self-explanatory and depends on the bathroom.
After looking at a lot of options, we narrowed it down to 3 toilets. It was decided that we had to have an elongated toilet (Eric decided that one!), so here are our three choices:
Kohler Cimarron Comfort Height – This one is a 2 piece toilet with a 1.28 GPF (gallons per flush). The bowl height is 16.5″ and it has a MaP performance of 1000 (which is the best!). The price at Home Depot was $248 + tax, but you can also find it at Amazon.
Kohler Santa Rosa Comfort Height – This one is a 1 piece toilet (we really liked the look of this one) with a 1.28 GPF (gallons per flush). The bowl height is 16.5″ and it has a MaP rating of 1000. The price at Home Depot was $309 + tax, but you can also find it at Amazon.
Gerber Viper – This one is a 2 piece toilet with a 1.6 GPF (gallons per flush). The bowl height is 16.375″ and it has a MaP rating of 800. The price at Home Depot was $309 + tax.
Which one did we choose? Well we decided to get the Gerber Viper because we could get it from a local plumbing store for about $200 (so check around). If we would have not found it cheaper, we would have purchased the Kohler Santa Rosa.
So far the Gerber Viper has been great! We have not had to plunge once (we were plunging all the time with the old toilet). We find it needs only one flush to get everything down, sometimes it needs a second flush to remove streak marks (sorry if this is grossing anyone out). This toilet has been 10 times better than our really old one and it uses a lot less water.
Sorry I took the time to talk about toilets but as a homeowner, it’s something that needs to be addressed… Hope this helps you find a better toilet in the future!
