Freakishly small waterspot on Toto Aquia
Hello All,
Have any of y’all ever installed a Toto Aquia Dual Flush toilet? Its sorta a weird beast. It has a separate PVC trap/arm that gets the wax gasket and is screwed to the floor. The china part of the toilet then slides on horizontally and sockets into the PVC arm and it is separately screwed to the floor.
I installed one over the weekend and it ‘appears’ to be working correctly except that the waterspot size is WAY small. So small that we are afraid to (ahem) use it. That and every once in a while when we were test flushing it we would hear a loud water trickling sound after the flush valve had shut off. It really sounded like there was water pouring out of the trap somewhere but no visible leaks…
Anybody have any experience with this toilet??
thanks,
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
Replies
Well just got off the phone with the Toto service engineer guy. He says that yes this toilet does have a small water spot 4.5" by 6". Dang that's small, I'll have to go measure the water spot tonight. I forgot to ask him if there are any installation factors that effect the waterspot size.
He said that the trickling water noise I hear is normal and called 'after flow'. He said all toilets do this you just don't hear it on a regular toilet because its solid china and this toilet is a skirt design that is mostly hollow and open at the back.
I just measure out a 4.5" by 6" square on a piece of paper and I am pretty darn sure the water spot I have is smaller than that.....
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
Ok, I have to ask, what is meant by 'waterspot'?
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity
Ok, I have to ask, what is meant by 'waterspot'?
Okay I could be making up terminology again but here's what I think it is.
The water spot is the size (area) of the water in a clean toilet. You flush the toilet and the bowl refills up to some level and the area of the water is the water spot size. The bigger the water spot the bigger the target to hit. A toilet relies on the volume of water held in the bowl to suppress oder. If the water spot was too small then all of your 'effleuent' would not be covered by water and you would have that wonderful full porta potty smell. That, plus bowl washdown depends on all the solids being held in suspension in the water-so you don't leave tracks..... this is wonderfull lunch time talk.....
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
oh yeah, the waterspot.
'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity
Time to take your keister to the range and sight it in.
"If we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." - Edith Wharton
Other than that waterspot size, i'd like to hear how that toilet works- I'm thinking about getting one for a bathroom down the line. it wouldn't be the main bathroom, and I would really like a dual flush for it. the waterspot size and some noise are the complaints i've heard about that toilet. I wonder if you could cover the back of the toilet after installation to deaden the noise?
zak
Hi Zak,
Well we have not't used it yet...not until I am darn sure it is hooked up right-not leaking and the water spot is the correct size.
We have flushed it a dozen times and it definitely has a strong looking flush.
These complaints you have heard about the water spot size, did they say the toilet could still handle the solid waste well??
The toilet isn't noisy-now that I know the trickling water noise is normal I think that I can live with it.
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
From what i've heard on other forums (Terry Love's plumbing forum), the toilet works great, and people seem to prefer it to other dual flush models. Some people worry that it might smell up the house more because of the low water volume, but i haven't seen any owners actually complaining about it. It's kind of a cool looking toilet, I saw one in a showroom just the other day. And I'm no fan of most of Toto's modern looking toilets.
I just bought the Toto Drake for my main bathroom- it's fairly cheap, not too weird looking, and flushes great. I figured that going from a 5 gallon to a 1.6 gallon flush and never having to flush twice was savings enough.
zak
Well I just got home and measured the water spot size. Mine measures 6" by 4.25". To get the water to be 4.5" it would have to be about 1/2" higher than it is now.
Check out the attached pic. To me it looks like the water should go to the ridge in the bowl above where it is now.
Whats the address to that plumbing forum you mention??
thanks,
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
The URL to the forum i mentioned is:
http://www.terrylove.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3
I'm not sure why i can't get hyperlinks to work here. is there a secret to it?
Anyway, that waterspot does look kind of low to me, but it seems like that would be dictated by the high spot on the trap- is that adjustable in this design, or is it cast in porcelain like on most toilets? I wouldn't think that the casting would be totally wrong.
zak
Hello Zak,
Went to the terry love forums and even signed up. A bunch of folks have the Aquia there and they all were concerned about how small the water spot is. They all say it works fine though. We've had the toilet installed for four days now and we are both still afraid to use it...
Tech help says nope no way to adjust the water spot size its a function of the design of the trap. So there you have it I guess.
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
Can't sound worse than some of those power assist units.
Man, if you aren't off the throne at the flush then, then you'll own a hemi, and I'm not talkin' the muscle car in the garage either.
40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
I have a client that has 3 to the Totos in his place. The "water spot" looks just like yours and they really do work well with that small of a "water spot". One thing to remember is that if you have to turn the water off to the house for some reason in the future, you need to turn the water off at the toilets before turning the house water back on, then turn on the toilets. I don't know why, but we go through this every time we do something else at this house. Lots of projects there of the past few years.
I like a low water spot. Less chance of splashback and overflow. What kind of colorant did you use in your toilet to make it bright red?
What kind of colorant did you use in your toilet to make it bright red?
I just used a couple of drops of food coloring so that it would show up on the picture.
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner