modern and green toilets and faucets
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I'm building my MOCO Slide house in st. Paul and have been looking for some affordable water conserving Modern toilets and faucets. I came across some awesome ones by TOTO . I saw my first one about 2 months ago at the Twin Cities home and Garden show. I love the cool base on their dual flush Aquia toilet. I've found these online at couple of different sites for as low as $260 and I've heard they pay for themselves in a year with water savings. I contacted a rep last week and be brought me a catalog of stuff that isn't even on their site yet. They now have a touchless faucet for the home that uses hydro power to charge the battery. I think I'm going to use one in our small downstairs bathroom. Has anyone used TOTO products in their place? And if so what has your experience been? I'm thinking about using them exclusive and they seem to be pretty nice.
Jason
You can check out Terry Love's toilet forum:
http://www.terrylove.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=efd8d68cbdb98898ec23041ad08e73c9&f=3
Considering that it is a forum talking about toilets (not that there is anything wrong about that) it is quite active. Most people seem to be very happy with their TOTO Aquia.
Andre
Previously Andre Milbradt wrote:
You can check out Terry Love's toilet forum:
I read this line too quickly and thought you were talking about this:
http://www.totallycrap.com/videos/videos_the_love_toilet_by_niagara
Thanks for the feedback. I've decided to use TOTO products in my home exclusively for our toilets, tubs and bath faucets. I've bought some sinks at other places and obviously they don't make kitchen faucets so I'm going with Grohe for that. I looked at he Duravit, Stark toilets but like the TOTO ones better for price and design. I'm not bothered by the two piece toilet. I actually think they're a little more interesting then some of the one piece toilets.
Jason
We have the Karsten dual flush toilet from Sterling/Kohler. http://www.sterlingplumbing.com/onlinecatalog/detail.jsp?frm=&module=Toilets&item=4387003&prod_num=402025 We have 3 of them and love them so far. They were around $200 each from a local plumbing supply house. They use .8 gallons for a small flush and 1.6 gallons for the large flush. I know you already said you went with Toto, but someone else may want to check out the Sterling line of Dual Flush toilets. Thanks!
I've ordered a few Aquia's for my place also, but I may have to cancel at least one and try this out.
It looks even sleeker then the toto, and required less drilling in the floor which is great for the downstairs concrete floor. (I'm not sure if the quality is the same, the toto is top of the line.)
That's a great looking toilet but I'm sticking with the TOTO products. I actually switched my order to upgrade our main floor powder room toilet to the TOTO Nexus. We are also using their Helix faucet that turns on and off automatically had is powered with hydro power. We didn't find out about these until we had already purchased our vessel sink so we have to make a minor modification to our original cabinet design but our cabinet maker didn't seemed concerned.
Jason
Interesting note about Toto. The Washlet functionality IMO is the whole raison d'etre of Toto. Once you get used to it you are hooked.
Now, it turns out that Washlet itself is an energy hog, since not only does it heat the seat as a matter of course, but it also has a tank of warm water on standbay 24/7. My electrical rates are over 20 cents per kilowatt, and it's estimated that the electrical running cost for one Toto is about $75 per year. Spread that out over three or more toilets in a house and it's not inconsiderable.
With respect to the Washlet, if it's an accessory and not an integral part of the product, as with a high end model like Neorest, chances are it's going to be a butt-ugly bolt-on, which is the case with most Japanese toilets under $1K.
The only one I would touch runs well over $1K in the discount channel.
The Washlets are actually integrated into the seat so they're not unsightly and look like a basic toilet seat. It's interesting to hear the thought on the energy consumption however, I'll have to ask my rep regarding the issue.
Thanks,
Jason
This issue is not on the radar, so your rep probably won't know about it. I happen to know it because one of Toto's competitors (Panasonic) has just developed a toilet with an instant-hot washlet, which they claim will save a considerable amount of energy over the old type. At the same time, yet another one of Toto's competitors (INAX) has a new low flush toilet series that is more efficient with water consumption than Toto. Probably not distributed near you, but I thought I'd offer that another data point.
Previously Jason Hammond wrote:
The Washlets are actually integrated into the seat so they're not unsightly and look like a basic toilet seat. It's interesting to hear the thought on the energy consumption however, I'll have to ask my rep regarding the issue.
Your
Interesting, does the Panasonic washlet also play music? JK. I didn't even know they made toilet fixtures. I'm pretty excited overall with my selection of TOTO toilets. I also know they are shooting to bring all of their toilets well under the 1.6 gallons per flush level, but I don't think that it will be until early fall of this year.
Jason
Panasonic, or rather Matsushita is probably the only company in the world that can build a house from the foundation up and all the stuff that goes into it. It's just not available in your market.
As for playing music, I believe all they have a have a white noise accessory--that's a kind of music, right?
There is a centegenarian who's a big TV celebrity here, and in one interview, when asked what the greatest innovation of the 20th century was, she said, "The heated toilet seat."
I'm located where they make that stuff.
BTW, it turns out that I am wrong, Panasonic toilet stuff _is_ distributed in the USA under the brand name of NAIS. INAX is also available. Looks like only the bidets are in the discount channel though.
IMO INAX is the brand with the higher design sense, and I get the impression the Japanese architects tend to spec INAX for bath.
I contacted my rep and the TOTO Washlets have an energy saver mode on them and they also feature on the demand heating. From what I've found the Japanese companies seems to be the pioneers on energy and water efficiency. TOTO being at the forefront of that pioneer, check out their Hydro powered faucets there pretty incredible.
Jason
The Jappanese makers have always had toilets with dual flush modes, and toilets with incorporated hand sinks have also been around for a long time. But I think in Japan there has never been a "low flush" reg, hence the makers, other than Toto, which has to market in the US, have never marketed low flush toilets until recently.
I'd be real curious as to a Consumer Reports type of comparison of the electricity usage of these toilets. I was pretty surprised to find they are such energy hogs.
My main beef is with the toilet user interfaces, though, and I guess that's another question.
As for the hydropower, every restroom in Japan has those.
They've got a new "touch switch" kitchen faucet, which my wife wants, but at a list price of about $800 I am reluctant, since it's mostly chrome plated pastic. In fact, I find that chrome plated plastic is a major constituent of all their faucets, and as a result I think they are way overpriced. This stuff does not age well.
http://www.toto.co.jp/products/kitchen/k00004/01.htm
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