See my post below in the "1.28 gallon vs 1.6 gallon" thread. Be sure to watch the St. Thomas video!

Here is a link that might be useful: 1.28 vs 1.6 gallon

Hi staceyneil

I'm not a frequent follower on the Bathroom Forum so I'm not educated on all the toilet terms...not sure what skirted means ...

That being said..We just had a Kohler Cimarron installed and it's great! Haven't noticed a problem with the bowl looking dirty. The flush is super powerful and was why our GC recommended it. The seat is elongated, but I don't know what you mean by "compact elongated." I think the water spot is large enough. And it is modern looking. It cost $248 and came with a $50 rebate too.

I would get this toilet again.

KA:)

Thanks, folks.

KA, I felt exactly that way about our Toto at first, too. I'll be interested to hear your report on the Cimmaron after a few more months. The problem we're trying to avoid is "skid marks" caused by the fact that the water spot... the surface area of the water in the bowl, is pretty small. So solids that miss the mark, so to speak, sort of stick to the side of the bowl, and the flush doesn't usually dislodge them. (This seems to be much more an issue for DH than anyone else!) Skirted toilets have a smooth, flared base instead of seeing the molded pipe curves like normal toilets. And no horizontal surface with bolts down by the floor. MUCH easier to keep clean! And a compact elongated bowl is the more oval shape, as opposed to round bowl, but it doesn't stick out quite as far into the room as a regular elongated bowl.

suellen, that video is impressive! But, the flushing power isn't really the issue with the Toto, which flushes everything just fine (even on the less powerful of the 2 flushes.) It's the problem described above. But it does look like the St. Thomas has a bigger water spot than the Aquia. I wish it were cheaper!

Stacyneil - was your Toto a 1.28 or 1.6. I just ordered the Toto Dartmouth, 2 piece, which I think is a 1.6. The one requirement my husband had was that the water flushed everything down with one flush. I'm hoping this Toto that I ordered does the "job"!!

I think that the Palermo one-piece that we bought is probably more expensive than some of the other St. Thomas models.

Seriously, no skid marks with the Cadet III. We chose it because it had the largest water surface. And with the new one piece (which I so wish had been around when we were purchasing), it can have a higher-end look too, and greater ease of cleaning. I'd go with it and never look back. Never had one problem with flushing it, either. We have three of them and are completely happy.

we ordered the toto nexus(comfort ht) which is still sitting in our garage--hopefully will be installed next week. i really almost ordered the aquia 3, but decided the small water spot would drive me crazy-the nexus def has larger spot and the g-max flush and is skirted and ada ht... i'm hoping we love it! i'll let you know!

Agree w/ Flyleft. I love our AS Cadet 3's (have 2 compact elong. bowls and 2 comfort height, elong bowls). They are much better for keeping the bowl clean than our more expensive Kohler toilet.

Other than physically seeing a toilet "in action" is there a way to find out how big the water spot in any given model of toilet is prior to purchase?

Another fan of the American Standard Cadet 3. I've got two of them - both comfort height and elongated. I've got two more bathrooms to remodel and both of them will get the same toilet. No problem with skid marks, and very comfortable.

Thank you!

Those of you with AS Cadet 3s.... the two big complaints I have heard are:
1) terrible lack of quality control, have to check the bowl carefully for level and glazing.
2) splashing when flushing.. splashing up out of bowl, onto seat lid, wall, etc.

What's your experience been in those matters?

We bought the AS H2Option siphonic, dual flush, big water spot, elongated bowl, not skirted. We purchased it specifically because of the larger water spot, but still dual flush. It is in the bath I primarily use (not DH), but I've had NO problems with skid marks (which was why I did not purchase the Aquia). The H2Option has a MaP rating of 1,000, while the Aquia III rates below it at 500. I googled just now and it looks like they are selling for around $260 with free shipping on the net.

I have a cadet 3 in one of our bathrooms. I love it and have no issues. No splashing and my husband installed it very easily.
We have had it over a year now.

No splashing or any QC issues w/ our Cadet 3 here either. Good luck with your decision.

Love the AS Cadets!

They do send a surge of water up when you flush, which dislodges things that have landed above the water level, but we have had no problems with actual splashing.

None of ours splash. On one of them we had to return because of a warped bottom, but we changed it out and all was fine. The others were also fine. We have a a compact elongated comfort height, and two regular comfort heights. If the c.e. had been around when we bought our first two, we would have gotten it. Having the extra space in the bath is never a bad thing. Seriously, we've had *no* problems and I hate when toilets splash. I would have sent them back if they'd done that.