I had a Toto Drake in the powder room of my old house. It was the 3rd toilet in that room in 10 years. Before the toto was a Kohler. Before the kohler was something the builder installed, which clogged almost after every use. The house was built in 1999 when all the water saving toilet didn't work. The Kohler (cheapest from Home Depot) was a bit better, but still clogged all the time. The toto never clogged in 2 years after we installed.

Concerning Kohler quality, I have found (so far) that they seem to ship a lot of very flawed products, but are quite willing to replace them. I bought two Memoirs 2269 sinks and a Cimarron toilet and all were badly warped. The toilet tank lid had a banana shape - over 3/4 inch warp - and the sinks aren't even close to flat on the surface that meets the counter. If I shim up the back right corner so the front makes contact, I will have a gap to caulk of over 1/2 inch and the top will not even be close to parallel with the row of subway tiles behind the sink. Kohler customer service says they are sending me a return authorization for both sinks, but since they were a special order item I fear I may wait another 6 weeks for a replacement and then get another warped one. Doesn't anyone inspect these things before they're shipped? Gary

We've had our Totos (Dartmouth, Plymouth) for several years now and, while they were a huge improvement on the builder-grade Crane models they replaced, they're not perfect. But what is? We've had to unclog them several times but that doesn't begin to compare with the almost daily problems we had with our previous toilets. We've also had to replace the flappers - once on each toilet. No big deal - we just keep an extra flapper ($10) on hand now. The impression I have from reading CR and others over the years is that other companies have improved their products and, as a result, you can probably find any number of good toilets out there now. Personally though, if I had to buy another toilet today I'd stick with Toto because they always seem to be on the cutting edge of toilet technology and everyone else has to work to keep up.

If it helps, I just had a Toto toilet installed (just the plain Drake). I bought it myself, and hired a plumber to install. The plumber told me he thinks the Totos are the best toilets, and he really doesn't like Kohlers. He said the Kohlers are expensive cause you are paying for the once-great company name, but the company is no longer great. He said they break all the time. Since the plumber had no skin in the game, because I purchased the toilet myself and not from him, I believe he was giving his honest opinion from his experience.