This house came with a new-ish Kohler Memoirs round-bowl 1.6 gallon toilet and it's horrible!

We bought a Toto Aquia III for our master bathroom and I like it but my husband doesn't love it. It looks great, is dual flush, and skirted, so its easy to keep clean. it has never clogged, but it does sometimes leave "skid marks" due to the small-ish water spot.

For our upcoming bath reno I researched the heck out of lower-priced but still highly-rated toilets. I came down to the American Standard Cadet 3 One-Piece, which is pricey on line but only $255 (!) at my local Lowes. It's not skirted, but it is one-piece which I like. And although it's not low, it seems dainty (small tank) which is great in a small bathroom. But, then last weekend my daughter spotted a nearly-new Toto Carolina (skirted one-piece) at a yard sale, so we're going to put that in instead.

I was going to get a Cadet, but I've read about a lot of problems with them. There's a part that keeps breaking and something about how the tank sets on the base. I'm pretty sure it was a huge thread on the Terry Love site.

I've been leaning towards the Aquia.

Thanks, Stacey! It seems that any of the new water-efficient toilets leave "skid marks."

Toto toilets get such great reviews. Hope you like your new one. Your upcoming reno is going to be great. Can't wait to see the finished result!

Clg, so you recommend a Toto too. Thanks.

As I mentioned on my thread, I am very unhappy with the Kohler Memoirs. The skid mark problem is too awful to deal with day in and day out. My next purchase (for a replacement) will based entirely on performance. There is nothing pretty about a toilet that is stylish on the outside and disgusting on the inside. I won't be buying any Kohler toilets. Bring back my American Standard from 1947! Wish I'd saved it.

Dedtired, the KM must really be a lemon! Thanks for sharing your experience. I hope you get something you really like asap. When you do, be sure to tell us about it! Good luck!

I read the Cadet 3 threads on Terry Love, too, about the wobbly bases, etc. It's one of the reasons I preferred the one-piece Cadet 3 over the normal one. And I fully intended to carefully inspect the parts before installing them.

I had a Toto Drake at my last house and did think it was a great toilet. About 5 years after it was installed however, it started leaking badly ...turned out that one of the bolts had rusted badly and was leaking. Once fixed, it was great again. Good flush, easy enough to clean, never a clog...and at my house, that's saying something.

I picked the Toto Ultramax I and II because of the larger water spot. I talked to Toto customer reps and they recommended it. No regrets.

Oh, and the Sanagloss finish on Toto toilets helps prevent those embarrassing skid marks!

I have the Kohler Cimmaron and I wish I didn't. Skid marks.

Keep in mind that Consumer Reports doesn't test a lot of the toilets people on this forum have spoken about favorably. (I originally was certain I was going to get a Kohler with a 1.6 gallon flush, and after reading, looking, and evaluating, eventually chose the Toto Carlyle II with a 1.28 gallon flush.)

It seems that any of the new water-efficient toilets leave "skid marks."
There are some pretty significantly different bowl and flushing design differences across and even within brands. For instance, this comment was in response to Stacy's comments above on the Toto Aquia III, which has a very different flush than other Toto low-flow toilets which use E-Max or Double Cyclone designs.

Also be aware that toilet designs keep changing. People who post here about toilets they have had for five, four, even two or three years, may be writing about toilets which have been replaced by newer models, which may perform better or worse.

-- Eric

Thanks Melissa, Jle, Susanelewis, Suero and Jacobse, for your suggestions and comments.

I bought my 22 yr.old house 4 years ago. No probs whatsoever with the exisiting 22 yr. old toilets. I'm having a tile floor put in the guest bath though, & was advised that now is the time to change the toilet if I think I may want to do so down the road.

I hate to replace a trouble free, perfectly fine-looking toilet with something that gives me grief! I have frankly never used a plunger at this house or the at the 100 yr. old one I owned previously for 13 years which had toilets at least as old as my current ones. Have never seen a leaky toilet. Obviously, toilets have always just kind of been there in my life; a real non-issue.

Now that I may need to buy one, & have started doing research, my eyes have been opened to the potential pitfalls of toilet ownership. How I yearn for the days when I never knew that a toilet could be such a troublesome loo! Nothing is simple anymore is it?

Like so many things...they don't make them like they used to (for better and for worse.)

Hi Stinky Gardener, I just wanted to point out that the Toto Aquia that was mentioned, I called Toto and asked him about the Aquia, it is the only one they sell in the US that flushes like that, he said it is European. It does not have a large water spot at all. In fact when you look inside, the water only fills the large hole at the bottom as apposed to coming up the sides a bit. He said people either love it or hate it. I can tell you we installed one for an Aunt and have never heard a complaint. Believe me she is always looking for something so I gather she is happy. (: 0 really? shocked!) I personally have the Toto Carolina Skirted old version and love them, I have now retired 2 plungers. Yippee

I haven't tried this yet, but as I was googling around looking for additional advice on this topic, I came across the suggestion to coat your toilet bowl with Rain-X to reduce skid marks. Drain the bowl, apply Rain-X, repeat monthly. I'll try it and report back. My intense dislike of the Kohler Memoirs grows daily.

What about the American Standard Champion? Any thoughts/experience with that one?

jle, if want to read more than you ever wanted about toilet performance, go to the toilet forum at www.terrylove.com! I spent literally hours researching there :)

We replaced our toilet with the AS Cadet 3 a few months ago and absolutely love it. I would not go with any other. It is quiet, water efficient and hardly ever needs cleaning. It has some sort of finish that promised that, but I did not take it seriously when I read it. I cannot remember the last time I cleaned it, yet it is white and I never even see a water line. Our water leaves a flamingo colored deposit in our tub, around our sink and in our other toilet (anywhere water may sit for a while) yet this one stays white. I can't say enough good things about it. It replaced a loud, ugly toilet that had a habit of running for no reason and making odd noises out of the blue, so the bar was not set high, yet this one is noticeably better than any toilet I have ever had or used.
Quiet is so key in a master bathroom! I used to go out to the family bathroom at night so as to not wake my dh. No longer!

We had Villeroy and Boch in the house when we bought it but the units weren’t white, so we replaced all but one which we left downstairs. The dual push flush mechanism and removable seat for our new ones are brilliant, but the quality of the ceramic is poor and the V&B has by far surpassed the others. Living in London the lime scale is a real problem, so next time I will opt for rimless and a much larger water spot because skid marks are an almost daily nuisance