I don't know if it's too late to chime in here. I bought a Toto Drake last week. I bought the eco one that uses only 1.6 gallons. I have had no problems. I am amazed at the powerful flush using so little water. No ahem left behind.. so far. I've only had it a few days, but so far I am thrilled with it. The toilets in the house were orignal (I'm the second owner) and were very ineffienct, to say the least. i would have loved sanigloss, but I couldn't afford the extra cost.

Actually most if not all elongated toilet seats are standardized to fit any elongated toilet. If you have a conventional round bowl it will take the standard round style seat. If you are unsure, Toto makes a full line of seats other than the one that comes on the drake. From what Ive seen online the common complaint about the Drake seat is that it is thin and contemporary and has a tendency to make you feel as if you are sliding backwards when seated on it. We have 2 Toto Ultramax styled toilets and the original seats were very different from the one on a Drake. I just recently replaced one with a Toto Washlet and its great.

I purchased a Toto EcoDrake (what I thought was a Drake but upon arrival it was an EcoDrake) for $339.16 with a 10" rough in. It is possible that the 10" rough in might cost more than the standard. Another plumbing store quoted me $397.61. I replaced what used to be an American Standard (that cracked on me during storage during a renovation). The toilet did not come with a seat and I purchased a Toto soft close seat, though I can't find the exact amount I paid (under $50 I think). The installation was fairly easy, although I had to repair the toilet flange with a repair ring (less than $20 from Home Depot I think) which necessitated some drilling and cutting of the old broken pieces of the original plastic flange. So overall the cost of the parts was around or over $400 in Utah (which is probably a lot cheaper than DC). I would definitely agree that asking for an itemized invoice would be reasonable. If you can throw it off on "tax purposes" or "insurance purposes" or something so that you don't sound suspicious, that would probably help gain cooperation. You could also call up the company to ask what their hourly rate might be and whether they have a minimum per job. It sounds like they may have charged nearly $400 for the service call which seems a little high to me if they were only there for an hour, but it may depend on DC rates. (Assuming that the augering cost was billed separately?) When I received quotes from plumbers locally (in Utah) they were for between $90-130/hour. I suppose if the plumbing company has any kind of a minimum number of hours charged per job and rates that would likely be higher than Utah, you might end up with a $400 labor fee. I honestly do not find it very strange that they gave her a non-Toto seat without asking. When I had an american Standard toilet installed a few years ago (on a warranty, and yes this is the same one that cracked during storage), the plumber had a standard elongated soft-close toilet seat that he installed. The only thing he asked was whether I wanted to pay a little more for the soft close. There was no discussion of brand and he just installed what he had in his truck. I'm guessing that this plumber did the same thing.

The ballcock technology has been replaced on modern fill valves like the Korky fill valve (blue) on your Toto. There is almost nothing similar internally in the Korky valve as compared to the old ballcock. Specifically there is no giant copper or plastic ball on the end of a lever arm anymore, but even the internal valve design is much different. Nowadays the water control relies on a float ball that is only 1/2 inch in diameter. A picture is worth a thousand words. Look at the link below. At the top of the stem is a boxy looking shape. At the bottom of that boxy thing is a nipple sticking out facing downward. Inside that little nipple is a ball that floats in water. When the water level reaches that ball, it floats up gently up against a valve controller and stops the flow of water into the tank. Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of Korky QuietFill fill valve