I have two. I had the first one for three years, loved it, and bought a second one when I remodeled the next bathroom. The dual flush works well every single time. I have never had a problem. Never. In fact, we typically only use the small flush and it never fails to clear the bowl. The skirt, although I am not a huge fan of the modern look, is wonderfully easy to keep clean, and I am a huge fan of easy cleaning. One thing you will have to get used to is the small water surface area. Use the Toto seat - it will feel odd at first, but you will get used to it quickly. It is designed to (at the risk of being indelicate) get you pointed in the right direction to land solid waste in the water. If you get a different seat, you will end up cleaning the bowl more often. I have one more bathroom to remodel - it will also get an Aquia.

My dad is an engineer and my husband an environmental attorney. Between the two of them I get a ton of opinions about efficiency and what is worthwhile. My dad convinced us to not get the dual flush and to a 6'er before they are discontinued, in I think about 6 months or another year. My dad said that the super efficient toilets tend to have more clogs because there is often not enough water force to get stuff down. I ended up getting a Toto and think their flush systems are pretty powerful. So if you do get a low flush or dual flush, I would go with a Toto. I also like that they are mostly made in USA, whereas American Standards are from Mexico I believe.

Well, I called down to the plumbing office... and sure enough, I'm wrong! I was thinking of the original AS Cadet, thus everything I said about it is about the original AS Cadet, not the "3" version, which is apparently a totally different animal. Siphon-jet, gravity-based, no expensive/failure-prone/noisy pressure-assist tank. They're still not real hot on American Standard 'though, but that comes from many in-field failures and lack of good quality control on others like the AS Champion toilet and some of their other plumbing fixtures, such as tubs & sinks. From what I'm told, AS has claimed several times that a toilet model was "Better than a Toto Drake", like their Champion toilet, but what they've seen in the field, especially with the leaking tanks, proves otherwise. I do find dchall's comments interesting and plan on doing a little excursion to the local home improvement store to take a look at this Cadet 3 toilet. AS switching to a gravity-based system with standard parts is a huge step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned, BUT, my AS Compact Elongated & AS Rennaisance toilets are gravity-fed and use standard parts and don't work worth a damn, BUT both of my AS toilets are washdowns and not siphon-jets, so I'm willing to give them a chance... BUT not in my bathroom -- both of my AS toilets will be replaced with Toto toilets. I'd rather pay more and get the real thing rather than skimp and get a knock-off of unknown quality. The Cadet 3 has been on the market for less than a year and their Champion toilets became rather problematic after the first 6 or so months. The one thing I'd be really curious about is the distance the AS Cadet 3 can move the waste down the waste pipe. I donated a few Toto Drake toilets to my church after they were calling Roto-Rooter every 3-4 months to unclog the lines. Previous toilets were 6 gallon models. Since the Drakes were installed in Feb, no clogs/backups have occured. Commercial-grade products and standards/codes *ARE* of higher quality/standards than residential. Electrical codes, structural engineering design, ventilation codes, and plumbing codes are all more strict and demanding for commercial applications than residential. In the case of toilets, this would be performance, durability, and weight-handling capacity. There's a reason that both AS & Toto list far fewer toilets for commercial applications than residential. This isn't dissimilar from being able to use 15-amp receptacles & Romex wire in houses whereas you must use 20-amp receptacles and hard-pipe conduit in commercial buildings. As far as the disclaimers go, they came about from homeowners buying $50-75 toilets @ Lowe's/HD and expecting the plumber to install them, then calling & complaining that the toilet was installed wrong b/c it didn't work like their old 6-gallon toilets did. This requiring a call-back, which ate more time & money, and of course, customers who were buying $50 toilets are going to complain even louder when you come out a 2nd time and have to charge them for the 2nd trip when there's nothing wrong with the install. Their $50 toilets are junk and there's nothing the plumber can do to make it work better. The disclaimer simply states, "I have been informed that not all low-flow toilets perform equally and wish to install something other than what ________ Plumbing has advised me of and that ________ Plumbing does not guarantee the performance of this toilet." Ever since coming up with that, the # of false callbacks have dropped to almost zero. As far as wanting to sell toilets (as I have been accused in the aforementioned link), my degree's in EE and do electronics design/engineering and currently going back to school to study medicine, my father's is in law, the plumbing business is simply an investment, not an occupation. My specific plumbing knowledge was taught to me by one of the plumbers and consists of "hot on left, cold on right, gas goes up, s**t goes down", said like a true plumber. The plumbing business really don't make THAT much on parts, however labor is billed at actual cost (~$100/hr) rather than a more appealing rate other plumbers charge ($65-75/hr) and 50% markup on parts. So, they sell a Drake for ~$220, Carusoe goes for ~$120. I doubt you'll be able to find them for much less than that. The high labor rate also tends to weed out the less-desirable clientelle who are most concerned about price and not quality or performance. They've worked on numerous repairs and renovations for the local 5-star resorts (I won't say which, but one of the resorts selected Toto Drake toilets and Speakman dual-head showerheads; most road-warriors probably know which chain this is), numerous 4-5 star restaurants, and plenty of high-end houses. At this level, performance is your reputation, NOT price. As a last parting shot :), the AS toilets are made in Central & South America, whereas most of the Toto toilets sold in the US are made in the US. Like I've said, I've had Totos in my other residence for 5 years now, used a plunger 0 times, no leaks/quality control issues. For my money and posterior, there shall be a Toto beneath it. I'll gladly pay more for a product I know will work the first time, every time.

AK 217, it was I having a similar problem recently, do a search on my name or "toilet not flushing properly" and you should find it. From what I've learned it could well be the toilet design, but being new doesn't mean there isn't a blockage, on the contrary there may be something stuck in there from the installation. I have yet to remove mine from the base to check the passages but that's probably what I'll have to do unless I'm lucky with a snake. Mine flushes totally normally if it's just water or a small amount of solids which seems odd since it blocks so easily with more solids....so others and I concluded it's not the drain itself probably, since water goes fine. I'm convinced that mine's blocked with something thin that's really wedged in there, a pen or a lollipop stick or something - something that provides little or no resistance to water and small solids. After spending 30+ years in NZ and Australia, where the diameter of the toilet outlet and all the bends etc in any toilet are 100mm/4" (and the bends are nowhere near as tight either) I've probably encountered about three, maybe four toilet blockages.....now I'm back in Canada, it seems to happen all the time, and I can see why. Dual flush is a good idea, but not with these restrictive toilets.....in fact, we'd all be better if the cistern was still overhead, like in the old days. THAT was a flush, and you could get much greater force with much less water.