Honestly, both Aquia models are highly recommended. Pay careful attention to bowl/seat height. My Kohler is too tall, i thought everything was either "standard" or "comfort" height. Well, different companies define that differently. i whipped out the tape measure an i think id be ok with either Aquia, but you should check. All else being equal, I picked the less expensive one. Like most everything else, it's such a big improvement over what I have it doesn't have to be the absolute best to make me happy. Being skirted is a big win, I'll take that and keep the extra $ the one piece costs! (Btw, read on another thread about assigning your sons to clean the bathroom as part of their chores from early on, even if it's just a damp paper towel when young and you really clean after. Apparently they learn quick how to aim better!) This was posted last month, and while it sounds a bit rant-ish (in response to a contested post), I've read similar before and at this point it's enough to sway me. Plus EngineerChic and I had significant issues trying to install Kohler Bancroft suites in our bathrooms in terms of identifying/obtaining parts and confusing diagrams, which we discussed on here if you are interested. Quote from TL forum: "my issue with kohler is parts availability...and, while some people never have problems with their toilets, if you simply look at the trapway design, you'll see that on many of them, the outlet makes a sharp 90-degree turn at the flange and the toto designs make a much more gradual turning there. Depending on the size, shape, and hardness of the waste, things just go down the toto toilet's trapway faster and with fewer problems. Some never have a problem, others have problems on a regular basis with the kohler design. Things do not make 90-degree turns and maintain decent velocity unless done properly. I do not ever remember terry saying kohler had anywhere near that level of defects. I do remember him saying that toto has the lowest of the many brands he sells. The 20% figure i remember was about his breakage factor and the reason why he no longer ships toilets, and limits his delivery area. My last experience with kohler was on a special order. Each time the supplier called kohler, they said it would be shipped tomorrow. This went on for months. In a week or so when it didn't show up, they called again, and got the same story...it will be shipped tomorrow. Then, they sent the wrong thing. Then, once i got it, i was not particularly impressed...parts fit, paint, fit and finish. At that point, i didn't want to send it back and suffer the same, horrible customer service i got again. Since then (this is a shower door), the paint chips, the bearings are crappy and make noises, and even with the several holes, the system did not have a proper position to adjust the height in the track well. The holes in the glass were all rough. If you know anything about glass, you want a nice clean hole. It hasn't spontaneously shattered, but it should never have made it out of the factory, in my view. So much for quality control. I do like some of the designs, but from an installer's viewpoint, some of their stuff is horrible, and almost unreasonable. For example, they have some shower body sprays whose rough-in must be less than 1/16" accuracy to fit properly in the tile. Do you know how hard that is to do when trying to get multiple trades to communicate? This is the only company i know of that deems it reasonable to set such strict requirements. They design in a vacuum, and not for practical use. Then, if you search this forum, you'll find stories of kohler bending over backward to help people, then you'll find others where they say, sorry, you'll just have to replace the thing...we won't help you. So much for a decent, stable design and continued availability of replacement parts. Few places carry kohler replacement parts since their design changes so often, the inventory would be huge, with no expectation of ever recovering the investment. So, do you want to wait a week or more when you need a part? If you do, buy kohler. My personal opinion and experience." When is your project scheduled? Looking forward to seeing your progress! When I started posting here I swear A2gemini and I were going to have identical kitchens. But Cambria here is crazy expensive and many colors on backorder, so granite it is! What color icork? I'm still debating, I've over-analyzed to the point where I need to revisit some choices before I decide for sure. I'm tracking down a US Floors sample Tuesday, ironically the one I loved back at the start and decided was too dark so never pursued. Still love the Globus, but not sure now about the opacity of their stains since I am loving varied options now. Almost time to order!

"Will you need a fan and or light in the enclosed area?" We actually have one unit in the ceiling above the toilet that has a fan and light built in...we might get a new nicer-looking unit to replace the old one but that should be an easy upgrade. "I like that last setup you showed." Me too, but I'm still not sure whether to go with a barn door or pocket door. I think barn door has the advantage of an easier installation, but a pocket door probably could be installed leaving more room in the toilet closet. A barn door would probably look cleaner from outside the toilet closet, since you wouldn't see the hardware or the door when opened. "It would be nice to have the toilet centered in that space, but if you can keep the center of the toilet 18 inches from the sliding glass door on the wall, you should be fine." That's my worry...the toilet is currently offset slightly closer to the closet...it is about 19" from the center of the toilet to that wall, and 22" to the other wall. With a barn door installed there I imagine we wouldn't keep 18" unless we shift over the toilet. I don't know yet how expensive that would be. A smoked glass insert across from the toilet as in that pic might be the way to go. Then I still have the question of whether that wall should be flush with the window recess or set in a little. I'm thinking maybe flush with the window would be best to leave as much depth as possible for the toilet closet, and fewer edges/angles on the other side of the wall outside of the toilet closet. This post was edited by Phaedrus29 on Wed, Nov 5, 14 at 16:33

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.

I didn't say every Toto does this. However, it is a problem specific to my model and I will not reward Toto for making this by giving them additional money buying another toilet from their company. It is a known problem with this model and others Toto sold using the same bowl style, There is no solution other than replacing the bowl with a different style. I did a Google search and found other people complaining about the exact same Toto model I have. One person said Toto let them swap their bowl for a different style during the warranty period, but they still had to pay labor charges. Mine is out of warranty and I'm going to move on to a different brand. https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/toto-toilet-question.13921/