I guess my response is too late for the OP's information. However, I have replaced toilets in three houses. The first house had two BR's and the next two had three bathrooms. First house was our entry level house in the Los Angeles market; we installed two boring Kohlers that performed well and quietly and I never needed a plumber for anything. Our next move up house was a huge jump up in cost, it was almost double square footage but the premium in cost was mostly because it had an amazing ocean view and marina view and this even from the shower in the master bath. In this house we upgraded with Kohler's San Raphael in the master and guest bath and in the powder room, we splurged on the St. Martin (or San Martine?) an incredibly beautiful toilet with what we thought was a pretty high price tag of over $800, which was a lot for that time period (the early 90s) though not so much in these days of the $3000 "hatbox" toilet from Kohler. None of these toilets ever caused a problem, though our plumber who was the BEST, (JEFF of family-owned and run Argyll Plumbing, if you're reading this out there in Torrance CA. it is you to whom I refer as the BEST) warned us that we possibly could have problems with the high-end San Martine but these never developed, at least not while we still owned the home. Because of a precipitous move downward in the income and wealth index by a lot (thanks to very serious mistakes by physicians at the Jacksonville Fl. Mayo Clinic, mistakes that could and should have been caught and avoided, mistakes that served to end my husband's corporate and international business development career with its comfortable income and more important, true meaning in his life, while at the same time our savings got used up and our retirement funds were almost breathlessly depleted while we looked on, heads spinning, and as we are now, the proverbial unhappy campers, saddled with credit card debt run up in a few years time but that will take years if ever to pay off, and forced to be "re-educated" and to deal with new goals not of our making: like living on a fixed income that has little extra for not much of anything and maintaining a home that we'd rather not, since our goal at the time this all began had been to sell the house and return to the West Coast, our real home, but then this "merde" came our way and by God, did it ever hit the fan!) the Kohlers in our three bathrooms in our current home are more modest models, either the Kohler Highline or the pretty little Kohler Santa Rosa. These toilets got replaced a second time though because of the newly introduced comfort height toilet, this a great feature that hadn't been available in 1999 when we moved into the one-year-old home and immediately upgraded the cheapy contractor's grade toilets, and a feature that we would only come to fully appreciate later on (my husband has had both of his hips surgically replaced,plus one knee, so far) and now wouldn't give up for any reason. We are getting around to replacing the master bath's standard-height Santa Rosa and I've come to this dependable forum for help with our decision. Because decisions like this now take on amazing significance. So rather than replace a Santa Rosa with another Santa Rosa, even as pretty as they are, we are seriously considering the Kohler Persuade Curv. I love the look, its slender beauty and the ease of cleaning the look suggests. (I'm not getting any younger). But I hesitated and have for a while. It doesn't seem possible that Kohler could offer that great look (a smooth bowl that jumped forward into the 21st century, leaving behind the tired look that mimicked the pipes, the interior function) and do it at a price point that actually was possibly attainable by the majority of the toilet-needing masses, this from the company that shocked the world (well, I was shocked!) with the $3000 "hatbox" toilet. After many years of nothing but success with Kohler toilets now when we don't have the resources to reverse a bad decision, the wrong choice, after all I've read about the Persuade, I am stuck. Is going with the Kohler Persuade because of the beauty of the look, (and because I internet shopped and found a very very good price) while I bury my head in the sand as to any problems lurking down the road, problems I learned about also on the internet as I researched WHICH KOHLER TO BUY, is all this by definition telling me I'm in a new world here and to tread carefully with my few precious dollars?

I ended up blowing out the air with the compressor. It got a lot of it I think but I also used the bread trick as well. One of the pipes still was wet inside and the bread dried it right up. Also ended up chopping the ends off some heater hoses and using that for flex line. They don't sell 3/4 copper flex at my home depot but do sell the copper heater connection hoses. Anyhow, no leaks now and all is good! Thanks for all the responses, really helped me out!

What I've come to find out lately is that for residential work, not commercial work which is higher skilled labor and more expensive than residential, almost all plumbing companies in the greater Seattle/Tacoma areas will not give you an hourly rate over the phone. They will say they only bid jobs. What they actually are charging is between $400 to $600 per man hour once there on your job. I have a friend who was charged $500 to remove and install a standard two piece toilet that he provided. It took the plumber one hour labor, plus one hour round trip to and from the job, plus a wax ring and bolts. Another plumber told me he was told by his company to charge a customer $600 instead of $400 which he wanted to charge for an hours work on a job he just finished. I was told by a plumber that the "Don't start freak'in" company is the most expensive. Once a journeyman, or not nessassarily a journeyman, plumber is on the job, the labor alone to remove and replace an exposed shower valve per line with Pex is $350 for the hot, $350 for the cold, $350 for the line from the valve to the shower head. That's $1,050.00 for around 2 to 2-1/2hrs labor. If it's a tub valve add another 1/2hr to 3/4 hr and $350 for the tub line. If it's ProPress with type L copper, or type L sweated copper it's $550 per line now. That's $2,200.00 for a tub valve. It takes about 3 to 3-1/2 hours to install a tub valve with sweated copper and half the time with Pex. 3/4 the time with ProPress. Two years ago labor ran $550 to $650 to remove and replace an exposed shower valve with type L copper sweated. An 8 hour for one journey can run $3,200 to $4,800 labor including travel time and use of tools and van. My son is a commercial plumber in Salt Lake. His company is union and figures it runs them $100 hr. to employ him with vacation, sick leave, medical, and taxes. Thats $800 a day cost for a commercial journeyman. I don't know what yhe company charges for his time. It's all competative bid work and they dont like to loose bids. My suggestion is if you need a resude tial plumber is to try and find a good independent plumber with a good reputation and referalls, or move to Portland. Portland still runs about $150 hr. for a journeyman plumber...and so does Texas!

Buzz Solo in northeast MI - So glad that you are alright. How scary! Sounds like you had a fainting spell with your Covid. I did get worse and have been dizzy all week. DH and I both tested negative for Covid with home test. Both of us still coughing at a good clip. SIL did a home health conference and was diagnosed with bronchitis. Prescribed a steroid and inhaler. He is a little better. Thankfully, he and our daughter have left after a week long + visit. Taking Christmas down will take me as long as it did to put up. Just don't feel like doing much right now. Get better soon and stay safe. Happy New Year everyone!!!