SomeGuy
Hobbyist
Ugh, sooo, went and bought a new toilet yesterday. American Standard Cadet, nothing fancy, mid range price, but shouldn't be total garbage. Get it home, lots of marks in the glazing of the bowl, tank is good though...store is closing in a half hour so run back without packing up the first one to get a second one (so I can cherry pick the best parts of both kits). Opened 4 boxes while at the store trying to find good glazing and no issues but all the linings in the tank were separated and marks on all sorts of them...finally find one that's decent enough and bring it home last night.
Installed the second bowl with the first tank today, went generally fine...got the new flange in, got the water line in, got everything hooked up and filled and shockingly no leaks, think I'm in the clear...but then I flush it and it's not a good proper flush, water just kinda swirls but doesn't go down. I'm thinking shit, the drains in the slab are clogged or not vented properly or something (only so much I could see before finishing), so grabbed a big bucket of water and flushed the toilet and poured the bucket in at the same time, get a good full proper flush. Start checking the thing out, the friggin main line from the tank where it enters the bowl at the bottom is almost entirely cast shut. So after troubleshooting all that, spend the rest of the day draining, removing, cleaning, and packing up the toilets.
So now I've got two toilets that need to go back to the store and having my doubts about being able to get one of these that will actually not be finished like shit AND actually function. My other thing problem is, the rough in is more like 11" and not 12", I should have probably moved the drain in the floor but did some measurements off the toilets in the house (also AS Cadet's) and seemed like it would be ok, which it was. This just limits which toilets I can fit now without going down to a 10" rough in one (which I knew was an option in case the 12" didn't fit)...but all those 10" rough ins are more expensive for the same thing and often not stocked. Moving the damn rough in an inch would have been a bunch more time too though, too late now with the floor all tiled and heat in it and everything anyway on the basement slab (so can't do it from below).
What should have been a simple afternoon to buy and install a toilet is going to end up being at least 3 days of time wasted. What the hell happened to quality control? Not the first product I've bought for this basement, didn't cheap out on, and end up with shit that takes days (or in the case of the flooring over a month) to get sorted out. Things keep going sideways and this basement project which should have been done last year is still going
/rant
Installed the second bowl with the first tank today, went generally fine...got the new flange in, got the water line in, got everything hooked up and filled and shockingly no leaks, think I'm in the clear...but then I flush it and it's not a good proper flush, water just kinda swirls but doesn't go down. I'm thinking shit, the drains in the slab are clogged or not vented properly or something (only so much I could see before finishing), so grabbed a big bucket of water and flushed the toilet and poured the bucket in at the same time, get a good full proper flush. Start checking the thing out, the friggin main line from the tank where it enters the bowl at the bottom is almost entirely cast shut. So after troubleshooting all that, spend the rest of the day draining, removing, cleaning, and packing up the toilets.
So now I've got two toilets that need to go back to the store and having my doubts about being able to get one of these that will actually not be finished like shit AND actually function. My other thing problem is, the rough in is more like 11" and not 12", I should have probably moved the drain in the floor but did some measurements off the toilets in the house (also AS Cadet's) and seemed like it would be ok, which it was. This just limits which toilets I can fit now without going down to a 10" rough in one (which I knew was an option in case the 12" didn't fit)...but all those 10" rough ins are more expensive for the same thing and often not stocked. Moving the damn rough in an inch would have been a bunch more time too though, too late now with the floor all tiled and heat in it and everything anyway on the basement slab (so can't do it from below).
What should have been a simple afternoon to buy and install a toilet is going to end up being at least 3 days of time wasted. What the hell happened to quality control? Not the first product I've bought for this basement, didn't cheap out on, and end up with shit that takes days (or in the case of the flooring over a month) to get sorted out. Things keep going sideways and this basement project which should have been done last year is still going

/rant