low level and high level toilets

[Stephen]

Hello,

I would quite like a low level or high level toilet. I had some close coupled toilets in the past, and I know it is not an every day occurrence, but when they play up, they can be a pain to take apart and put back together again without leaking.

Does anyone know where to get low and high level toilets? I saw a LL toilet in Travis Perkins. It was about £60 for the pan and another £60 for the cistern. It was the Twyford brand (not sure if that means anything nowadays?).

The problem is, as others have said here before, is that seeing it "dry" doesn't give any indication of how good it is in use.

I cannot see many high level ones (I was looking at web sites found via google) and the ones I can find are over £300. Why is this? Couldn't I just get a LL one, buy a longer pipe, and fit the cistern higher? (I appreciate a high level cistern will present its own problems if I have to repair it).

Thanks, Stephen.

[PeterC]

I think the high level ones are a 'fashion statement' - seem to be in Grand Disasters and such. I've been wondering if it's possible, without too much of an obvious bodge, to modify a close-coupled cistern to make a low-level one. There's room to move the cistern up about 10", which would give a good boost to the head (sorry), but the appearance of the pan might be off-putting.

I made the mistake of changing a high-level cistern for a low-level one. The lower velocity of the water tended to ram the solids into a blockage rather than entrain them.

[PeterC]

It's eay to see if the pan is made so that there aren't skid marks by design, e.g. the back of the pan needs to be vertical - I've seen one where the back sloped right in and the front was almost vertical! Flushing, however, is a different matter. You can't 'try before you buy' and, in most cases the salesdroids don't know (reasonable) and the information (pref. as a video) isn't available (unreasonable).

It's probably a case of finding something on-line and e-mailing the supplier to ask, then there's a record of any claim. However, buying on that basis and finding out the flushing is not as claimed is not a practicable process.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Toilets with self-cleaning coatings have been available for a couple of decades now. In countries where the bloke traditionally cleans the toilet, self-cleaning coatings are universal. In countries where the woman traditionally cleans the toilet, toilets with self-cleaning coatings are all but impossible to find.

[ratsack]

Which are those ?

[Andrew Gabriel]

Japan is top of the list, but I believe the market is across many of the similar more civilsed asian countries.

Watched a program about different toilet designs, probably 10 years ago. A toilet manufacturer which manufactures for most of the world was asked why they don't supply them here. Answer was that it's men who usually buy toilets, and they only perceive there's an issue in the countries where they usually have to clean the toilet themselves. In other countries, they regard the toilet as self-cleaning anyway, as it apprently cleans itself up when they aren't looking. Hence no market for self-cleaning toilets here.

[ratsack]

I just don't believe that all the toilets in Japan are cleaned by the blokes.

but I believe the market is across

I don't believe that either with Korea or China or Vietnam.

Yes.

Don't believe that.

Or that either, particularly when they are sharing flats etc.

Don't believe that.