# I guess it had to happen eventually.



## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

I love Toto toilets! It's the only thing I recommend and the only thing I carry on my truck. I have them in my house and in my in-laws house.

One of my biggest selling points is that "these toilets just do not stop up. Any toilet can stop up if foreign objects are flushed but under normal use I've never seen or heard of one of these toilets stopping up."

Well that all came to an end today . I got called out for a stopped up toilet and what do I find but my old friend Mr. Drake! So I start thinking something bad had to have been flushed (which still could be the case) but the auger charged right through it like a hot knife through butta. Problem solved, flushing normal.

Now the only thing out of the ordinary (besides finding a stopped up Drake) was that the water surges in this house which has always been for me, a rare symptom of a failed prv. I checked the pressure and it was fine but the fill valve (which would not have much to do with the flush performance) would surge so severly that it would actually flow and then not flow and then flow and then not flow, steadily and consistently. Now before you blame the fill valve you should know that I had already had the tub running earlier when I first entered the bathroom (to determine if it was just the toilet or the entire bathroom group) and it also surged. I'm a little perplexed. I'm pretty sure that the prv is failing even though it read 60 psi. 

Even if the prv is failing though that still really has no bearing on the flush performance and I can't escape the fact that I won't be able to say that these toilets "just don't stop up under normal use". Here's where the words "virtually never" come in handy! Still very strong words and yet completely truthful.

Still I am disappointed. It was a strong selling point.


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## Wiser (Jul 25, 2008)

Just a rare 'lemon' 

- perhaps too little fiber in diet :laughing:


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## user4 (Jun 12, 2008)

Don't jump to conclusions based on little evidence, we had a Toto stop up just after Christmas last year, turns out the homeowners had holiday house guests, one of them a four year old boy with a history of flushing half a roll of toilet paper every time he took a dump. The house guests didn't offer up that bit of truth till after I made the comment that someone flushed something they shouldn't have.


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## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

Well this one doesn't seem to be quite wrapped up. Approximately 5 days after I augered this toilet, we get a call back saying it is stopped up again! I will be going back today to see what is going on. After I get it clear and flowing again I am sorely tempted to run my micro see snake through it to see what I can see. The last time I did that though I broke the camera head off and had to get it replaced.


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## Wiser (Jul 25, 2008)

*May be lemon*

Take the chance. For your own piece of mind in selling Toto's in the future, it will be worth it.


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## service guy (Jun 26, 2008)

I had this same problem once...the customer was on a lot of medication and had gigantic bowel movements. I finally offered to install a pressure-assist and only charge the difference (credit back the class 5.) I was all set to go get her a toilet, when she called me to cancel. She was so embarassed by teh whole situation, she started taking fiber and solved her own problem.:laughing:


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## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

Went back the following day and when I got there it flushed like a million bucks. The fill valve was still pulsing though. I had tested the pressure on the previous trip and it was within range. I suggested that I was not really sure but that the pulsing was consistent with a somewhat rare symptom of a failing prv. The reason I suggested this was that the tub and lav faucet did it too only to a lesser degree and I have found prvs that would do this in the past. She took it under advisement and I went on my way.

Several days later we get a call to replace the prv. I did something I never do and wrote on my invoice a disclaimer saying something to the effect that I was not certain of the diagnosis and that replacement of prv might not solve the problem and had her sign it. Well guess what. It turns out I sold them a prv they didn't need. Ouch!! I'm not sure if I've ever done that before. 

Anyway, I go back to the toilet and start taking the fill valve apart. Toto uses Lavelle I think it is and I had never taken one apart. I never rebuild fill valves anyway (always replace) but in this case I just wanted to see if I could figure out why it was acting so goofy in case I see it again sometime. So I had another one on my truck that the Toto rep had sent me awhile back so I took it apart first since it was easier to handle. After I saw how everything worked on it I started taking the one in the tank apart. It turns out that the toilet stop was threaded and whoever replaced the toilet apparantly replaced the stop as well and got VERY happy with the pipe dope which had made it's way into the fill valve and gummed everything up. 

So in this case I simply rebuilt it rather than replace it and it worked fine. Problem solved. Charged them the quoted amount for the prv and no charge for the fill valve rebuild. I still don't know why the other fixtures pulsed though. Anybody got any ideas?


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## GrumpyPlumber (Jun 12, 2008)

*Are the other fixtures still pulsing?*


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## masterk (Jun 20, 2008)

Maybe the other fixtures are also gummed up with pipe dope.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

toto is good, but caroma is better:thumbup:


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

I got removed from a job that I couldn't figure out any other way. 


This woman, divorced with kids would always clog her toilet, monthly. So bad that we'd have to follow her to other jobs where she stopped by to see family and would clog their toilet as well.

The smell was always horrific, she'd act like a total **** about the whole thing. 

She would let go what looked like the size of a folger's coffee can. 


The dispatch would always send the same techs out to the job, for the reason they knew about the job the most.

I finally made a point of making sure one day that all changed and was getting really tired of this job and it's disturbing situation. 

This woman would always be snippy with us, always. She commented the last time we was there that maybe we wasn't doing our job, the reason it would keep backing up.


I flat out told her as I interrupted her rant, "Lady, you don't need a toilet, you need a port-o-let with the size bowel movements you are passing. A garbage can would be more appropriate." 


Silence...


The lady's older mother was there when I said it, I hear a loud slam of the door, we finished our job and left.


Boss never said a word because the lady never called us back for plumbing services. 


Darn right I should of embarrassed her; that attitude and the reality of the situation was worth its weight in gold to make her feel like that clogged toilet.


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## pzmember (Sep 20, 2008)

niiiiice. ive run in to the outback steak house loaf of bread sized turd but never the folgers. its hard to address a sensitive matter like that w/ a customer but when she's a raging #*@^& , it definitly makes it easier to tell her to go crap in a can. way to stand your ground.


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Her attitude played a heavy role in my statements. Felt good because I didn't lose my job over it! That came months later when I hurt my back drain cleaning for one of the city council members in cincinnati. DOH!


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## ASUPERTECH (Jun 22, 2008)

smellslike$tome said:


> Well this one doesn't seem to be quite wrapped up. Approximately 5 days after I augered this toilet, we get a call back saying it is stopped up again! I will be going back today to see what is going on. After I get it clear and flowing again I am sorely tempted to run my micro see snake through it to see what I can see. The last time I did that though I broke the camera head off and had to get it replaced.


I've seen the wax rings with horns in them get cocked a little probably from some heavy plunging causing problems. You could either reset with ring with out a horn or try Fernco's waxless seal. I've used them a cuople time now and am pretty impressed.


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