bathroom

Life Span of a Toto Toilet Handle

0 comments

How long does a Toto toilet handle, a/k/a trip lever, last? I think the answer is 7-8 years. I replaced the first one last September. The second one got swapped out in November. Now, six months later, I’m ready to replace the third and final toilet handle. When three fail within six months, I’m quite confident that I’ve hit the life span of the product.

Curiously, the third failure exhibited a different symptom. Unlike the first one that which left the water running, this one would flush when the lever was first depressed. Takes a couple flush attempts for it to work. Since the other two failed, I don’t need to take a look at the handle and wonder what’s wrong. It’s just time for this one to be swapped out as well. When the part comes in, I’ll take apart the old handle and see if it failed at the same spot.

Toto Toilet Doesn’t Stop Running

0 comments

After seven years of service, the handle to the Toto toilet started failing. After flushing the toilet, the handle would not return to the up position. It just sagged on the side of the toilet. At first, I thought it was loose, but tightening the washer inside the tank had no effect. Next, I unscrewed the washer and took the handle off the tank. Ah, there was a screw. That must be loose. But when I grabbed a screwdriver and tried to tighten it, that wasn’t loose either. Puzzled, I took a closer look.

That oval slot holds the rod which hooks to the flapper. Despite the all metal construction, this part had worn out from daily use. So, the search for a replacement part began.

Toto Toilet Handle

I quickly determined that I had a Toto Carlyle toilet installed. But, while looking for the product manual under discontinued models (the Carlyle was replaced by the Carlyle II), the odd interface asked for a SKU number. Thankfully, I still had a receipt that listed the SKU, so I was able to look up the parts manual.

The official name of the toilet handle is the trip lever. Rather than hunt around at the local hardware or plumbing supply store, I just ordered it from Amazon for $23.44. When it arrived, took all of five minutes to easily replace. Flushed the toilet and the trip lever swung back up. Nothing beats success on the first attempt.

Clearing a Slow Sink Drain

0 comments

During a visit to Home Depot for other purposes, I spotted a BrassCraft Zip-It. Seeing that I had a slow bathroom sink, I was willing to give the product a test, especially since it only cost $2.50.

First, I filled the sink with 3 cups of water, measuring carefully with that precise, scientific instrument otherwise known as a Legoland cup.

Three Legoland cups of water yields about this much water.

Next, I measured how long it took for all the water to drain from the sink. A disappointing 24 seconds, per iPhone.

I could insert the Zip-It really easily down the drain, but pulling it back up took some wiggling. I think all the notches were catching onto parts of the drain. The Zip-It didn’t pull up a hairball or any large masses, but it did pull up a lot of black gunk.

After wiping away all the black gunk and rinsing the sink clean, I refilled the sink with 3 cups of water. The time to drain was a much-improved 9 seconds.

Shower Flow Rate

0 comments

I recently found the Hansgrohe Raindance E 120 AIR 3-Jet selling for $59.97 at Costco and decided to give it a try. I also have a Grohe Relaxa Plus and a Hansgrohe Interaktiv 2-Jet Handshower installed. When I purchased the Raindance, I thought I could just switch the handshower units. However, the the Raindance operates a bit different from the Relaxa Plus and the Interaktiv handshowers. Unlike the Relaxa Plus and the Interaktiv handshower units, the Raindance handshower has the flow restrictor built into the showerarm mount (where you hang the handshower) instead of into the handshower unit itself. So, if I just swapped the handshower units, the Raindance would output more than the reported 2.5 GPM maximum flow rate.

Out of curiousity, I had a 2.5 gallon plastic bucket in the laundry room. First, I filled the bucket using the Raindance handshower. The bucket started to overflow at around the 50-55 second mark, which is close to a 3 GPM mark. Next, I filled the bucket with the Grohe Relaxa Plus handshower. Despite the same reported maximum flow rate, the Relaxa Plus needed 1:40 minutes to fill the same bucket, or about 1.50 GPM. I always assumed that my showerheads were outputting at the maximum flow rate. Get a bucket and test your showerheads and see if they are delivery more or less water than the reported maximum flow rate.

TOTO Toilets

2 comments

I’ll be the first to admit that when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at MWSF in 2007, I couldn’t see the genius of the product. It wasn’t until I actually got to see the iPhone in person that I realized that it was different from every cell phone that I had every owned. The iPhone was a game changer.

TOTO toilets may just be the iPhone of toilets. Sure, you can obsess over all the features in a TOTO Washlet, but the feature that really floored me was the SoftClose seat. Before I installed a TOTO Toilet, I had never seen a toilet with a SoftClose seat. Instead of slamming shut, the toilet seat will gently lower itself down. Absolutely amazing. After I saw this, I realized that every other toilet seat was designed incorrectly.

UFL-CF26TE/835 Goes Kaput

2 comments

In California, the 2005 Building Energy Efficiency Standards require the installation of high-efficacy lighting. And, to prevent you from swapping high cost fluorescents with low cost incandescents, screw-in CFLs do not count. So, 2 1/2 years into this energy saving experiment, our first triple tube 4-pin fluorescent failed. So much for that 10,000 hours average rated lifetime. I guess the plug-in CFLs fail just as well as the screw-in CFLs.

Anyways, our triple tube 4-pin fluorescent was installed in a bathroom. If the bulb stayed lit for 2-3 hours a day for 2 1/2 years, that comes to 1,825-2,737 hours. In reality, our usage is probably far less than that. How weak. 25% of its average rated lifetime. Now I have to hunt for an expensive replacement bulb.

Home Depot Expo Sells Grohe

0 comments

I’ve had positive experiences with both

Shower Head Height

1 comment

Shower HeadIf you are remodeling a bathroom, your contractor may ask you how high you want your shower head. The first time I heard that question, I thought there must be a standard height, right? But, everything being “custom,” I had to come up with an answer.

Of course, the height of the persons that will be using the shower is one factor. Another factor is the type of shower head. A fixed shower head sprays at one angle and height. A hand-held shower head sprays at a different angle and height. If you do not account for that difference and mount the hand-held shower head at the same height as a fixed shower head, your hand-held shower head just might spray the water over your head.

Download Owner Manuals

0 comments

I always find it hard to keep track of all the owner’s manuals. Sure, you might know where everything is at first. However, over time, all the manuals inevitably gets misplaced. One day, when you want to find a replacement part for an appliance or are troubleshooting, the manual is no where to be found. The solution? Visit the websites for all the manufacturers and download the PDF copy of all the manuals while you have the model numbers handy. Then, store them all in one folder on your computer.

If you wait a few months or years, a manufacturer may discontinue your model and remove the manual from their website. Having an electronic copy of the manual has saved me on more than one occasion.

Occupant Sensors: Bathroom Timers

0 comments

If the occupant sensors you are using are not good at sensing occupants, then treat them as a timer. Behind the faceplate, the occupant sensor I am using has a dial that adjusts the shut-off time. Basically, the light will shut off a certain number of minutes after it last senses someone moving around. After I adjusted the shut-off time from 8 minutes to 15 minutes, no one gets left in the dark anymore.

Sure, this basically fixes my occupant sensor problem, but I still hate them. Before, I will tell people to turn off the light when they leave a room and there would be no problem. Now, I am told that I shouldn’t worry because the light turns itself off. There you have it. Title 24 training people not to turn off the lights.