The Toilets have Arrived
Since this turned out to be such a popular topic, I thought I’d follow up on the story. I faxed in the application on Tuesday, February 5 and received my voucher before the weekend. I was instructed to pick up the toilets out at Ferguson Enterprises.
Ferguson’s gave me everything I needed for installation: wax ring, flange bolts, and a seat. A new flange will cost you if yours needs to be replaced.
The first thing I have to say that I like about the Niagara is that it’s ready to go right out of the box with the exception of mounting the tank on the bowl. With that being said they’ve even made that easier with a flat bowl-to-tank gasket.
If you’ve ever had to install a tank on a bowl with one of those rounded rubber gaskets you know the frustration I’m talking about: the balancing act of constantly readjusting the tank until it’s level and squared with the wall. This here just sits flat on the bowl.
As I mentioned before, the Niagara uses a “flapperless” design that dumps a bucket of water into the tank. Something you have to get comfortable with is flushing the handle all the way down in a quick motion to get the full effect.
And now here’s something I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for:
Whoo wee, wasn’t that something!? So you can see it performs quite well under a liquid simulation. One thing you may have noticed is that the valve continues to “hiss” after the bucket is filled. This is due once again to Fluidmaster’s lousy craftsmanship. I have never been pleased with their normal replacement fill valves. They never seem to shut off completely no matter how low you set the float. Fortunately for the Niagara it does stop after a few minutes, but I’ll hold this complaint against it – I wish they’d gone with another vendor besides Fluidmaster.
While I could look for a recipe to create the soybean paste used for the Maximum Performance (MaP™) testing procedures for my own solids simulation, I’m just going to leave you with the results already given: it rates at 500 grams per flush. I believe this is quite acceptable considering 250 grams is the minimum requirement to pass the test. If you’re the type of person who needs to experience a powerful, full-on gravitational force then you’re not going to be happy with the Niagara. I would describe it as more of a “washing” than a “suction”.
Finally, I’ll leave you with this little marketing piece. Have you ever felt this good about a toilet?