Older lowboy, one piece toilet - new innards

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cmac2012

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Redwood City, People's Republic of California
I took this out for a client yesterday and installed a nondescript Kohler. He said this one running a lot and he didn't want to try to fix it.

I have mixed feelings about this model, he has one in each bathroom. But it might look stylish to some, and the one piece construction makes cleaning easier.

I'm thinking to try to sell this toilet plus my install, maybe $200 or $250. Otherwise I pay to dispose of it. But first I need to make sure I can get it working. The fill valve is likely funky - old looking float ball - and the flapper definitely needs changing.

All easy enough, I'm thinking a Korky would be short enough to work and the flapper is a standard unit. The fill valve on this is weird - has a large diameter length of tubing going into a hole at the front of the tank, no doubt to fill the bowl after a flush. I'm guessing I can just rout the Korky line into it, using some other different sized tubing to take up the slack between the smallish Korky line with Sikaflex in the mix to prevent leaking. Anybody ever replaced the valve on this model?

I'm not even sure who made this unit. — scratch that — just now saw Kohler in faint letters just above the seat area. Armed with that I looked again at the stamped letters, figured out K3402, it’s a Rialto.

I've seen/worked on maybe ten in my long and storied career. Hard as hell to place on the wax. I like to put the wax in place on the floor and drop the toilet onto it. Finally with one of these I used a few strips of 3/4 ply as blocks in the front and back and positioned it over the bolts and wax ring and removed the plywood gradually and lowered it down. Why didn't I thing of that before?


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those one piece toilets take special parts....you gotta buy the exact same fill valve and flapper you wont get those parts at hd or lowes is there a name on the bowl were the seat
bolts on...take those pic to a plumbing supply house...they wil be able to identify....it may be an American standard
 
the
those one piece toilets take special parts....you gotta buy the exact same fill valve and flapper you wont get those parts at hd or lowes is there a name on the bowl were the seat
bolts on...take those pic to a plumbing supply house...they wil be able to identify....it may be an American standard
one I worked on never really worked well...after a few years of nursing it along and finally listening to my suggestions she changed the toilet...she is very happy now
 
Get a Kohler 1b1x kit and test your service plumbing repair skills
 
Any used toilet should have a hammer taken to it. I can’t explain why without being degrading. So I keep it short. Gag a maggot.
 
Anybody would be CRAZY to spend money on installing that thing,
They have a very quite flush and yes the low profile is appealing to SOME.
But then again, there are a lot of weird people out there.
I hate trying to repair those things. They are very fussy.
1B1X ballcock. you need the big refill tube to add water volume to the flush
Kohler Rialto, if I recall, is the name of that toilet.
Kohlers usually have a K**** number stamped inside the back wall of the tank.

You have to pay a disposal fee?
Like James said, take a hammer to it.
 
Thanks for all the replies. And yes, my initial thought was to turn this into shards of ceramic waste w/o cutting myself (story on that below).

I've worked for this guy for 11 years, has a couple of rentals. Like I said, I think,he has two of these models there and they are a pain. Had to redo the wax on one. Twice. You can't see what you're doing like on more normal toilets.

Once before I sold a toilet I had taken out that was in great shape - stuck in a fluidmaster and new flapper, sold it on an install by me only basis, got $200 for the whole thing and a new client, a nice lady I still work for now and then.

And then I read online that the Rialtos won't overflow if they get plugged up. Good selling point for a landlord with fools for tenants on a second floor.

I found a cheapo valve at uhhh, forgive me. Walmart online, about $30. OEM is $101, just for the valve.

https://tinyurl.com/y8yvmk2n

I've got a new flapper that my client bought but got fed up with it before asking me to fix it. The part number is correct.

My thought is to put in the new stuff, install it at my shop, putting the old beater aside, and watching it for a few days and also trying out the no-overflow feature again (did that in my driveway, leveled it up, seems to work. The float seemed to be fully raised just before the water was going to run over the edge of the throne).

I'll ask $250 for a "chic and modern, easy to clean one piece, 1.6 gallon toilet, installed!" Ladies, don't all call at once. It is a bit nutty, I'll grant you.

Broken toilet story: once back when running with the big boys, I was making some room in our dumpster as the college boy laborers had piled shyte in willy nilly and it was about half air and we needed some dumpster space that day. Unbeknownst to me an old toilet had been tossed in and got broken. I didn't see it under some stuff and banged my hand against a jagged edge. Cut the back of one middle finger on the upper segment to the bone. Didn't affect my work or guitar picking much, lucked out there. But oh man, that stuff is sharp.
 
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For what it's worth, let me add that pretty much the only reason I'm considering trying to save this thing is the part about it being overflow proof. Kinda cool, I hadn't realized that when I was cussing the damned things before.

And as someone mentioned here, and I hadn't really noticed but I flushed his remaining Rialto after reading it, it does have a pretty quiet flush.
 
I too was wondering if I was nuts about this ...

However, I got the replacement valve, online order from Walmart (!?!), had the new flapper already, I installed it in my shop, works without a hitch and the things are indeed overflow proof. I put some rags into a plastic bag, stopped it up and flushed. The water gets to about a half inch below spilling over edge and stops. The rising water in the throne raises up the flapper - a wee bit of styrofoam in it - and of course raises the float.

I'm going to ask $300 installed, advertise it as easy to clean, quiet, and perfect for people with rambunctious chillens on the second floor.

I read that the damned things were about $500 new.
 

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