Attention: This is NOT a sponsored post. I’m not being paid a dime to write this follow-up/reality-check-report from a post I wrote in December (which was a sponsored post). I am using an affiliate link, though.
Back in December, I got a new toilet. It’s the Optum VorMax from The Home Depot.
It’s a “high-tech” toilet, and has features that are supposed to keep it cleaner. I was excited to have a shiny new toilet to replace my old and wobbly one.
But let’s be honest. Easier to clean? Is that really possible?
I did see immediate difference due the lack of a rim on the toilet. No rim means no place to get scary-nasty. I also saw how it flushes differently than other toilets and could understand how that would make a difference. If you want to see the flush in action, go see the original post about it here.
But the only way to truly know if one toilet is easier to clean than another is to use it.
Like, use it use it.
For a long time.
I’ve now had this toilet for five months, and it has been used. Like, used used.
So is it different? Is it actually easier to clean?
Yes. It really is.
While I’ve learned I don’t really love a taller potty (like some of you warned me I wouldn’t), I’ve also learned there are quite a few features I didn’t even notice at first that really do help it stay cleaner.
As a persnickety Slob Blogger, I challenged the toilet by purposely NOT scrubbing it until I saw something that needed scrubbing. I don’t recommend this. (I know from way too much experience that bathroom cleaning is much easier if you go ahead and scrub regularly whether it “needs it” or not.)
Five months later, I still haven’t scrubbed it for anything other than “special circumstances.” I won’t describe the details of “special circumstances” but what I’m saying is that for five months, it hasn’t gotten a ring around the potty.
But let’s talk about the “easier to clean” features I didn’t even notice at first.
I didn’t notice them until, while wiping down the toilet (which I did do weeklyish over the past five months), I didn’t have to bend over and put my face scarily near the toilet to clean those wee-wee-collecting spots at the base of the toilet on each side. I also didn’t have to scrub all around the place where the seat and lid attach to the toilet itself. See these pictures?
They’re random day pictures.
Not that every day is that naturally free-of-pee.
But when it does need wiping down, it’s generally only the wipe-downable spots that need wiping.
Confused?
If you are an all-girl household, go read this post about making cupcakes. But if you have boys, you may know what I mean.
The thing that makes a toilet “hard to clean” isn’t what you can see, it’s what you can’t see. Or get to easily. It’s all the places where two parts meet and cause a little gap. I now realize that the ickiness on the sides of the toilet base likely comes from “liquid” getting to the hinge and dripping through the holes down the side of the toilet.
I assume. I don’t know exactly. I just know that in trying to figure out WHY this doesn’t happen with my new toilet, I noticed that the hinge is significantly different from the hinges on my other toilets.
The hinge is designed to block “stuff” from getting into the hard-to-clean places.
So it’s not that things don’t get messy, it’s just that the places that make you want to lose your mind on Bathroom Cleaning Day are protected and therefore don’t get as messy as easily.
Make sense?
Again, I’m not trying to sell you a toilet. I just know that I’m super-skeptical about anything that claims to make cleaning easier, so I’d want to know how it has worked in the long run.
I was also quite surprised in December about how many people were excited to talk about toilets, so I thought I’d continue the Potty Talk.
If you’re in the market for a new toilet, I do recommend looking for some of these features. I also recommend, as one of you commented last time, that you check your pride at the customer service counter and SIT on any toilet you’re considering purchasing to see if the height is right for you.
I did look for “easy clean toilet lids” on Amazon, but they didn’t have any pictures with the lid raised, so I couldn’t tell if the hinge design is like this one. Next time I need to replace the seat on one of our other toilets (like I did in this post), I’ll try one.
If it sounded sexist when I suggested girls go read about cupcakes, I’m sorry. It was the first non-toilet-kid-friendly post that came to mind. Go read about hosting water balloon fights instead.
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--Nony
I bought 2 of these on March to replace 31 yr old toilets, they are going in this month and I can hardly wait! Besides the fact that they are easy to clean, as you have experienced, I really like the look of them too. Happy happy!!
As a mother of all boys, I couldn’t help giggling through this entire post! Hilarious!
I meant “in” March 😉
I have a toilet similar to this and the feature I love is that the little caps on the back of the toilet seat snap off (slide them back to remove, slide forward to reattach) and when removed, you can slide the WHOLE SEAT off to clean where the men/boys in the house didn’t aim well enough! A woman must have thought of that bit of business!
I can remember the day I discovered that the space between the tank and the toilet needed to be cleaned. I was using a spray bottle, and I was trying to spray away a line of yellow I could see, but did not want to wipe with a cloth. I switched the nozzle on my bottle from mist to shoot it dead…and kept spraying. Then, I noticed the water coming out the back of the toilet…and it was yellow. It took me far too long to get the water to come out clear. And then I had to clean it up off the floor. If I can get a toilet that gets rid of *that* hiding spot, I will be very happy.
Oh my goodness, yes! Living in a house where the only male sat made for a very clean toilet. I had no idea there would ever be any liquid between the tank and toile. I was horrified!
They make silicone caulk in white, and clear as well as gray and sometimes a couple other colors. You don’t want the big tube that goes in a caulking gun, but a squeeze tube. Clean super well, run a line of caulk along the “seam” and smooth it with your finger so it makes a little curve instead of a right angle between the top and the bottom of the toilet. You might need to run your caulk twice to make sure it’s filled up that little opening. Works a charm, easy to clean, and yeah you will have to replace it eventually, but you just get one edge loose and you can pull the old caulk off.
If you have leftover caulk, see if you need to reseal where the tub meets the floor or the walls.
Oh my goodness, this is awesome. You’ve made me want a new toilet. And you made me laugh. 🙂
As the only woman in the house amongst 4 males – I will be investing in something like this next time we need to replace the toilets!
I have to ask – how good is this toilet about flushing everything down in one try? Our guest bathroom (the one we use most since it has a low-flow toilet) has a Toto, which is a little taller as well – just a couple inches. I don’t love that height either… it seems to be OK flushing things down, but the back of the inside of the bowl definitely doesn’t get rinsed when flushing. The Toto’s inner workings also get stuck a lot, which means taking the top off the tank and fiddling around with whatever got stuck this time.
The main bathroom has a 30+ yr old non-low-flow toilet that is now wobbly and has a crack in the part that sits on the floor. Since it’s basically a dinosaur, I’m scared of getting something A. that doesn’t flush everything or B. that’s too splattery for us girls, since we can’t aim at the water like the guys can. Easy to clean is great, but do you have anything to say about the other workings?
It flushes great! Very strong flush.
I am so glad we insisted on higher toilets when we had the house built, Much better when you have arthritis in both knees,
I am exceedingly lucky to have found a home with a large main bathroom (shower, tub, toilet, two sinks), and a master with minuscule shower/sink/toilet. I put a lock on the master toilet and told my son and husband that they were on their own with the main bathroom. I did this after being the only person who cleaned the single bathroom of our previous house. For 12 years. Four years after moving to the second house, I can claim that I have never used the boys’ bathroom, and I have not once stepped or sat in someone else’s pee. If you can possibly get away with it, I cannot recommend it enough. Good luck, women!