We recently completed a new building where we used American Standard Cadet FloWise pressure-assisted 1.1 gpf toilets. The problem is that these toilets do not work properly. Since the moment the owner took occupancy 2 weeks ago, we have had clog after clog after clog. Now the owner has decided to replace all the toilets with 1.6 gpf standard gravity toilets, and we are losing two LEED points; it may mean the difference between Certified and Silver. Has anyone else had trouble with these HETs? We are also working on another LEED registered project. What HETs do you recommend as an alternative to these American Standard toilets?

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Michelle Teague

Architect, LEED Consultant

Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects

LEEDuser Basic Member

29 thumbs up

Wed, 06/13/2012 - 13:46

A friend referred me a couple of years ago to a soybean paste testing protocol. Try this site. http://www.map-testing.com/about/maximum-performance/map-search.html

ANNE JURAN

Senior Engineer

Summer Consultants, Inc.

LEEDuser Premium Member

8 thumbs up

Wed, 06/13/2012 - 17:56

The toilets themselves may be okay. The pressure assist toilets rely on the building's water pressure (typically to charge the flush tank, although I'm not familiar with this particular model.) Anyway, their website states "Recommended working pressure range 25 psi - 80 psi" so you may want the plumbing engineer to check their calcs and make sure this much pressure is available. If it is, have the plumber check the setting on the pressure regulating valve(s) to make sure there's enough available pressure at the top of the building.

Thomas McDermott

Designer

Architectural Visions, PLLC

LEEDuser Basic Member

2 thumbs up

Wed, 06/13/2012 - 20:47

@ Michelle, I visited the MaP website. If I understand the system properly, the MaP score is the amount of solids in grams that the toilet can effectively flush. Is that correct? If that's true, then the toilet's we specified should be able to flush 1000g of solids (approximately 2.2lbs). That's far more than a typical human produces during a visit to a water closet. The question is, if these toilets are powerful enough, what's the real problem? Maybe it's the pressure as Anne mentioned. I just emailed our MEP engineer aking about the water pressure. Thank you both for your help.

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