Everyone has their own design style when it comes to their homes. One type of style that is very popular right now, and has been for the last couple of years, is a sleek, modern design. Now the sleek, modern design style can also be even more present in your bathroom thanks to tankless toilets. Tankless toilets don’t have a tank of water connected to the toilet seat, which gives them that modern and sleek feeling and look. But are tankless toilets worth the hassle?
Tankless toilets have a few big drawbacks. They have a high up-front cost, plumbing alterations, expert installation, need a very strong power supply, and this is if you can find a model that you like.
Although tankless toilets do have drawbacks, many people still like the look of them and the benefits that they offer. The height can be adjusted, they don’t take up as much room, they are very water-efficient, don’t leak, and are easier to clean. These are just a few of the things that draw people to make the switch to tankless toilets.
If you are willing to deal with all of the upfront work and hassle that comes with deciding to switch to a tankless toilet, many people feel that it is worth it in the end because of all of the benefits. Keep reading to help decide if making the switch is worth the hassle for you!
Contents
How Tankless Toilets Work
If you are thinking of purchasing a tankless toilet, it’s important to know how they work first. With toilets with a tank, the water from the tank rushes into the bowl when the toilet is flushed, pushing the water and waste into the sewer pipes. After that, the bowl fills back up again, as well as the tank. The water from the tank is pushed out, meaning that you don’t have to worry about the water pressure.
The reason I bring up water pressure is that it is something that is very important when it comes to how tankless toilets work. Tankless toilets use water directly from the pipes to flush all the water and waste out of it. So instead of using water stored in a tank, tankless toilets use water from your pipes, which is why high water pressure is important. For buildings that don’t have high water pressure, a small water pump can be installed.
For more details on how tankless toilets work, check out this website.
Tankless Toilet Problems
When thinking of making the switch from a toilet with a tank to a tankless toilet, it’s important to find out all of the possible problems that may arise. You will then need to look at all of the good things to see if they matter more to you than any problems that may arise because of tankless toilets. Tankless toilets may seem like a smart choice to really modernize your home, but they have lots of drawbacks.
Up-Front Cost
It’s no secret, tankless toilets are more expensive than toilets with a tank. Toilets that have a tank are a couple of hundred dollars, depending on how nice they look and how well they were made. Tankless toilets are around one thousand dollars for even the cheapest ones available, depending on the brand and make of it.
If you intend to have a professional come in and install it for you instead of doing it yourself, that cost should be factored in as well since it will significantly raise the up-front costs. The cost is a huge thing to think about when trying to decide if you want to make the switch to a tankless toilet because of that possibly very high cost.
Expert Installation/Repair
When installing the tankless toilet, you will need an expert that knows what they are doing to do the job. And this can cost quite a bit of money. Tankless toilets are much harder to install yourself than toilets with tanks are, which is why an expert is needed. If the toilet breaks or something is wrong with it, you will then also need an expert to take a look at it. It’s not impossible to install and repair a tankless toilet yourself, especially if you do have some experience doing it with toilets with tanks.
However, because tankless toilets are more complex, it is easy, and overall much more cost-efficient to just have a professional come in and take care of everything. This would make the up-front cost higher, but then you know that the toilet will work perfectly.
Power Supply
When the power goes out at your house, one thing that you never have to worry about is your toilet. Unless you have a tankless toilet that is! Tankless toilets require electricity to be able to power the water pump, which is what makes the toilet flush. This also can raise your electricity bill quite a lot since it will always be plugged in and ready to go.
If the power goes out in your neighborhood, you won’t be able to flush the toilet. A solution to this is using a bucket of water and pouring it into the toilet every time you need it to flush when the power is out, which is a big hassle. It’s not recommended that you get a tankless toilet if you live in an area that has power outages often because of this.
Plumbing Improvements
As mentioned above, tankless toilets use the water pressure directly from the pipes to flush the toilet. However, the pipes in most residential homes are not strong enough for this. The amount of water pressure that the tankless toilets require can severely damage the pipes of your home, causing damage that can end up being very expensive very quickly. This is why you will end up needing to just replace most, if not all, of the pipes.
This process not only is expensive but could take a lot of time too. You have to take off walls and ceilings where all of the pipes are, replace them, patch the walls and roofs back up and get them matching again, all before the toilet is even installed. All of that takes quite a bit of time and must be done by experts, once again adding to the up-front cost of getting the tankless toilet installed.
Suppliers
Tankless toilets are getting more and more popular, which is why you may be shocked when you realize how few options there are for you to choose between. Not many companies make tankless toilets, as of this moment, especially for residential use because of the problem with the water pressure. Most tankless toilets are in big, busy buildings like malls.
Companies operate on supply and demand and are going to make what sells. Tankless toilets just do not sell as well as toilets with tanks. This means that the tankless toilet selection is really rather limited. There are only so many options because not many companies produce them. This also means that the chances of finding a tankless toilet that is significantly cheaper than most of the others made by big brands are very, very small.
Tankless Toilet Benefits
Now that you know some of the bad, it’s time to hear about some of the good. There are many problems with tankless toilets, but it is up to you to decide if their benefits outweigh the problems. There are a few reasons why people are drawn to tankless toilets, one of which is the style. They look great for a modern, sleek style that is very popular at the moment in homes.
Style
The modern, sleek aesthetic that these toilets add to bathrooms is a big reason that people are drawn to them. Tankless toilets look great with whatever aesthetic you are going with, but they definitely add that modern edge to everything. This is, in part, due to the fact that they are not in many homes, so when they are it seems like a big deal and expensive add-on. That is also why tankless toilets add value to the home.
Many buyers are impressed to see tankless toilets in the home since they just aren’t often seen yet. Also, people are wanting to buy modern, sleek, updated homes right now, and tankless toilets are representative of all those things.
Saves Space
Toilets with tanks take up a lot of space. Tankless toilets are smaller though, meaning that they don’t take up nearly as much space. Those that have small bathrooms are drawn to tankless toilets because they give a little bit more room for other things in the bathroom. And since it doesn’t have a tank, it can be installed almost anywhere in the bathroom.
The tanks on toilets are high up on the wall, which makes them appear to be very tall. Since tankless toilets don’t have tanks, they are shorter, as well as being a smaller size overall. This means you can put more things above the toilet on the wall to make the bathroom even more aesthetically pleasing.
Eco-Friendly
Toilets with tanks leak, overflow, don’t have enough water in the bowl or tank and have more problems all the time. But these things never happen with tankless toilets. A very precise amount of water that is only used when the toilet is flushed. Water isn’t hoarded and sitting there until the toilet is used like with those toilets that do have tanks. Because of this, tankless toilets save you a lot of water and a lot of money, overall.
Leaking toilets, or toilets with any kind of problem, waste a lot of water and it can cost a lot of money to get the problem fixed, plus raise your water bill quite a lot if the problem goes unnoticed for some time. Because of the very precise amount of water that tankless toilets use, they save you a lot of water and a lot of money.
Fewer Repairs Needed
Sometimes it feels like your toilets are constantly needing to be worked on. Toilets that have tanks have a lot of parts to them, not only in the tanks but in the entire toilet. This means that there are lots of parts and pieces that can break or just not be working correctly and need to be repaired.
But tankless toilets don’t have nearly as many parts as toilets that do have tanks. Fewer parts mean fewer problems which means fewer repairs. And any repairs that may need to happen probably won’t happen for some time because of how well tankless toilets are made and the high quality of those parts.
Cleaning
At some point, everyone has cleaned a toilet. So everyone should know how hard it is to get a perfectly clean toilet, one that is clean everywhere. Trying to get every nook and cranny clean is hard to do, takes a lot of time, and is just a big hassle.
Tankless toilets are much easier, and faster, to clean though. They are full-skirted, meaning that there are no places for dirt to get in on the sides of the toilet. And since there is no tank attached to them, there is no gap between the seat and tank to try to get clean. It’s really just the seat and inside the toilet bowl. Because of the high water pressure, the toilet bowl won’t need to be cleaned for a longer period of time as well, so you won’t even need to clean the toilet nearly as much as you need to with toilets that have tanks.
Strong Flush
As mentioned in the cleaning section above, tankless toilets have a very strong flush because of the high amount of water pressure that they require to be able to work properly. This means that they don’t need to be cleaned as often because the water forces more waste out of the toilet than those toilets with tanks. But it also means you don’t have to worry that the toilet didn’t flush everything the first time.
Toilets with tanks sometimes don’t flush everything the first time, so you end up having to check every time and then stand around and wait to flush it again if it is needed. However, this isn’t a problem with tankless toilets. The high water pressure ensures that everything goes down the drain the first time. No more standing around and waiting to flush the toilet again. With tankless toilets, you will be confident that everything has left the bowl the first time.
As with most decisions and purchases, it is best to weigh the disadvantages and advantages before making your decision on your next toilet.
