A ground-floor bathroom is a unicorn in my neighborhood, where such a thing is rare among the early-1900s housing stock. After a long, arduous home search, we finally found one. However, the powder room had its quirks: In the 1990s, it had been converted from part of an existing porch, and it even had radiant-heat flooring—the luxury!
Well, that powder room—which was really a poorly insulated box on stilts—broke a year after we moved in (frozen pipe). Then it became a glorified storage space for six years, through a pandemic that shot construction costs sky-high. Last summer, we finally bit the bullet: We rebuilt the porch into a well-insulated mudroom masterpiece, and we tackled the defunct bathroom, too.
At the top of my wish list for the new bathroom was a toilet we never had to think about. The existing toilets in the house clogged regularly, spurring my husband to beg our children to eat more vegetables while he snaked the pipes.
After careful consideration, we chose the Toto Drake, a beauty of a throne that my colleague Doug Mahoney has since named the top pick in his guide to the best toilet. We love the Drake so much that we’ve installed two more, to replace the easy-to-clog, low-flow monstrosities in the upstairs bathrooms.
The irony here is that now, rather than never thinking about my toilets, I think (and talk) about them all the time. I tell people how much I love the Toto Drake at parties. I invite friends with their own renovation projects to come try it for themselves. Who cares about the carefully selected paint color, the flooring, or the vanity? Have you seen this toilet?
Top pick
Beloved by many, this toilet is comfortable, stylish, long-lasting, easy to clean, and equipped with a powerful flush.
When we were building our ground-floor bathroom, we wanted to ensure it would be as accessible as possible for our aging parents when they visited.
After a bit of research, we found that the Toto Drake has models that meet the Americans With Disabilities Act’s recommendations. That means this toilet, at 17.625 inches off the floor, is higher than average, so it’s more comfortable for taller folks and for those who need a bit of an assist to stand up from a seated position. Since my kids are out of the toddler stage, I didn’t worry about it being too high for them, and we always had a step stool to help them in the past anyway.
With a 1.28-gallon flush, the Drake meets water-usage criteria for all 50 states, but it doesn’t feel like the low-flow toilets of the past. The design employs a two-hole swirly flush method that Toto named the Tornado. And it produces a flush that’s strong and clean every time.
Doug explained to me that this cleanliness comes from the toilet’s aggressive flush. The water enters the bowl horizontally, in two large jets, and it actually swirls around the bowl eight times farther than a regular flushing toilet. We never have to worry about clogs or skid marks in the bowl, which is something my dear colleague Jon Chase experienced with his low-flow toilet.
In the two bathrooms that had enough space, we chose an elongated bowl instead of a round one, since people with penises generally prefer the extra room. (This is one of those situations where I accept something as fact without too much inquiry. I care about my guests’ comfort, but I don’t really need to explore the details.)
One important note is that the Drake comes in both 10-inch and 12-inch rough-ins, which is the distance between the center of the waste pipe and the wall. Although a 12-inch rough-in is now standard, homes built before the middle of the 20th century or those with smaller bathrooms may have a 10-inch rough-in. Regardless of your home’s age, you should always double-check the dimensions to make sure the fixture will fit.
This mid-priced beauty costs around $500. It’s important to note that the price doesn’t always include the cost of the toilet seat, and we had to buy the seat separately. (Some toilets come without a seat because many owners choose to add a washlet, which would render an included seat unnecessary.) The total was a few hundred dollars more than I ever expected to spend on a toilet, but it’s still thousands less than the price of luxury commodes that sing, gently warm one’s butt, or open and close automatically.
The Toto Drake is readily available at big-box stores—which is ideal when you’re renovating with a time crunch. This convenience was my favorite part of the purchase process: We didn’t have to worry about special ordering or having to wait for our Toto seats, since we could pick them up from Lowe’s (or have them shipped directly to our home for free in less than a week). Buying a toilet this way doesn’t always work out—and getting one through a plumbing supplier gives you access to a fuller range of options. But it worked out great for us.
The plumbers Doug interviewed for the toilet guide raved about the Drake for its quality, durability, and value. One told him that the Drake is the “front-runner on a high-end, good professional toilet.” Another said, “They may cost a little more, but you get what you pay for.” Doug added that plumbing message boards are clogged with people saying good things about the Toto Drake. “It’s rare to see that kind of universal enthusiasm for a product,” he told me.
We’ve lived with these toilets for about six months. And we’ve hosted family gatherings where I smiled every time I heard a flush from the new powder room. Although the Drake hasn’t yet seen the worst of what might come—norovirus, hangovers, or colonoscopy prep—I know it’ll stand up proudly to the job.
This article was edited by Katie Okamoto and Megan Beauchamp.
