A close-up look at the Mansfield Cascade rimless toilet -PICS-

stephen9666

I just bought this toilet and I thought people here might be interested in seeing it, as it’s a unique design.

Background

My girlfriend and I just bought our first house and replacing both toilets was one of the first projects. I went with a Toto Drake II for the upstairs bathroom, but I wanted something cheaper for the terrible bathroom in our unfinished basement. A full revamp of this bathroom is one of our future projects, but for now I just wanted a new toilet in there.

I also needed a toilet that would fit in the space. It’s a 12” rough, but the foundation juts out several inches at the bottom of the wall. This means many toilets, like my Drake II, wouldn’t fit.

The Mansfield Cascade is a model I’d researched a little, and the spec sheet showed it would fit. The MSRP is $186. I paid $122 from a local plumbing supply house. This is the elongated bowl, ADA height version.

Here are a few of the specs:
- 1.28 gpf
- Bowl 4817, tank 3816
- made in Colombia
- 3” flush valve
- 2” trapway
- 800g map rating

Link to the Cascade on the Mansfield website:
http://www.mansfieldplumbing.com/Pro...6-%281%29.aspx

Here’s what I started with. This is an ancient Douglas Leader that was cracked and overall in terrible shape. It still worked, though.

Attached Thumbnails

 

stephen9666

The bowl

The build quality overall seems pretty good. It’s actually a little better than I expected at this cheap price point, but it isn’t quite as nice as my Toto Drake II. There are a few minor speckles in the porcelain I found by really studying it up close. The casting appears even and the glazing overall appears well applied and looks good.

This is a rimless toilet. The water for the bowl wash comes out of a series of angled holes along the inside of the bowl. On a standard toilet, the holes are hidden under a rim.

The trapway has a sharp turn at the end. We shall see if I have any clogging issues. This toilet does have an 800g map rating, so I'm not too worried.

Attached Thumbnails

         

stephen9666

The tank

Nothing unusual here that I can see.

You'll see this model uses a traditional 3" flapper, not the flush tower used on some other Mansfield models.

Attached Thumbnails

     

stephen9666

Initial impressions

Since this toilet has only been installed a few days, I’m not going to pass judgement. I’ll give an honest review of the performance after it gets some miles on it, so to speak.

The white used on this Mansfield toilet is a little different from Toto’s Cotton White. It’s actually a little off white, so it looks like it may be closer to Toto’s Colonial White.

Installation was quite easy. The Mansfield came with steel tank-to-bowl hardware. I upgraded to a set of brass bolts. I went with a $20 Bemis slow-close seat from Home Depot. It’s almost a perfect color match and fits the toilet well.

I’ve been heading down to the basement for my bathroom breaks to use the Cascade. The toilet flushes well and has been working fine so far.

Attached Thumbnails

   

cleveman

Took me a while to see what rimless means.

The big thing for me is that there is no "under-rim" to get dirty and be hard to clean.

So good show.

Alan

No offense, but you couldn't pay me to take a mansfield toliet.

Glad you like it though, and an interesting design nonetheless.

__________________
Journeyman Plumber

stephen9666

Yeah, I have read some complaints. But most of the complaints I've read are about the builder grade units like the Altos or the models that have a flush tower. Actually, I believe the Alto uses the flush tower.

The models I considered (Maverick, Summit 3 and Cascade) use their 3" flapper design.

We will see how it holds up and performs. But, so far so good.

TheEplumber

Thanks for the review Keep us updated. You like the lid too?
In the last picture- that"s not a leak at the front corner is it?

__________________
When posting in forums, letting us know your location will help others give better feedback/advice/solutions to your questions

stephen9666

I assume you mean the seat, not the tank lid?

On the seat, it's sort of flimsy. But it's slow close, cheap, easy to get and it's made in the USA.

I also have this same seat on my Drake II. It's cheap, but it seems to be working fine.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...1#BVRRWidgetID


It does sort of look like a leak in the picture, but it's not.

That's a place where the old paint on the concrete has chipped away.

jagans

Thanks.

That seat would last about a week for me, being a FA. I ended up buying two new seats through Amazon for 28 bucks a pop. No crossbar seats just dont last for my family. Nor do compressed sawdust seats. Real wood, preferably Maple, Chrome Crossbar and at least 4 support pads for me. The quick off idea by Bemis was great, too bad the plastic hinges break so fast. Let us know how long that plastic obtuse flush arm lasts.

Wheres the magazine rack?

man how old is your house 1939?

__________________
" A lot of men build things, and a lot of things fall down "

stephen9666

Even older, 1923. This year marks its 90th birthday.

To be fair, though, this terrible basement bathroom is the worst part of the house. The little bit of painting I did while I had the toilet out made a big improvement. There's still plenty of work to do, though.

Attached Thumbnails

 

gusherb94

The quality of that Cascade's porcelain doesn't look so bad. I almost bought a Summit 3 today, but then took a good look at the display, pulled one out of the box and just got turned off by the awful way it looked! Mansfield's porcelain seems sloppy to me, even compared to American Standards infamous quality control! Not sure what it is, perhaps they send all their seconds to the box store where I was looking at them? No plumbing supply sells Mansfield around here so I couldn't go to one and get a "real" Mansfield toilet anyway.

Think I'll be sticking with Gerber, or Toto, If I want decent quality, and American Standard (on a good day that is) is the lowest I'm willing to go.

747

Toto toilets were king at one time. But now American manufacturers have caught up. I just had a american standard champion 4 1.6 installed a month ago. LOVE IT. I'm still trying to drop a number 2 which won't go down on the first flush I think i paid 250 for it. I ordered it online from lowes instore pickup. Its taller ada compliant.

Concerning gerber the ultra flush.

stephen9666

In what way did it look "awful"?

gusherb94

Glazing didn't look to be of very good quality and the porcelain had alot of "blemishes" such as what looked like someone slipped with a tool and made a nice indentation in the rim of one of the ones I saw. They seem to just look sloppy, like it was real wet clay they were using and not paying alot of attention to detail either.

I'd have to take a picture to get across what I'm referring to. I have an Alto made in 2009 in the basement and the glazing and casting looks better then what I saw the other day. I'm sure there are better built Summit 3's floating around then what I saw.