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Are wall-mounted toilets good for regular home use?

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Are wall-mounted toilets good for regular home use? Yes, wall-mounted toilets can be used in homes and are fit for regular home use. They are long-lasting just like the regular floor-mounted toilets. They require minimal maintenance and hence are suitable for home use.

Wall-mounted toilets differ from floor mounted toilets in the following ways:

  • The drainage pipe of the wall mounted toilet goes into the wall instead of the floor.
  • Wall-mounted toilets have adjustable seat height which can be as low or as high as is most comfortable
  • Wall mounted toilets have their flushing mechanism integrated into a wall

As you can see wall-mounted toilets don’t differ significantly from on-floor toilets. They have the same components that make up a normal floor-mounted toilet i.e. a toilet seat, a cistern or a tank for holding the water, and a flushing mechanism. The difference is that the wall-mounted toilets have only the toilet seat that is visible. The cistern is concealed inside a 4.5″ wall and the flushing mechanism is hidden inside the wall with the cistern as well.

So, it is unfair to disregard wall-mounted toilets entirely based on their complexity. They are a little more complicated to install but once they are installed they require minimal maintenance. The maintenance is however harder and more cumbersome. Skipping maintenance of a wall-mounted toilet can lead to problems down the line more frequently than a regular floor-mounted toilet.

You would also need to buy two other components needed to install a wall-mounted toilet which are

  • A concealed cistern
  • An actuator.
wall-mounted toilets
Photo by Max Vakhtbovych

Are wall-mounted toilets problematic?

Well, they can be. Wall-mounted toilets are quite complicated and hence not many plumbers that you find on craigslist for cheap are adept at fixing them. Hence if you run into a problem you may have to hire a certified professional to fix them. This can increase the overall cost to maintain a wall-mounted toilet but such incidents are very rare. I installed wall-mounted toilets in my home and for the past three years, I have not run into any issues.

If your house uses a septic tank then a regular cleaning/flushing/pumping of the septic tank is however necessary to ensure that your pipes don’t get clogged up. If the mechanism of a concealed cistern used in a wall-mounted toilet gets clogged up it can be very hard to unclog. You may need to break open the wall and take out the cistern entirely.

Learn more about septic tank flushing in our dedicated article here.

Learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of wall-mounted toilets here.

How much weight can a wall-mounted toilet hold?

Wall-mounted toilets are mounted on brackets that are fixed to the wall via deadbolts and hence they can bear heavy loads of as much as 500kg so you will not run into any problems on this front. It is the regular wear and tear that can loosen the bolts and not their weight-bearing capacity. It is a good practice to check the bolts of a wall-mounted toilet at least once a year to ensure that you don’t run into problems and most importantly you don’t end up hurting yourself.

What toilet do plumbers recommend?

Well, traditional plumbers still prefer the floor-mounted toilets mainly because of their ease of repair. Most plumbers are only adept at fixing floor-mounted toilets hence they can be biased in suggesting just them. Wall-mounted toilets can be a wonderful addition to a house which you plan to live in or sell. Wall-mounted toilets look more modern and unique and hence can make your house look posh.

What is the best toilet for a small bathroom? Wall-mounted vs Floor mounted toilets

I would recommend using floor-mounted toilets in rental properties because the cost to repair them comes out to be cheaper than what you will pay when you install wall-mounted toilets. But if you are constructing a family house for yourself I would definitely recommend using the wall-mounted toilets. Their benefits are still much higher than the regular ones. I am a little bit biased in this decision because I fitted them myself into my own home. But then I have no complaints about wall-mounted toilets. I have been using them for the last three years without any fault and hence would definitely recommend them.

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