American Standard warranty followup

Last month I wrote about my experience with American Standard’s warranty process. I praised them a little too soon.

Friday, I installed the new “Champion 4 Accelerator” flush unit. Rather than the old-style flush tower, the Accelerator is a short, wide cylinder with a domed lid an an L-shaped overflow tube. When you push the handle, the lid lifts, and the accumulated water dumps into the trapway. Installation was easy, and the kit American Standard sent me included all the hardware I needed, including new tank bolts. Unfortunately, the new valve’s performance was actually worse than the flush tower.

It turns out that the design of the Accelerator leaves about 4″ of water in the tank. In other words, it doesn’t deliver enough water through the trapway to empty the bowl. Ooops. Its height isn’t adjustable, either. I set the water level to about 1/4″ below the overflow tube, and that didn’t do it. Thus it was with great irritation that I put the old, broken flush tower back into the hall bathroom yesterday. To compound the problem, American Standard doesn’t take phone calls on Saturday, so I’ll have to call them and find out what the suggested fix is.

Now I see why there’s a class-action lawsuit against them over these toilets.