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



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

*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.


----------



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

*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.


----------



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

*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.


----------



## cleveman (Dec 17, 2011)

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 (Apr 12, 2006)

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

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


----------



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

Alan said:


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


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 (Jul 20, 2010)

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


----------



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

TheEplumber said:


> You like the lid too?


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-5yc...d=bemis+slow+close&storeId=10051#BVRRWidgetID




TheEplumber said:


> In the last picture- that"s not a leak at the front corner is it? :jester:


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 (Oct 21, 2012)

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?


----------



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

jagans said:


> man how old is your house 1939?


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.


----------



## gusherb94 (Oct 16, 2008)

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 (Feb 11, 2005)

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:laughing: 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 (Oct 4, 2012)

gusherb94 said:


> 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!


In what way did it look "awful"?


----------



## gusherb94 (Oct 16, 2008)

stephen9666 said:


> In what way did it look "awful"?


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.


----------



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

gusherb94 said:


> 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
> Alto


I bought a Summit 3, but decided to return it to try a different model. Here's how mine looked. 

http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/what-s-your-opinion-build-quality-mansfield-summit-3-pics-164339/


----------



## SirJohn (Jun 10, 2013)

I posted this somewhere else, but thought i would share it here too. I just put one of these in. I got the round front model which is standard height. Street price is about $100 so just a few bucks more than the builders grade Mansfield Alto. For $100, I am impressed. If enough people knew about this one, it would probably kill Mansfield's alto sales. Fast and powerful flush. Seems to be slightly more powerful than the Kohler Wellworth/Highline (post 2011 redesign) but we'll see for sure once we get more use out of it. The trapway design, while not perfect, is notably better than that used on the Alto. The round front model is very compact and will fit in about as small as space as you can fit a toilet in. On 12" rough in, it is barely over 27" long from the finished wall. The tank, same one as the elongated model, is on the small side and the overall package is definitely on the narrower side, though bowl is still standard size for round front.

All the cascades are made in Columbia vs US. Most other Mansfield's are produced in the US. Build quality was very high on my sample. Blew Kohler out of the water. The cost-cutting for the low price is evident in the cheap plastic handle/lever, which I expect to break at some point and the use of steel bolts vs brass for the tank to bowl connection, but those were really my only two complaints. This model uses a conventional fill valve and flapper in a 3" size.

One observation on the flapper. The flush valve base is very tall. So tall that the flapper actually sits a full 3 inches above the base of the tank. The standard flush lets the water go all the way down to the level of the flapper, so no matter how long you hold the handle down, you will never get much more than the 1.28 gallon flush spec. You give up the gain in water pressure from having the flapper close early on tanks with the flapper mounted towards the bottom, but gain some pressure from gravity because the water is flowing from a three inch higher level. In any case the pressure of the flush is good so whose to say which is better. The one disadvantage is that you've got three inches of water to empty out of the tank by hand when it comes time for servicing the fill valve.


----------



## stephen9666 (Oct 4, 2012)

Long-term update. 

It's still working well and still on all its original parts. I'm definitely happy with it. 

My Toto Drake II, which was installed right around the same time, needed a new flush valve in about a year. The replacement, purchased at Menards, has already lasted significantly longer than the original.


----------



## PMG75 (Feb 24, 2021)

Does anybody else have a long-term update/review of this toilet? Does the swirl flush actually help clean the bowl (when a bit of #2 doesn't hit the water spot) or is the water exiting those holes simply too weak to do any meaningful bowl cleaning? Does the porcelain stain easily? The design is an interesting concept and the price is very reasonable. However, there aren't too many reviews. For me, this would replace two 2015 Mansfield Altos that have horrible bowl rinse and weak solid waste removal. I also have a 2017 Toto Eco Drake... excellent waste removal, but horrible bowl rinse and a bit expensive relative to its performance IMO.


----------



## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

5 year old thread


----------

