The trials and trubulations of selecting bathroom equipment

[ProDave]

Nearing completion of our main bathroom. Just one more item to buy before I can complete the plumbing. A concealed lavatory cistern to fit inside a vanity unit (with a back to wall toilet)  You would think this would be straightforward.

 

Not if "the ladies" are involved.  You see the most important part of selecting the right cistern, is nothing to do with it's technical merits, choosing a reliable brand that can be serviced easily,, choosing on price, or any other such requirement.  No, the ONLY criteria is choosing a flush plate that both of the ladies like. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

So starts many hours of internet time.

 

The first thing you find, is most suppliers treat the flush plate as an insignificant (but essential) sub purchase. IF you are lucky you will find a small poor picture of it.  You have to be really really lucky to find a decent picture of it, and if you actually find someone that tells you the size of it then you have done really really well indeed.

 

Then add in the complication, that daughter has chosen a large rectangular flush plate for "her" bathroom (I think it's grossly over size but my opinion does not matter) and SWMBO has chosen a smaller square flush plate for the en-suite.  At least both flush plates are the same make.

 

So now we know what we want, we just have to buy it.  That's when you find some suppliers (a lot actually) only stock one of the flush plates. Then when you eventually find one that does supply both types and are a keen price, you start on the long journey through "checkout" only to find they want to charge £99 for delivery to our "remote" location.

 

We finally got them from these people, https://www.bathroomsupastore.com/ being the only ones we could find with both flush plates, not quite the cheapest prices but at least they only charged £9.99 delivery.

 

So please, nobody tell me that Tavistock cisterns are rubbish, because as already stated that is not a "selection criteria"

[vfrdave]

I feel your pain, nearly 4 hours in bathroom showroom last week.  Too much choice and that's just for toilets.

 

Wall hung, enclosed cistern etc

Rim less, comfort height, semi-comfort height

 

Never even considered the flush plate

[Hecateh]

This 'lady' is just buying and couldn't give a monkey's about the design of the plate

If they are - it's because they can.  

[Onoff]

See now, I bought quality Geberit stuff cheap off eBay / Gumtree THEN showed the missus the price of it new! That sold it! The flush plates limited choice was just a fait accompli!

[ProDave]

This all started a couple of weeks back when I was asked the question" What toilet cistern are you going to buy"

 

"The same as in the last house" was my reply. They were cheap, easy to install, dependable and (when one did play up) easy and cheap to service. What more could you want?

 

"but I didn't like the flush plate, choose a different one."  I then had to explain you can't just fit any make of flush plate to any make of cistern.  So that took me to the start of this thread.

 

The next "discussion" will no doubt be where to fit it, left, right, or middle. I suspect middle, to force one to close the lid in order to reach the button.....

[Onoff]

I was surprised at just how large our Geberit Kappa 20 flush plates are. Still, got them for around £20 each!