Shorten the chain a bit.

Nope. Sorry. Shortening the chain does nothing. The valve still closes as soon as you release the handle.

But thanks for the response.

Mine has always done that too. I replaced the innards, and it still does it. I'm ready to buy a new toilet.
Renee

I have done some internet research, and finally called Kohler this morning, and unfortunately this is the way this toilet is designed. The first response I got fro m Kohler was "Oh, you don't want it to empty the tank, just use what's necessary." Depending on the type of use,it appears that holding down the lever to empty the tank when necessary is what one must do. Not designed to empty the tank every time when the lever is tripped.

(sigh) Such is the way of the new toilet....

I'm glad you investigated, as we had the same toilet installed last week and have had the same issue. (Incidentally, a new Toto Promenade in another bathroom has this problem, too, which is why I bought the Kohler.)

I'll start thinking of it as a "dual flush" toilet, but with a regular handle instead of the two push-buttons. We had one of those for a few years and I really hated that button, so this is better!

Not something I want to explain to guests, unfortunately. I suppose they will just have to flush twice.

Thank you for reporting back on this.
Renee

I suppose that the tank lid is removed to confirm water remaining in the tank. A good flush depends on the tank water moving quickly to the bowl. If the tank was at ceiling height, the water would flow down faster, right? But that is impractical, so the water in the tank is higher than required to furnish just the amount per flush. The tank may hold 4 gallons and use just 1.6 gallons per flush. The extra water height helps push out the 1.6 gallons faster.

If you just flush and don't hold the lever down, does everything in the bowl go down the trapway? If so, what does it matter if there is still water in the tank? We have the new Kohler Wellworth with the cartridge & it doesn't empty the whole tank, but it gets the job done with what does empty from the tank. I have not had to flush twice or hold the lever down no matter what was in the bowl.

When I asked my plumber for a toilet with an insulated tank (because of sweating in my humid summers) he said I didn't need one. He explained that because the new low flush Kohler (that we were talking about) doesn't empty the tank, the water is never ice cold because of the mixing when it refills. So no sweating issues.

We just bought an American Standard toilet. Best ever.

Here is a link that might be useful: Toilet

I'm going to get a closet auger and see if there is an obstruction. After further research, I think that the reason one flushes fine and the other doesn't flush well has to do with the drainage, not the toilet itself.

We have an entire house of Kohler portrait toilets with the same problem. I hate them and almost wish they would break so we could replace them. I feel like new codes make toilets not flush effectively. We have to flush some of ours four times!

An outhouse would be more effective. Was so excited to get new toilet in and it is horrible. New regulations suck

It is not the regulations. Our modern water saving American Standard flushes better than toilets using three times as much water.

Elizabeth-

As long as I have been buying and installing toilets in my various houses -- a long time -- there have been good ones and bad ones. I finally settled on water-saving Totos and have had no more problems. There are other good water-saving toilets...it just helps to do a lot of research and not buy a toilet on the basis of cost or looks alone, or even past good experiences with a known brand.

The quick flush is for pee, and when you hold the lever down longer it is meant for poo. I'm pleased with my Totos that work that way. (But secretly I loved those very quiet flushing 6 gal jewels that would even flush a cloth diaper or dish towel or sheet rock!!!) I AM dating myself.

-Babka

Babka, is that how folks used to get ride of sheet rock, flush it down the toilet? LOL

No kidding, Enduring, I saw a guy sweep up sawdust, nails, and trim scraps (2-4") of sheet rock and dump the dustpan contents into the toilet and hit the lever. I flushed a cloth diaper by mistake down that same old 1960's Kohler. Nothing ever clogged that sucker.

-Babka

I just bought a Kohler Cimmaron toilet today. I replaced an old 6 gallon flush toilet. Just installed it tonight and being nice, what a piece of crap. I almost never got the tank to stop leaking and then I find that it flushes for crap. I have other Kohler fixtures in my house but you can bet there won't be any more. The tank is very small and only flushes half the water. I can see already this is not going to work at all after all you can eat ribs. I also see where a guy rigged up something to make it empty the tank but when one spends $250 to supposedly get the best, one should not have to modify it to do what it should do out of the box. I will be going back to Home Depot tomorrow to see about returning it. After seeing that Kohler has not solved the problem by posts back to 2012, I think my travels with Kohler are flushed.

I finally figured out why my toilet wouldn't flush. The siphon was blocked with concrete. I had to chisel it out. Adding to the float didn't help that much after all, but opening up the siphon made it flush perfectly. I'm not sure how the concrete got in there. It's almost as if someone sabotaged it at the factory. Weird.

By the way. The siphon is a hole about 1-2" in diameter on the front side of the drain hole.

Agree with Joe--American Standard. I have the cheapest Cadet from about six years ago and that thing has incredible push with relatively little water usage.

A friend is caretaker for a cantankerous 94-year old lady who does things like flushing an entire box of Kleenex hand towels all at once and they used to call the plumber all the time till I persuaded him to swap out their much-prettier Kohler for the latest cadet. Now they only need a plumber about once every six months. ETA The plumber kept telling them to get a cadet, too.

This thread started years ago and yet the same problems persist with Kohler. I'm totally updating our master bathroom and fortunately am diligent in researching new products which we all know often are inferior to older ones. A friend just redid her bathrooms with Kohler and hates them. You can thank your federal government for passing a law in 1992 enacting low-flo toilets while overlooking showers that look more like car washes with ridiculous numbers of sprayer heads Now on to researching American Standard and Toto.

nauna-

1. Some companies do well with designing their products to meet new requirements and others don’t. There is a greater good, both environmentally and economically, in saving huge amounts of water by not having 6 gallons of water go down the drain every time a toilet is flushed.

2. Many localities prohibit showers from having multiple shower heads unless there is a switching valve to prohibit excess water use.

3. Environmental laws/regulations only get put into place after years of study and passage by a majority of both houses of Congress. It’s not like some faceless bureaucrat got up one morning and decided to persecute people.

Pining for the good ole days when you could put anything and everything down the crapper and worry not a whit! When gas stations washed down their pump stands with gasoline. And you'd clean up job sites with a burning oil drum. The blacker the smoke, the more satisfying the burn!

That's funny! All who have the low flow toilets will tell you the numerous times they need to be flushed to clear the toilet. If you think Congress has respect in this country, you don't live it the same country I do. Loathsome individuals!!

nauna-

I’ve got 4 low flush Toto toilets and I’ve never had to flush twice...in 15 years. And as for Congress, I wasn’t expressing admiration, I was just trying to explain some basics to you.

worthy yikes...I hope you're joking! 😬

Kudzu, Toto is what I'm now researching. Good to know yours are working. Kohler has not gotten positive reviews from friends who recently installed them. Just disappointing American toilets don't work as well as Japanese.

nauna- I’m sure there are some American toilets that work well; I just don’t know what they are. I switched out all of mine years ago, took a chance on Toto based on reviews, and haven’t regretted it. One place you can check out for recommendations is this plumbing web site: terrylove.com; click on the report “Low-flow toilets for consumers.”

If you aren’t already aware of it, here’s another good resource on toilet performance: https://www.map-testing.com/

I love receiving all unbiased sources. Thank you. If my plumber has insight, I'll share it here.

I have two low flow toilets. one traditional type-- a Toto, and a modern two-button "Nexstyle" (from Costco). they both flush perfectly fine.

However, the Nexstyle seems to hold on to streaks more than usual. no amount of water will rinse them away and you have to use a brush. I assume the porcelain glaze is not smooth enough. So that's another factor to consider when shopping for these things.

We have two of these Kohler lo- flows, about 2 years old. We just figured out why black filmy crud keeps dumping into bowl from tank. As the tank doesn't empty after one-flip flush, the micro-organisms in the tank, as well as accumulated elements, build up to a point where it looks like the slimey sludge pit of some pre-historic cave dweller. Two treatments of bleach, and it seems to have cleared. We're hoping a periodic (weekly?) total flush will help clear "old" water and prevent the build-up. Anyone else having this issue?

HUending-with-an-8: people avoid reading these old threads sometimes. Too many bots post on them advertising their stuff. I would suggest that you start a thread of your own.

Has anyone tried to alter the cylinder of the Kohler to shorten the top and make a slit for the fill tube so when you flush and it raises the cylinder it will go high enough to actually let the water out of the tank? Well I'm gonna try tomorrow ;) I'll let you know how it goes cuz I've tried absolutely everything else and I consider myself a toilet whisperer.

It's the flapper design everyone . . the bubble holder on the down drain side does not keep enough air to float the flapper until it's empty. The fix is to reduce the size of the bubble leak hole on the down drain side. A manufacture design issue. How stupid can they be . . .

We have Kohler Memoirs toilets in both of our houses and have had no problems. We are renovating our tenant's apartment using a Kohler Highline Arc and I'm keeping my fingers crossed now after reading these reviews.

This thread is SO OLD! Start a new one because toilets have changed over time. Most have the feature for pressing the button or lever for "liquid waste" and holding it down for another second or two for the "solid waste", which holds the flapper up longer to allow the tank to fully drain.

-Babka

Babka, this thread may have had it genesis sometime ago, but if you check you'll see current information is being shared by current participants. My research sent me to purchase a Toto toilet, and no, the antiquated two lever system is not the best choice with a higher quality product like Toto.

Not two levers, but ONE lever that you hold down for just a second more. I have two one piece Toto's that flush that way and do it very well.

-Babka

Remodeled my bathroom and installed a kohler 1.29 flush toilet. Flushed really good for about two years, than all of a sudden it quit flushing unless you held the handle down. Studying how the toilet was suppost to work, I figured the hole in front of the toilet was to get water started so I took a tooth brush and stuck the handle froward and than the brush part back into the hole and scrubbed it good! Wala, it works now like it did when it was new. Hope this helps somebody! Good luck and God bless.

I just fixed this same problem. It had nothing to do with the fill valve or handle. I put my hand in the toilet bowl. In front of the drain is a quarter size hole where water comes out (under the toilet bowl water directly in front of the big drain hole). It was completely blocked with a think layer of calcium build up. I pushed it out with my finger and the toilet is flushing just like when it was brand new.