Where does the water go? It would have to bypass the clog, and I don't see how that's possible, given that the clog can even be downstream of the toilet itself.

There is a completely separate drain that feeds into the closet bend at the floor level. It will bypass most clogs, which occur in the trapway of the toilet above the closet bend in the floor.

I would say if you have a good flushing toilet to begin with there is no need for the overflow.

Seems like a good idea, but these haven't gotten good reviews anywhere

What clogs toilets most of the time is paper (not the other yukky stuff), and the overflow looks like it would be easily clogged by paper.

This looks like a wait-and-see product.

It has a backup should the overflow holes get clogged. The channel around the rim is also connected to the overflow drain. In theory, the water level can only get as high as the rim. With that, however, a portion of the 1.28 gallons goes down the overflow drain without reaching the bowl with every flush. Of the critical review I've seen, it doesn't flush well.

This post was edited by DreamingoftheUP on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 8:01

We have it - bought it several months ago - and LOVE it. Our old toilet overflowed about once a month, and even my two-year-old boy's "experiments" with toy flushing haven't made it overflow.

We are putting another in the new bathroom.

No problems with flushing power whatsoever.

Redundancy is usually a good thing in design so I dont really see any negatives in having an overflow.