elphaba, thanks for the input regarding your toto and sanagloss. i'm also planning on going to a showroom tomorrow where, i hope, they'll have both toto and duravit styles. i'm hoping they will be able to demonstrate flushing...or at least answer my questions.

definitely keep me posted if you find any answers!

it was impossible for me to find a showroom that had these models on display, i went to 3. if you have better luck, please let me know!

I tried to reply to your email but your settings on your gardenweb profile apparently prohibit me from doing that. FYI - I am going through an "episode" of back problems that just started - I think the earliest I'm going to be able to get on the road is next week. Maybe Monday. I wonder if Duravit has a customer service number to call for questions like this. They might also have some suggestions for their largest show rooms. I'll keep you posted once I recover from this back problem.

naadimre: "i'm between the Duravit Starck 3 with Sensowash C and the Toto Aquia with S350e Washlet. i love the clean appearance of the duravit line, especially but i've heard unfortunate things about the flushing mechanism so i'm a little gun-shy in making this purchase. i was wondering, since the Washlet can be fit onto many types of toilets can the same be done for the Sensowash? I think it's a lot nicer looking than the Washlet."

There are two separate issues in your question. One is that "the Duravit Starck 3" is not a single model, but a family of models with different shaped bowls and (therefore) requiring different toilet seats. If you have a square-front Duravit, only a square front Duravit seat will fit.

The other is that Starck is a designer: he styles products, but he does not engineer them.

Toto Washlets fit Inax toilets, and Inax advanced toilet seats fit Toto toilets, because the Japanese giants sensibly have decided that it is in their mutual interest to have component interchangeability. The American and European makers are still locked into the King Gillette theory of marketing, and -- generally -- components are not interchangeable. Schick blades do not fit Gillette razors, and Gillette blades do not fit Schick razors.

Inax invented the consumer advanced or "shower" toilet seat, and Toto has sold more of those overseas (though not necessarily in the home market of Japan) than anybody. Between them, Toto and Inax have a huge base of engineering knowledge and experience; they know how to make advanced toilet seats; Inax and Toto know what mistakes to avoid in the design of advanced toilet seats; they have the know-how and the know-how-not. Duravit? Probably not. They have an internationally renowned stylist to make a seat look snazzy, but in toilet seats, function trumps style.

If the function of an advanced toilet seat is what you want, you are best off sticking with Inax or Toto; if you want styling more than you want function, go with the Duravit. (When we had the decision to make in our home, we chose a Toto toilet and an Inax seat, playing to the relative strengths of both brands.)

truthfully, i never even considered the inax seats. @herring_maven, do you really feel that the inax seats are better than the toto washlets? i've been looking at the toto S350e, which has a prior spray-down function of the basin, which i guess helps for the toilet to flush cleanly.

naadimre: "truthfully, i never even considered the inax seats. @herring_maven, do you really feel that the inax seats are better than the toto washlets?"

In Japan, Toto and Inax have the same relationship that the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have: fierce rivals, who spur each other to ever greater heights. Between them, Inax and Toto dominate the Japaense toilet seat marketplace so thoroughly that even the giant Japanese electronics companies like Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba, which both make advanced toilet seats, are small bit players.

In that rivalry, Inax plays more the hip BMW or Apple role and Toto plays more the staid Mercedes or Microsoft role, if you get the strained analogies. I prefer the Inax line of toilet seats, because Inax uses separate wands for posterior and feminine functions, which allows Inax better to optimize the angle of spray for each function. Toto uses two separate nozzles in a single wand for the separate functions.

"i've been looking at the toto S350e, which has a prior spray-down function of the basin, which i guess helps for the toilet to flush cleanly."

Without empirical basis, I question how much "help" a prewash from the toilet seat can provide to compenate for an inadequate flush by the toilet itself. Our Toto toilet (a Vespin II) flushes as cleanly as any low-flow toilet I have seen flush; it has the Toto version ("Dual Cyclone") of the top-down swirling flush that really makes a difference. Some Inax toilet models have a nearly identical flushing mechanism called "Double Vortex." Given the amount of water available in the toilet tank vs. what is held in the much smaller tank in the toilet seat, I wold put my money on the better flushing toilet washing cleaner than the lesser flushing toilet aided by a pre-wash from the toilet seat. (But I have seen neither how well a Duravit Starck 3 flushes nor how a Washlet S350a works in its pre-wash mode.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Flushing video, in case you are interested

Terrible reviews of Durravit on Amazon. Looks like Duravit is good if you are a "form before function" kind of person. Since I am definitely in the "function before form" camp, guess I'm going with Toto all the way.

Looks like that little "prior spray down function" may be a good thing to help resolve the problem I'm seeing with the Toto wall mount - (apparently Duravit has the same problem). Seems like there is a greater need to use the toilet brush with these wall mounts. I'm glad I also have a "wall mounted toilet brush" which from what I can tell is a necessity with the wall mounted toilet.

Thanks for your posting and good luck with whatever you choose. I'm off to do my ordering for our master bath. Gardenweb really motivates me to research and helps me tremendously in making decisions. Thanks for being part of that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon reviews of Duravit wall mount toilet

I have had a Duravit SensoWash C and matching Darling standard toilet that has worked flawlessly for five years since install in 2014... I love it and I think it looks much more pleasant than any of the Japanese offerings on the market in the US. I lived in Japan for two years and learned to love the bidet light and Seat warmer functions... very happy with my Duravit. Im looking into a wall mount version for the 2nd bathroom. 5 years later still haven’t found a better looking/feature packed option for my money. Without a seat warmer the slim line Duravit Sensowash is a bust for me.

They’ve added a heated slim model to the lineup!

I just got Duravit Darling New toilet but can’t seem to find a fitting bidet attachment or bidet seat (even the Duravit bidet seats not fitting—the toilet needs to have 4 holes, mine has 2). For bidet attachments the distance between the holes should be max 8.2”, mine is 10”. I’m very disappointed in Duravit, and I bought three of these thinking at least I would go with Duravit’s own bidet seats in case external bidet attachments would not work. I would have not imagined Duravit Darling New could be this very non-standard size.

This is a great discussion. Talked with the Ferguson Kitchen, Bath and Plumbing General Manager of the Southern California Area and here's his opinion. Toto has the evacuation of the toilet design down cold. He thinks it's a bit splashier than Duravit sensowash.. Duravit sensowash is about precision (German design) - and has about 8 years of history to date. Toto has the entire Asian geographical fanbase, plus many years of experience.

Duravit has an extremely large market share of the European porcelain bathroom fittings (toilet, sink, bidet). It's been around since 1817, marketing to residential, commercial, and institutional clients.

We really like the Duravit Starck ME SensoWash wall mount design.