We have had to replace an 8 yr old WC due to numerous cracks ( ok left myself open for fun here).
We also have one over 20 years old no probs.
So head off to get a replacement WC - price I could buy new surf gear or other stuff.
Why is one WC $300 and another fancy shape so call modern designer WC $1200 plus?
We were told the quality of all is similar.
It's $1200 because people will pay $1200 for it.
Read reviews, $300 job probably flushes just as good if not better.
Any color other than white will at least double the price.
I designed and built a townhouse a couple of years ago in line with the LHDG (Livable House Design Guidelines) that had an ensuite that I wanted to be fully accessible.
Long story short - I bought 2 toilets, an 'access' compliant toilet ($1,250.00), and a standard pan/cistern ($220.00). The main difference I could see was that the more expensive dunny didn't come with a seat or lid!
just remove it and squat over the hole left there! Big saving, not getting winged at when leaving the lid up, and no need towait to get in as it is used for the purpose only (not a reading seat 
)
Short answer, the cheap one will probably do the job, provided it's the right one, Reece Plumbing probably won't sell a bad one and I know they have pan cistern sets for under $300 because I recently needed just a replacement Caroma cistern and Caroma wanted almost 700 clams just for the cistern, I went to Reece and got a set called Dominique Posh for $280, I just used the cistern and saved the pan for a rainy day, should that be "pooy day?"
7 Years ago I would definitely have told you to spend the big bucks and get a caroma because they had been engineered to stop the "marking" associated with the new low flush volume pans (Marking is a nice way of saying "poop stripe" down the back of the pan). It's now possible that the cheap Asian imports have caught up with Caroma in the design of their pans and the direction of flow of the flush water.
A bit of history from back in 2007
www.smh.com.au/national/flushed-with-the-best-intentions-20070621-gdqfpb.html
Can you believe that dual flush pans were so bad when they first came out that there was a black market operating in secondhand full flush pans for new homes?
To this day, I think it was a bad idea for the industry to chase that additional green star by dropping the flush volumes down to 4.5 or even 4 litres, from the original 6 litre full flushes. On far too many occasions people still feel the need, maybe just out of embarrassment, to give a pan an additional flush or two, and before you know it, you've flushed away 12 litres and there's still probably a baked on turd that the next person with waste a few flushes trying to dispose of.
Better it just has the full 6 litres right from the start when the offending material was still a bit movable.
By the way, I not advocating that anyone should do this, but it sure did look like it would have been easy to just extend the overflow pipe on that new cistern to give a 6 litre flush. But that would be wrong 
BTW, I'm not a plumber, I manage properties and refurbishment's.
Select to expand quoteobct said..
By the way, I not advocating that anyone should do this, but it sure did look like it would have been easy to just extend the overflow pipe on that new cistern to give a 6 litre flush. But that would be wrong
BTW, I'm not a plumber, I manage properties and refurbishment's.
Yeah, I think a few are made just this way, to be 'adjustable' so that you can increase the flush volume.
I replaced a shower head recently, and amongst the water saving shower heads I found the same boring type I use, but alas it is now (well it really was when I bought the same type before anyway) 'water saving'. I tried it in its natural state, and after a few minutes removed the o-ring, and turned it back to a full pressure shower head. I love it when people design like this, compliant, but just a little bit easy to modify to not compliant
As for cisterns, I wonder if there really are any ones that work really well on low volume.
a bit of vicks wiped above the top lip, and it's surprising how many times everyone can go without flushing
recession/depression coming 2014 2015 2016!
we have a caroma sh**ter that has a sink built into the lid. it came in 2 models $700 and $1000. when we tried to buy it we were told that they were on back order and new stock was on a ship at that time. we commented that that was odd with them being advertised as being made in australia!. the toilet was getting fitted on the saturday and my wife was shopping on the monday. the first plumbing shop basincally refunded our money and suggested we shop elsewhwere.
when she went to reece plumbing( heres the thank you ad) they said they would find one. there was 1 toilet available in australia. good to see they are encouraging low water use. It was the more expensive model, the extra expense was due to the "special ' seat fitted to it. we are in kalgoorlie ,it was in melbourne. Reece plumbing fitted the lesser seat AND airfreighted the loo to Kalgoorlie ,at thier expense,arriving on thursday. the loo is awesome, and the difference in internal shape is noticablewhen flushing , uses half the water , which has already been used for handwashing.
Awesome effort by a local supplier.
it was my first time installing a loo , and thats alot of cash if you stuff up.i suspect that the airfrieght was as much as the seat cost. but Reece has had our business ever since
Same as anything. A Falcon or Commodore will get you from A-B, but after while the design looks tired and it starts falling apart.
There's always a middle ground though. The cheapest toilet will flush and do the job, but it's probably got a flimsy plastic seat that moves around and hardware that corrodes or fails.
At the other end, 'designer' loos are placed into the market to make more profits and drive design improvement in cheaper models. You don't need an Audi or BMW when a Subaru or Skoda will do.
Loos around $500-700 are the best value for money. The quality is not similar as suggested to you.
Here's one if you want quality and looks http://www.caroma.com.au/bathrooms/toilet-suites/luna/luna-wall-faced-toilet-suite
or
www.fowler.com.au/products/toilet-pans/seido/seido-wall-faced-close-coupled-pan
and if you're not in need of a wall faced loo: www.caroma.com.au/bathrooms/toilet-suites/profile/profile-ii-close-coupled-toilet-suite
get the a bidet if you got girls in the house save you thousands on wasted toilet paper
While we are talking about all things toilet, what is it with the modern day set-outs?
Am I missing something obvious, or do these set-outs (the distance from the wall to the centre of the pan's outlet) make it impossible to keep the toilet seat from falling down. Obviously designed by a woman!
Have I just been unlucky and the set-out of my pan and cistern is not compatible, or has image overtaken everything and no guy has been man enough to call out 'the toilet seat won't stay up'? I'd let to see a 'toilet seat won't fall down' index created and displayed proudly on the article, right next to the 5 star water rating 
For what its worth, for any plumbers, I used the maximum set-out I could get away with for modern pans, and its still touch and go. If I had gone for the minimum I would have rigged up some rope by now...
160mm is a good set out. a lot of the pan collar connectors are adjustable now anyway.
I wondered about the new toilets. They seem to be engineered to be impossible to use without creating massive skiddies. Tiny little landing zones and u always need the brush. Id rather an old one. It seems odd we cant design a skiddyless shxtter
Select to expand quoteFormulaNova said..
While we are talking about all things toilet, what is it with the modern day set-outs?
Am I missing something obvious, or do these set-outs (the distance from the wall to the centre of the pan's outlet) make it impossible to keep the toilet seat from falling down. Obviously designed by a woman!
Have I just been unlucky and the set-out of my pan and cistern is not compatible, or has image overtaken everything and no guy has been man enough to call out 'the toilet seat won't stay up'? I'd let to see a 'toilet seat won't fall down' index created and displayed proudly on the article, right next to the 5 star water rating
For what its worth, for any plumbers, I used the maximum set-out I could get away with for modern pans, and its still touch and go. If I had gone for the minimum I would have rigged up some rope by now...
If you get a wall faced loo the seats are all fixed position. Problem solved. Just a bit more $$$
Select to expand quoteBeaglebuddy said..
It's $1200 because people will pay $1200 for it.
Read reviews, $300 job probably flushes just as good if not better.
Any color other than white will at least double the price.
Not sure about that colour vs price comment.
I got a Mission Brown one with matching seat, cost f/all and works a treat.
Never have to clean it either 
Select to expand quoteDarkspi said..
get the a bidet if you got girls in the house save you thousands on wasted toilet paper
In Brazil in every s h i t house they have a little butt shower attached to the side of the cistern so no need to use paper, I am not sure why but you are not to flush the paper but you have to place it in a bin that you will find in every s h i t t e r, maybe they have bad sewers???? If you put paper in there it blocks in no time, even in high rise buildings? 
