I discovered something on the toilet (literally) a few weeks ago:
The "higher power" of design can only be realized once its basic objectives are met.
(You can quote me on that).
In this case, I don't care if my toilet is designed by Philipe Starck if it doesn't flush worth a damn — and it doesn't. To the point that we have well-designed plungers by OXO next to each.
Specifically, the "throat" of the toilet — where the porcelain meets the wax gasket — chokes down abruptly at the flange about 40%… a 5in path chokes down to a 3in flange. Both the path of travel before (in the toilet itself) and after (in the waste-pipe) is significantly larger — think: pinching a straw. It's hard to describe, but I can only imagine it's there to prevent cracking at the flange rather than some odd porting technique like you'd do with the heads on your engine… it's just weird, but it definitely negatively effects its function (I'll not elaborate further).
My day-job is shepherding students through design school and lofty design-centric topics like this are the bread-and-butter of classroom discussion (and yes, this has already become lecture fodder). Students like to "shoot for the stars" as it were — and we encourage them to do that… but only after mastering the fundamentals: Picasso learned to paint figuratively before he branched into Cubism and as a design-student (or as a design object), there are table-stakes to be had: a doctor needs to know anatomy, an engineer needs to know math, a communications-designer needs to know the principles of design (balance, harmony, contrast, etc.), a blender needs to blend…
…and a toilet needs to flush well.
When we re-seated our toilet after some floortile work, our plumber said to stack two wax-only rings together — and not to use the one with a plastic flange inserted into the ring of wax. He said that the plastic variety was a recipe for a clogged toilet. We did this, and rarely get clogs (although it still happens.)
We had the toto on Fairorchard. That thing could flush a bucket of golfballs. Maybe a mink stole, but I never tried.
@chris: We had the Toto Ultimate One, too, in our place in Oakland — and perhaps we were spoiled… never tried golf balls, but it was a ‘solid performer’…
@diana: In this model, this constriction seems actually like part of the design of the porcelain itself, which seems weird and unfortunately something that can’t be fixed (unless i tried to carve away the excess porcelain which I’ve been temped to do).