Toilet Bowl Cracks - Replace?

[buckeye95]

All,

Yesterday my wife told me we had to replace the seat on one of our toilets since my three year old son's "bad aim" had rusted out the hinge and it had broken off. As I was taking off the old one, I noticed that one side had three cracks eminating from the through-hole used to mount the seat. Looking at the picture, you can see the cracks at about the 1, 4, and 7 O-clock positions. None of them seem to go all the way to critical parts of the bowl assembly, but I know that cracks are one of those things that can only get worse, especially with the seat going up and down and people sitting on it. My question is, do you think this really needs to get replaced? Even though the bowl is only a little more then 2 years old, it is not carried anymore, so I would be looking at about $120 to replace both the bowl and tank with an equivalent model. I think I know what the answer to this will be, but thought I would try to get a couple opinions first to see if there is any hope...

Regards,

Pete

[Uncle Cracker]

You could try to leach in some thin-bodied CA glue into the cracks, but I think I'd replace the whole thing. The new ones really save water (although, if only two years old, the busted one is probably a low-water model already)...

[buckeye95]

Yes - it is already a 1.6 gpf (gallons per flush) model. I would not mind so much if it were original with the house (20+ years old).

Pete

[cabinetman]

My suggestion is to replace it. If the bowl cracks wide open it won't be a pleasant sight. Furthermore, you should make him pay for it. Take it out of his allowance or something.
.

[buckeye95]

Thanks for the advice - this has confirmed my suspicions that replacement is in order.

Cabinetman - I will try to find a way to break it to my 3-year old that he has no allowance for the next few years Actually, if this were the only thing in my house that he destroyed I would be thrilled.

[Kristofor]

Actually, if this were the only thing in my house that he destroyed I would be thrilled.

If I had anything in my house that the little guy hasn't destroyed or at least made a serious attempt at I'd be thrilled! In the less than 20 seconds it took for me to bring in his pack-n-play from the car this morning he managed to build a tower with a beach pail and his little chair on top of a rocker/recliner and was trying to figure out how to jump from that to the flat panel TV ~8' away...

[Wood_workur]

If I had anything in my house that the little guy hasn't destroyed or at least made a serious attempt at I'd be thrilled! In the less than 20 seconds it took for me to bring in his pack-n-play from the car this morning he managed to build a tower with a beach pail and his little chair on top of a rocker/recliner and was trying to figure out how to jump from that to the flat panel TV ~8' away...

A 3 year old jumping that far is totally Olympic material.

[Santa Clarita Len]

I have a friend who says his 3 year old would break an anvil if he had one.

[tfischer]

If it were mine I wouldn't replace it but would keep an eye on it. It's possible that the crack is not in the porcelain itself, but in the glaze. You see that sort of thing on glazed coffee cups a lot...

The worst that could happen is that that chunk will come off. It doesn't look to be that the whole bowl will break off or anything like that, so if that happens, then you can replace it...

Just my opinion as a cheapskate

By the way, it's possible the damage was caused by someone overtorquing the lid screws, not by the banging of the seat...

[LCHIEN]

If it were mine I wouldn't replace it but would keep an eye on it. It's possible that the crack is not in the porcelain itself, but in the glaze. You see that sort of thing on glazed coffee cups a lot...

The worst that could happen is that that chunk will come off. It doesn't look to be that the whole bowl will break off or anything like that, so if that happens, then you can replace it...

Just my opinion as a cheapskate

By the way, it's possible the damage was caused by someone overtorquing the lid screws, not by the banging of the seat...

I'm sorta with Tfischer on all his points. If the crack won't result in a water leak and collateral damage if it lets go completely then maybe a watch and wait is in order.

[buckeye95]

" By the way, it's possible the damage was caused by someone overtorquing the lid screws, not by the banging of the seat..."

I agree. I did not notice them until later, so I'm wondering if that is the case or if it was caused by me trying to free the stuck bolt. That would not surprise me - I'm the king of the job that ends up taking 5x as long and costing 10x as much

Love the stories about kids. My two favorites with my son are when he saw me using a rubber mallet to seal the tops of metal paint cans, then went down later trying to "be like daddy" and used a metal hammer to bang on the tops of my plastic Dutch Boy paint containers, breaking them. We also had a couple cases after the new furnace / heat pump were installed where he crawled up on a chair to play with the "pretty buttons" on the new thermostat and managed to turn off the A/C and turn on the "Emergency Heat" in the middle of July. It was 90+ degrees out and the house was very hot when I got home....looked at the thermostat to check out the temperature and noticed the furnace had been on most of the afternoon.

Pete

[Daryl]

This is a job for that epoxy they sell on tv. You could rebuild the entire corner if it broke off.

[chopnhack]

IDK, unless your certain of the extent of those cracks, I wouldnt risk it. If the bowl should crack you could have a 5 gallon a minute leak. Imagine coming home after work to find that kind of mess? What do you think the price tag to fix it will be then? My 2 cents.

[Santa Clarita Len]

" By the way, it's possible the damage was caused by someone overtorquing the lid screws, not by the banging of the seat..."

I agree. I did not notice them until later, so I'm wondering if that is the case or if it was caused by me trying to free the stuck bolt. That would not surprise me - I'm the king of the job that ends up taking 5x as long and costing 10x as much

Love the stories about kids. My two favorites with my son are when he saw me using a rubber mallet to seal the tops of metal paint cans, then went down later trying to "be like daddy" and used a metal hammer to bang on the tops of my plastic Dutch Boy paint containers, breaking them. We also had a couple cases after the new furnace / heat pump were installed where he crawled up on a chair to play with the "pretty buttons" on the new thermostat and managed to turn off the A/C and turn on the "Emergency Heat" in the middle of July. It was 90+ degrees out and the house was very hot when I got home....looked at the thermostat to check out the temperature and noticed the furnace had been on most of the afternoon.

Pete

My 3 year old grandson used my bathroom and came to the garage where I was working and was looking for a hammer. I asked him why he needed a hammer and he said "to get the seashells out of the toilet seat". It seems he was enamored with my new lucite toilet seat with the shells embedded in it. He is the greatest!

[newbie2wood]

I agree with the lets-wait-and-see position since the cracks are confined to the seat hinge area.

If you decide to repair the hairline cracks, check out this website for ideas:

http://www.deabath.com/Hightank/Toil...porcrepair.htm
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KID DEPAKOTE