The 3 Best Toilets of 2025
We recommend a toilet with a 1.28-gallon flush. Toilets are currently mandated to have, at the most, a 1.6-gallon flush, but we found many toilets with a smaller, 1.28-gallon flush with excellent flush-test scores. A 1.28-gallon flush is the maximum amount for a toilet to meet the EPA’s WaterSense certification, and all of our research has led us to believe that a mandate of 1.28 gallons is on the horizon. Some places, such as California, already require a 1.28-gallon flush.
But low-flow toilets have a bad reputation. This is a lingering perception due to a botched initial rollout in the early 1990s. “A lot of the public still doesn’t trust the low-flow toilets of today,” plumber Mitch Smedley told us. He explained that when faced with the mandate of using only 1.6 gallons to flush, as opposed to the 3.5 gallons they had previously been using, “all the manufacturers did was put less water in the tank, without changing anything else.” This led to a lot of customer dissatisfaction and a stigma that persists even today, despite considerable evidence (including our personal experience) that a 1.28-gallon flush is plenty strong.
Toilets that use even less water are available. You can find models with 1-gallon and 0.8-gallon flushes, but although many of them perform well on flush tests, there is a concern about what happens in the drain line. “The more we try to conserve water, the more we highlight the fact that our drain lines need a certain amount of water to work properly,” Smedley told us. Without enough water, solids can stall in the drain line, and “if TP stalls out down the line long enough, it really sticks to the side of the pipe.” Smedley continued: “And so, the next flush, it doesn’t wash it down, so more TP sticks to it, and more TP sticks to it.” So when a flush is reduced to “just enough liquid to clear the bowl,” then the main drain isn’t getting a periodic rinsing that a more substantial flush provides. Smedley is even cautious of 1.28-gallon flushes; during our conversations, he highlighted how they may present issues in older homes with aging cast-iron drain lines. This is especially important in a half bath, which lacks the water of a shower or tub consistently washing the drain line clear.
A toilet should have a high MaP score. A MaP score is an evaluation of a toilet’s flushing ability and water usage. It’s a voluntary program, but one that all quality toilet manufacturers participate in. An independent lab flushes 50-gram logs consisting of soybean paste in a latex sleeve down a toilet in increasing amounts, all the way up to 1,000 grams, which is where the testing is capped. To achieve the EPA’s WaterSense certification, a toilet needs a minimum score of 350 grams. This video of a toilet failing to pass the 500-gram mark offers a sense of the process. (Be warned: The soybean-paste logs look extremely realistic.)
Most toilets can handle more than you might think. Many toilets achieve the 1,000-gram benchmark, which is a lot of material, considering what the average person produces. “We found out that approximately 95% of people’s visits to the washroom are 250 grams or lower,” MaP’s Bill Gauley told us. Many toilets, including the models we recommend, have a 1,000-gram score, which, given what Gauley said, should overshoot the mark by quite a bit—1,000 grams is about 2.2 pounds. “If you’re putting 1,000 grams in on your visit, you don’t feel well, right?,” Toto’s Bill Strang said. But as excessive as it is, a high MaP score also leaves plenty of room for instances such as a child who is learning to use the toilet and may be using an excess of toilet paper.
There’s more to a flush than oomph. Although MaP testing is a good way to compare toilets, it concerns only flushing power; you can find plenty of basic, inexpensive toilets with a 1,000-gram score. The testing does not involve bowl cleanliness, seat height, or bidet integration, nor does it take into account all of the human variables that go into a trip to the loo. “I’ve seen some toilets advertised that they flush 1,000 grams, and they suck. And then I’ve seen other toilets advertise that they flush 800 grams, and they’re awesome,” Smedley told us. “In reality, when you have actual human waste in real TP, they may not perform as well as in the results.”
Circular flushes help keep the bowl clean. Water enters a traditional toilet bowl through a series of holes on the underside of the rim, “like 20 small squirt guns spraying the inside of a bowl,” said Kohler’s Luke Bartel. Plenty of efficient flushers use this system, but a circular flush, in which the water enters through one or two holes that send it horizontally along the edge of the bowl, adds a number of cleanliness benefits.
Each manufacturer has its own nomenclature for its specific circular flush, and each system is a little different, but the overall effect is similar. Speaking of Toto’s system, Strang told us that, compared with a traditional flush, “the water travels eight times further around the bowl in a jet action that then scrubs that surface much more effectively than just a rinse.” And without water coming from the underside of the rim, that part of the bowl can be redesigned to be much easier to clean.
We prefer single-flush models to dual-flush toilets. Dual-flush models, those that have two options for flushing—a larger amount of water for #1 and a smaller amount for #2—sound great in theory, but they have issues. As Gauley pointed out, their flushing mechanism is more complicated, and resulting problems can lead to more expensive repairs. Strang noted that the pool of water is typically smaller on dual-flush toilets, an observation echoed by one annoyed Wirecutter colleague, who regrets his purchase of a dual-flush toilet. Smedley told us that people often use the wrong flush, which then causes problems in the main drain line. A dual-flush model was “responsible for one of the worst residential drain clogs I have ever seen,” Smedley told us. “It took us hours and hours and hours to get the line free and clear of all the TP.”
The aesthetics of a toilet should fit the space. “First and foremost, you want to make sure that you’re getting a toilet that fits your aesthetic needs and your specific household needs,” Strang told us. We looked for toilets that offered a variety of looks, ranging from modern to traditional. Having just gone through a bathroom renovation, I’m well aware that a toilet has to fit with not only the bathroom but also the entire aesthetic of the home. Keep in mind too that the whites of each manufacturer may be slightly off from one to the next, so if you have an American Standard tub, for example, you may want to consider an American Standard toilet for that bathroom to maintain visual consistency.
We looked for a taller toilet and an elongated bowl. The major manufacturers all sell toilets that are taller than average—and, again, each has its own naming system, from “comfort height” to “universal height” to “chair height.” Regardless of what they’re called, these models all position the toilet seat at 17 to 19 inches high and are thus at least 2 inches taller than a traditional 15-inch toilet. That taller height is required for an ADA-approved toilet (more on that in a moment), but many people, particularly those on the taller side, just find it a more comfortable height. We’ve spoken to people who refuse to go back to a regular-height toilet after using a taller model. Some manufacturers, such as Kohler, are releasing even taller, 19-inch models, and they’re doing so based on the feedback they’ve gotten from customers. People like tall toilets.
An elongated bowl is not necessary for ADA compliance, but the shape is more comfortable for most people, as it’s longer than a round bowl and offers more room to maneuver. “Most people prefer an elongated toilet. They’re a little bit easier for ingress and egress,” Strang told us. He also noted, though, that smaller bathrooms certainly benefit from a smaller, round bowl.
We wanted at least one of our recommendations to be ADA compliant. And as it turned out, all three are. For a toilet to be ADA compliant, the height of its seat must be 17 to 19 inches from the floor, and the trip lever must activate with 5 or less pounds of force. Bartel told us that the general rule of thumb is that such a toilet can be flushed with a closed fist; as Bartel pointed out, dual-flush models with top-mounted button flushes are not in compliance. There is also a tank-height requirement to accommodate a grab bar.
Full ADA compliance also requires that installation specifications be met. In particular, the trip lever of the toilet must be on the open side of the room, “so if there’s a wall adjacent to it, either the left side or right side, the trip lever has got to be on the other side,” Strang told us. “This makes it accessible to someone in a wheelchair.” This requirement caused us to favor toilet models that offer a right-mounted trip lever.
Our recommendations are unskirted two-piece toilets. Two-piece, unskirted toilets are easier to install and less expensive, and they have a more traditional look. One-piece toilets have the advantage of being easier to clean and tend to take up less space, but they’re harder to maneuver around when you’re putting them in. Skirted toilets (an option available with both one- and two-piece toilets), in which the front and sides of the toilet exterior are smooth, are also easier to clean but have a less traditional look.
Our picks are for a 12-inch rough-in, but some are available in a 10-inch version. This has to do with the location of the drain line; it’s either 12 inches off the wall or 10 inches. If you’re replacing a toilet, you should know which one you’re dealing with before ordering.
We wanted easy availability and proven performers. We wanted our toilet recommendations to be available for pickup nationwide, as the most common complaint we saw in the hundreds and hundreds of buyer reviews we read is that a shipped toilet arrived broken. The major manufacturers’ models are all available in big-box stores and reliably sold in kitchen and bath showrooms or have ship-to-store options in which you can open a box and reject a damaged unit on the spot, rather than having to get it home only to discover it’s in a hundred pieces. We have more buying advice below.
For a great toilet, we landed on a price between roughly $300 and $600. Depending on some aesthetic choices you make, the toilets we recommend typically cost $300 to $600. The least expensive toilets available cost less than $100, and some of them have 1,000-gram MaP scores, but they’re very basic, with little in the way of aesthetic options, and they don’t offer a circular flush, a taller height, or an option to move the trip lever. We’ve concluded that something you may be sitting on a couple of times a day for decades is worth investing a reasonable amount. On the other end, you can find plenty of models that cost more, but the upgrades are mostly aesthetic at that point.
We did not run any head-to-head tests, but we are set up for long-term observation of a number of models. Although it would make for an impressive bathroom, we did not collect a dozen toilets and test them side by side. Instead, to make our picks we relied on the years of experience and expertise that folks have accumulated with these toilets. But as I was writing this guide, I had an American Standard Heritage VorMax installed at my own house, and I have plans to install the recommended Toto Drake by the end of the year. We’ll update this guide as we continue to use and observe the toilets.
