Duravit toilet seats - quality

[nadimaj]

This is a premium brand and we have the elongated D style toilets in our house. The seats cost £140 without and about £220!!! with the soft-close mechanism. The price was factored in, so I wasn't aware of the extortionate cost when I got all our bathrooms specced up. Normally, I wouldn't be that silly! Anyway, we thought we were getting quality. However, less than 2 years in and they have both yellowed in a way that frankly we haven't seen in 25 years of owning and running a house. In the same house we have some cheaper toilets and toilet seats that go through the exact same cleaning routine. Same wet wipes, same cleaning agents (for the bowel) etc. They haven't yellow at all. We used the same in our previous house. On their website, Duravit make a big deal about discussing proper cleaning, advising to use only "mild soap" to clean the toilet seat. I think this is a response to customer complaints.

What's your experience of Duravit durability? Fun fact, as I was thinking of writing this, the more yellowish one cracked right in the centre! Never had a toilet seat crack on me in my entire life. Not even a £9.99 jobby from Ali's corner DIY store!

 

[Elkato531]

I had similar issues with a Duravit Starck seat. Yellowed and finally broke. Replaced it with one off Ebay for about £80. Soft close as well.
after a couple of years its still bright white. I think the brand was Grunbaltt. I did find on Ebay this morning but the link didn't work for some reason.

 

[justbigboned]

V&B soft close seats can yellow too, so it's not just Duravit. Our Subway 2 did in 1 year, mild soap and water only.

In contrast, our 25 year old Ideal Standard contract quality seats have been perfect.

 

[jj4091]

Recently paid £30 for a normal universal toilet seat that had a 25 year warranty.

 

[Elkato531]

Recently paid £30 for a normal universal toilet seat that had a 25 year warranty.

That's great and TBH I normally nip down to Wickes and get one off the shelf. Unfortunately some "designer" toilets are designed so that universal seats don't fit and you have to pay stupid prices for original stuff. Hopefully at some point it becomes worth it for someone to make a pattern part and sell at a lower price. I generally steer my customers away from designer stuff for this reason. Sadly, I couldn't steer my wife away from a designer bog when I refitted my own bathroom.

 

[jj4091]

Actually what I should have said was did his not have a long guarantee come with it.

 

[Elkato531]

They'll always find a way to wriggle out of a warranty on such items. Not enough cleaning, too much cleaning, wrong cleaning materials, user too heavy, incorrect installation. Unless you can prove a manufacturing fault, I doubt they'd pay up and certainly not after a few years.