A while back I posted a link to a demonstration video of the Gerber Viper toilet. At the time, we were researching plumbing fixtures for our new home. The Viper was the toilet recommended by our plumber, but after continually plunging the Crane toilets at our old house, we wanted to make sure the new toilets had performance. After seeing that demonstration video, I was truly impressed. It appeared that the Viper could handle just about anything, and it accomplished all of this being just a gravity-fed, 1.6 gallon per flush (gpf) water saver. If you haven't watched the video yet, I highly recommend it.

For newbies, gravity-fed is your standard flushing mechanism. Pressure-assist is the other option which uses compressed air and less water to flush. A flush of 1.6 gallons is pretty much the standard these days.

While we were impressed with the functionality of the Viper, we were looking for something with a little more style. The Viper is basically your typical toilet with no frills. In our powder room, we had already chosen a pedestal sink from the Kohler Memoirs Classic collection. We were really hoping to have a toilet in the same style, however, the Kohler toilets were very expensive and we didn't have any data to back up their performance. Eventually we found the Gerber Allerton line which contains a pedestal sink and toilet. We didn't like the sink enough to forgo the Memoirs, but the Allerton toilet had certain details that made a close match to the Kohler sink. Notably, the tank and lid have a curved front, the top of the tank lid is slightly recessed, and there is detailing around the base and tank lid rim. Although we liked the looks of this toilet much better, we couldn't find any information about it's performance. The only thing we found was that it uses the same flushing mechanism as the Viper. Based on that, we decided to go with the Allerton in all bathrooms. We teamed them up with some enameled wood seats with brushed nickel hinges for a fully finished look.

After three months of use, we couldn't be happier with these toilets. They have had absolutely no problems flushing and they look great. The only downside is that the tank lever is a little ugly. It's a unique shape and only comes in chrome. For some people that's not a problem, but we went with brushed nickel for everything in the house and these levers are the only chrome we have. We bought some decorative tank levers at Lowe's, but they didn't work for the side-flush lever that these toilets utilize. Not a huge thing, but it's something to note nonetheless. I'll end by saying that I would highly recommend this toilet to anyone.