POTEX water closet from LUCKY KHOON @ Joo Chiat

After much deliberation over which brand of water closet (WC) to purchase, we've finally settled on getting a POTEX toilet bowl from Lucky Khoon at Joo Chiat.

Well, the transaction was not exactly a breeze and there were exasperating moments when it came to after-sales service.  However, before I dish out my verdict for Lucky Khoon's plumbling service, I seek the kind patience of all readers to walk through this blogging entry with me.

The birth of a "thesis" for WC ...

We had embarked on a draggy journey of scouting around for a reliable brand of toilet bowl.

  

I had done such a thorough research on the different brands of toilet bowls, including their respective  mechanism's "strength" in flushing to the extent that my hubby told his friends that I had already earned a PHD certification in WC.

We were extremely tempted to settle down for a Maclaire becox of the brand's raving reviews over the forum.  The so-called originals were operated on using Geberit's system which unfortunately, wasn't endorsed by the Geberit South East Asia that was headquartered here in Singapore.  However, we decided to pass up this brand in view of any potential expensive maintenance issues in the near future.  Replacement of parts could ring up to a hefty amount ranging between S$70-120.

The receptionist for Maclaire (Singapore) had directed us to Universal Union to take a look at the Maclaire WCs.  They have a huge variety of WCs & service from the staff was not bad.

However, we decided to throw in our lot with our contractor who reinstated the wall between our MBR & common room, when he recommended us to Lucky Khoon.

After much consideration and delays in sprucing up our flat, we finally settled on Lucky Khoon becox we observed that they seemed to have a thriving business in the showroom with the IDs who brought along their clients. 

As such, we had the idea that their plumbing & installation skills ought to be decent.

Shopping for a WC at Lucky Khoon ...

My hubby & myself made our way down to Lucky Khoon's showroom at Joo Chiat Place during a weekend.

We walked around the showroom, sat on almost all the display sets of WCs.  Apart from the much sought after POTEX due to its comfort when sat on, LUCKY KHOON carries its in-house brand, namely CP-UNO and Lucia, which we suspected were OEMs manufactured in China.

When we sought the expertise & opinion of their sales representatives, they had recommended these in-house brands.

However, we noticed that their toilet seats were cut out for those who had petite bottoms and some of these models had seats that were jarring into my buttocks when I sat down. 

Well, I wouldn't want to risk getting injured if I need to spend alot of time sitting on it.  There would surely be days where errr, I suffer from constipation & I would want to add on further injury on my bums!

What deterred me further from selecting these 2 brands were the sizing of their toilet seat covers.  The plastic seats were smaller than the porcelain rim (edges) of these brands such that the edges of the seating area were left exposed & not covered by plastic.  The design was understandably made to accomodate to the seat cover, when it has to be closed.

One of their sales represantative directed us to the toilet of Lucky Khoon's lighting shop (a few doors away) to test out the flushing mechanism of their one piece LUCIA which spotted a rectangular button on top of the water tank.

We visited the toilet in their other lighting shop and yes, it is true that the flushing system was strong.

But since I'm a bottom heavy person whose not willing to compromise on the comforts of answering nature's call, we settled down for POTEX.  That's even after POTEX Singapore has liquidated.

And moreover, many heartlanders used to swear by POTEX which is a brand name that was found in the toilets of many older HDB flats.

We have decided to bear the risk of installing a POTEX since Lucky Khoon is a legitimate seller for WCs & relatively popular with IDs.  The sales representative collected the full amount of $320 (WC + installation fees) from us after we ordered the POTEX WC in the showroom.

Appointment on a Saturday was given as requested but their plumbers couldn't commit any specific timing becox time taken for completion of plumbing assignments is determined by the complexity of the works on-site.  And needless to say, it's also dependable on the installer's skills.

Day of replacing our old Potex WC with its new counterpart...

When the big day arrived for installation at our existing flat, 2 guys fitted in Lucky Khoon's black signature T-shirt arrived and because there wasn't much of a space for maneuvering at the kitchen balcony, I wasn't able to capture every single moment of their work procedure.

The younger of the two dismantled the old water tank which was still sitting on top of our existing porcelain toilet seat.

Then, he started hacking off the base of the porcelain toilet seat with a tool that looked like a hammer to me.

The loud clanking noise that was generated while he hacked the porcelain toilet seat was really loud!  However, it didn't take long for the porcelain toilet seat to be severed from what's stuck fast to the ground.

However, the air in the toilet & kitchen reeked of a horrible stench that was a familiar scent to those who were living nearby monsoon drains that were choked to the core & flooding with carcass & rubbish.





It suddenly occurred to us that the installation fee of $120 was justifiable becox the poor chap had to come into contact with both the stench and the dirty contents associated with the old WC.

(which in our case, was dysfunctional for the past 8 years or so...)

While the young boy continued in hacking off leftover porcelain, the installer explained to us that HDB's method for installing WCs in the past meant allowing the porcelain toilet seat to be balanced on to a pile of cement, which in his opinion, was not necessary.

The removal of cement that had hardened within the interior of the old WC was not easy.  The young boy continued to hack off hardened cement with a hammer as shown in this photograph.

Then finally, he resorted to an electric driller to break up this cake of hardened cement on the toilet flooring.

I was terribly concerned over any potential damages to our toilet flooring.  However, the plumbing team at our place assured us that there will be no such issues.

And true enough, no damage to the flooring occured much to my relief.

After cleaning up the debris in the toilet, this same young chap started installing the new pan collar.  However, we had "scars" of the old hardened cement which were too stubborn to be removed.

The installer started to prepare the water tank for mounting on top of the new porcelain toilet seat with his toolbag of "goodies".

More photographs of the installation process & the anatomy of the new POTEX water tank:

White putty cement was then prepared to seal off the base of the WC so that it sat well & steadily onto the toilet floor.

We were not supposed to use the WC until the following day becox this is to allow the white putty cement to cure completely.

However, before the installer sealed the base with putty cement, he had tested the flushing as many as 3 - 5 times to ensure that there is no water leaking out from the base.

If it does, this is a sure sign of misalignment between the pan collar and the "waste pipe" of the new WC.

Final snippets of our new POTEX WC ...

As readers of this blogging entry would have noticed by now, this POTEX WC which we have chosen doesn't have a glamorous outlook by today's standards.  However, the shape of the porcelain toilet seat promises to pay due respect to all buttocks, whether they are bony, fleshy or bouncy.

Comfort is guaranteed to those who are prone to constipation and we didn't have any regrets where the design of our new WC is concerned.

We also noticed that the POTEX WC which we ordered has serial numbers on both its water tank and the toilet seat; which according to the lady boss from Lucky Khoon, were differentiated with different code numbers as shown in these photographs.

And if you noticed from the photographs, this set of POTEX WC has got a very glossy shine to its porcelain.

To illustrate to those who might be interested in the potency of the flushing mechanism of our new POTEX WC, please take a look at these 2 short video clips which I had created to demonstrate both full & partial flushing:

Full Flush

Partial Flush (Sorry about the blury video & the background music wasn't my idea but it so happened that the music was caught on the video while I was playing this jazzy number)

Food for thoughts ...

PUB's rating of water saving for WCs are represented by the number of ticks found on pale blue stickers pasted on display sets in showrooms.

The greater the number of ticks, the lesser water the WC uses.  Our new POTEX WC has 2 ticks.  There were those with 3 ticks & we wondered if there was sufficient water for flushing down human waste.   :unsure:

My hubby said that I was driving him nuts with talks of the number of ticks while we were shopping for a WC.

A "Post-Mortem" documentation of our newly installed POTEX WC ...


Water Leakage issues

After we had happily gotten a new WC in our kitchen toilet finally, we had post-installation issues which were unveiled to us on the night itself.

We came back from a wedding dinner and out of curiosity, I lifted up the toilet seat even though we could only start using the WC the following day.

However, I was shocked when a steady stream of water being discharged (from the water tank) through the outlet on the inner rim of the porcelain toilet seat.  That was definitely abnormal becox nobody had flushed the toilet.  This was classified as a leakage.  :(

As water had been constantly leaking into the toilet bowl, water tank would have been continuously topping up water through the valve attached to the water pipes.

In view of such a situation, my hubby had immediately turned off the valve to cut off water supply into the water tank.

To our horror, the entire tank of water sitting on top of the new WC was emptied into the toilet hole within 2 hours.  :(

An unexpected ordeal of chasing for a plumber ...

As it was already late into the night, we decided to call up Lucky Khoon to feedback on the leakage on the following day (Sunday).

It was quite a nightmare because we were being compelled to chase them for a plumber throughout the leaking ordeal.

I called in on Sunday, quoting the invoice number of our Potex WC.  The sales representative who attended to me over the phone, told me that the plumbers' schedule were fully packed on Monday and that they would send a plumber over to our place on Tuesday instead.

However, the sales rep couldn't provide us with a specific timeframe as to what time we would be expecting the plumber to turn up at.

All she said was she would send a plumber down on Tuesday and I told her that this was unacceptable as it's not reasonable to expect customers to sit at home and wait.

Then, she told me that she would check and call me up again in the later half of the day.

I waited but by afternoon, no such call came in so I called Lucky Khoon's showroom at Joo Chiat again and was attended to by another sales rep, who told me that she would call me the following day (Monday) to let me know the approximate timing her plumber would be visiting our flat.

By 4pm on Monday, I didn't hear from Lucky Khoon again so I took the liberty to call the showroom again and the sales rep promised me that she would let me know in about half an hour's time.

I waited but no such call came in after 45 minutes so I called and the sales representative said that the 2 colleagues whom I have requested to speak to were engaged with customers in their showroom.

By the time I made this call and received such a response, I was already fuming so I told the girl that I wanted to speak to her boss, to which she promptly inform me that her boss doesn't visit the showroom as he is incharge of plumbing works on site.

And a boss who still cares about his customers ...

She gave me his mobile number & I got in touch with him immediately.  I told him in a very unhappy but calm voice that our WC was as good as a useless one becox of the leaking issue; and that until today, there was no confirmation as to what time his plumber was coming in to rectify the problem.

There was alot of interference in the background becox of plumbing & renovation works over at this boss' end.  However, what surprised me was that he was very polite and apologised to me for the inconvenience caused.  And he assured me that his plumber would drop by the next day (Tuesday) between 1pm to 2pm.  He got me to send him my address & invoice number via SMS, which I did immediately, and called him up to confirm that he had received it.

And true to his words, a plumber who was in his early 20s, dropped by promptly at about 1pm. 

We were quite worried when he looked really young for his age.  However, when he filled up the water tank & detected the problem, he dismantled the water tank immediately & adjusted the black rubber gasket on the exterior of the tank's base.

After he flushed out the water from the tank, this plumber, my hubby & myself were seated on the floor revolving the Potex WC and staring hard to observe if there were any traces of water leaking out from the outlet situated on the inner porcelain rim of the toilet seat.

Yes there still was but instead of a steady stream of water, it was jux a small rivulet that died off into trickles of it.

Our "story" didn't end there...

Service recovery as promised by the boss ...

This young but experienced plumber wanted to replace our flushing mechanism with another brand known as "Showy".  However, we rejected his offer and told him that we wanted to replacement of the same model of the spare part.

He called up his office immediately and told us that he could do the replacement on another day.

However, he conceded and promised to drop by at about 6.30pm to replace the mechanism with the same model of "flusher" for our POTEX WC.

He even gave us his mobile number.

However, after that less than satisfactory experience we've had with those sales rep in the showroom, we didn't have faith in this young plumber.

We haven't a choice but had to wait at home to see if he turned up at 6.30pm.  Lucky Khoon got a brand new set of the POTEX "anatomy" delivered to our place at about 4pm.  Neatly packed & sealed up in a brown box.

And this young plumber didn't let us down becox he ended up at our door step bathed in perspiration & panting away at about 6.35pm.  He looked extremely exhausted but wasted no time in replacing the flushing mechanism with the new piece in the brown box.

However, the leaking was alot worse than our existing piece of "flusher".  So we told him that we were very sorry that we would prefer to stick by the original set that came with our new Potex WC.

And we apologised to him for this wasted trip.  Like his boss, he seemed to be very patient and understanding but we're not sure if he was chissed off deep down.

He told us to observe if the water leaking continued becox he suspected that the water trickling down bit by bit was a leftover that was collected at the base of the water outlet.  After that water clear out of that location, the dripping should stop.

My hubby turned off the valve that very night & after we were done with the final flush for the night, we woke up the following morning to check if there were water spots or droplets running down into the toilet hole.

Thank goodness, there wasn't any.  The porcelain above the toilet hole, was dry & clear from any traces of water.

Not sure if there'll be any relapse or not.  If it does, we'll update the problem here in this blog.

VERDICT - for POTEX WC :  SATISFACTORY - GOOD

Less than perfect even though the seat is very spacious & comfortable to sit at.  However, I presume that the ergonomics of the WC has it's own inherent fault which cannot be rectified as it's manufactured as such. 

To allow me to try to explain, water collected somewhere after flushing & this leftover water would take its time to trickle down the toilet hole.  This gave us the impression that it was leaking but as we monitored the water level in the tank (by shutting off the main valve so that water supply into the tank has been cut off), it remained stagnant without any decrease in water level & water trickling down into the toilet bowl would stop on its own.

As such, we could safely infer that there is no water wastages & cannot be classified as a leakage.

And if there are too much waste contents, including toilet tissues in the toilet hole, there would be "graffiti" swirling in the newly collected water after even a full flush.  However, no back-flow issues are detected thus far after flushing. (Backflow of waste upon flushing is every user's nightmare!)

I figured out that it's still preferrable to get a WC with 1 tick as this new POTEX WC has only 2 ticks.  Meaning that it has better water saving feature but lesser water to flush down contents.

VERDICT - for Lucky Khoon's plumbing service : SATISFACTORY

Their repair man wouldn't have been called in if their installer has tightened the black rubber ring below the water tank properly.

However, the installer & his junior assistant who did the removal & hacking of the old WC were very polite.

The repair guy from Lucky Khoon is a very honest & experienced young man probabbly in his early 20s or perhaps, jux 19-20 years old judging from his appearance.  He was very accomodating & patient; and we were glad that he took time to drop by twice on the same day to rectify the leaking issues.

Although this transaction wasn't a breeze, the boss had given us a fairly good impression in that he humbly apologised to us & was a man of his words when he fulfilled his promise in sending his repair staff down to rectify the problem.

According to my hubby whose pretty well-versed in DIY-ing, he told me that nobody could guarantee whether there would be leaking or not after installation of WCs.  Perhaps he had done alot of DIY for our flat to realise that it's not an easy job.

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Disclaimer:

Permission has been sought from the supposed proprietress (Madam Ong) of Lucky Khoon Bathroom Studio Pte Ltd for the hacking & installation process of their plumbing works at our home to be featured in this thread. 

Photographing of products in their studios is strictly forbidden.  As such, my thread does not contain any of such photographs.

Kindly note that this thread is strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of works and services provided by the aforesaid company.

I am not affliated to this company and am an existing client who bought a WC (glamorously known as "water closet" as compared to calling it a toilet bowl) for my kitchen toilet.

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread.

For the ease of viewing and reference purposes, photographs containing Lucky Khoon Plumbing & Renovation Pte Ltd are uploaded.

Selective photographs featuring their plumbing works had also been water-marked in view of copyright issues.

Thank you for your kind understanding.