Homeowners typically replace their toilets after 20-25 years. A toilet can last much longer than that—even up to 50 years—but you may not want to keep yours for that long.
For one thing, it may be eating up your home maintenance budget. The cost to replace a toilet in 2025, according to this calculator, is between $680 and 1,200, including the cost of the toilet, labor, and materials. If you keep needing to call a plumber to fix it, the maintenance costs might start to eclipse the cost of a new one. If you keep needing a professional fix, it’s time for a new toilet.
Here are some other reasons to replace an older toilet.
Water Usage
Newer toilets are more water-efficient, by a lot.
According to an EPA report, older toilets use double or even triple the amount of water per flush: “toilets installed after 1994 will have a flush volume of 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf) or less. However, due to the long, useful life of toilets, many older toilets still in use today have flush volumes of 3.5 gpf and up to 5.0 gpf.”
Your older toilet may still be working just fine but it’s a water hog. Replacing it with a newer model will definitely save you money on water.
Aesthetics
Older toilets look…dated. The porcelain eventually dulls and wears down, making them harder to clean. And they’ve likely gotten scratched up over the decades. Even if your toilet works fine, you might want to update it just to have something that looks new and is simpler to keep up.
Height
Standard toilets are between 14½ to 16 inches high, from the top of the seat to the floor. So-called comfort height toilets are between 17 and 19 inches high. Comfort height toilets are ADA compliant and are better for people with certain disabilities, and for people who are taller. For people who are over six feet tall, toilets go up to as high as 21 inches.
If you have an older toilet, one that predates the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, it’s likely one of the shorter models. If that’s the case, you may want to replace your toilet simply to have a higher seat.
Modern Features
New toilets have also gotten fancy and simpler to clean. Smart toilets have a range of options to make bathroom breaks cleaner, safer, and—yes—more fun (seat warmers, nightlights, and music, anyone?).
Our favorite features are auto-flushing, auto-cleaning, and built in bidets. (We’ve also ranked our other favorite options.)
Sources
9 Signs It’s Time To Replace Your Toilet, Scott Dylan Westerlund, angi.com
Standard vs. Comfort Toilet Heights, Timothy Dale, thespruce.com
Water Efficiency Management Guide: Bathroom Suite, EPA WaterSense, November 2017