Porcelain or faience - which is better for the toilet?





When arranging a bathroom, everyone strives to responsibly approach the issue of choosing plumbing - a bathtub, a toilet bowl, a bidet, since the convenience of operating the hygiene room and the duration of the normal operation of the sewer system will directly depend on the quality of the equipment. One of the most important questions in this process: porcelain or earthenware - which is better for the toilet? You will find a comparative description, as well as all the pros, cons of each material and useful tips on choosing and caring for sanitary ware in this article.

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Basic criteria for choosing a toilet

Before you go to the hardware store to decide which toilet is better - faience or porcelain, you have to decide on your own requirements for the important characteristics of such products for bathrooms. The most significant selection criteria are:

1. The geometry of the bowl - should be convenient for you in size and shape. Here you need to take into account your body dimensions and the style of the toilet room.
2. The principle of connection. In this case, it is important that you can dock the base of the toilet with the drain of the sewer system. Therefore, you need to know not only the size, but also the location. For example, if the toilet is equipped with a vertical outlet, and the drain pipe is mounted horizontally in the wall, then the connection will not be possible.
3. Practicality. In this regard, the shape of the bowl is taken into account, more precisely, how high is the likelihood of water splashing during the discharge. So that cleanliness always reigned in the bathroom, ideally, water should not splash out at all.
4. The principle of installation. Regardless of whether the toilet is porcelain or earthenware, what is better to determine based on how large your room is. Floor models are suitable for a relatively large bathroom, but it is better to equip a small toilet with a hanging bowl, as this saves usable space. You can use it in the future, for example, for storing household cleaning chemicals for the toilet.

Important! Rationally consider the choice of plumbing equipment, given the fact that the more functional, more elaborate in design and the stronger the bowl, the more expensive it will cost you.

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Porcelain or faience - which is better for the toilet

Once you have specified the preferred dimensions of the bowl, its shape, installation and connection method, you can decide which toilet bowl is better - porcelain or earthenware in order to finally determine the model that suits you. To do this, you only need to understand the manufacturing features of each material, its advantages and disadvantages.

Faience

The faience is made of white clay, which gives the finished product a dense finely porous structure. In order to level a sufficiently high coefficient of water absorption, the surface of the product is opened layer by layer with special glaze. It is due to the glaze that not only significantly increases the life of the plumbing, its strength characteristics, but also a more attractive appearance is achieved, since the toilet turns glossy.

Pros:

1. Compact size and light weight, since the walls of the toilet bowls made of faience are very thin.
2. Optimum reliability.
3. Good resistance to aggressive chemicals and moisture.
4. Low price.

Disadvantages:

1. Strength and moisture resistance directly depend on the quality of the glaze used by the manufacturer.
2. Products of famous foreign brands can cost even more than domestic counterparts from porcelain.

Important! Based on these characteristics, we can conclude that if you choose porcelain or earthenware - which is better for a toilet in a tight budget, an earthenware sanitary bowl from a domestic manufacturer would be an ideal solution.

China

Porcelain is also made on the basis of white clay, but fortifying minerals - feldspar and quartz - are added to it. And the clay base itself has a higher quality class. As a result, an ultra-smooth dense surface of the material is obtained.

Important! Due to the wider component composition, a significantly lower coefficient of water absorption is achieved. For comparison: if in faience this indicator is 0.5%, then in china only 0.05%.

Benefits:

1. High mechanical strength.
2. Resistance to pollution, due to the density of the structure.
3. Porcelain toilet care is much simpler and easier.
4. Unpleasant odors of the sewage system when installing such plumbing appear much less frequently.

Disadvantages:

1. High price, but it is fully consistent with the quality class.
2. Since the surface is also opened additionally with glaze, the appearance differs little from faience analogues. As a result, unscrupulous suppliers can issue models of sanitary ware from earthenware for more expensive porcelain.

Important! Regarding durability, porcelain is more interesting, since such a toilet has a minimum service life of 50 years, while high-quality faience will last a maximum of 30 years.

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Manufacturers

As soon as you figure out the question of which toilet bowl is best for you - porcelain or earthenware, you have to decide on the manufacturer. In order not to buy a fake, give preference to that brand, the reliability of which is confirmed by numerous customer reviews and quality certificates.

The following brands have established themselves on the favorable side:

1. Iddis - offers budget models of toilets and various plumbing with a rather attractive appearance and good technical characteristics.
2. Sanita is a manufacturer of inexpensive sanitary ware, the quality of which does not raise any doubts or claims.
3. Gustavsberg - the toilet bowls of this manufacturer will cost you a little more than the products of the previous 2 brands, but the class of goods is much higher.
4. Jika - it’s profitable to purchase the sanitary ware of this brand from the point of view that the company offers the widest range of models: from the most budgetary to the elite ones. The design meets all fashion trends, executed in various styles, and the quality of the materials is impeccable.

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Useful Tips:

1. If you are considering other material options:
   • The most interesting will be the purchase of a toilet bowl from a composite - polymer concrete. Such models look very luxurious and elegant, and the strength characteristics correspond to the highest values.
   • Glass looks interesting and brings a special touch to the interior, but requires special care.
   • Stainless steel is strong and durable, easy to clean, but such plumbing is more suitable for public places, since the appearance is too utilitarian, and the price is high.
   • Natural stone in plumbing looks very elegant and expensive, but such products will be very expensive and not always practical. For example, it is undesirable to wash natural stone toilets with aggressive household chemicals, but only with mild, specially designed for this purpose, means.
2. If you still bought a toilet bowl made of porcelain or earthenware and immediately thought about how to clean it in order to maintain durability and attractive appearance for as long as possible, use one of the effective and safe folk remedies:
   • Lemon acid. Lime and rust deposits can easily remove citric acid crystals. To do this, it is enough to rinse the bowl with water, pour powder from 2-3 sachets onto the surface, leave for a couple of hours and then rinse thoroughly with a brush.The raid will all come down.
   • Vinegar + soda. These 2 substances in combination are often used to clean a wide variety of surfaces. Including coping well with pollution on the toilet. To apply such simple and accessible substances for everyone, sprinkle the surface of faience or porcelain with soda powder soiled or coated with lime. Next - sprinkle it with vinegar, it is more convenient to do this from a spray bottle. Leave everything as it is for 30-40 minutes and thoroughly clean with a brush.

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Stock footage

Now you have information about what characteristics each type of sanitary ware has, which means that it will be much easier for you to make a decision, porcelain or earthenware, which is better for the toilet.