Best Rimless Toilets of 2026: Easier Cleaning Under the Rim

Standard toilets have featured the same siphonic-flush rim design since the early 20th century. The hollow rim acts as a water distribution ring, feeding flush water through small rim jets. The problem is that this ring is also a breeding ground for limescale, mold, and bacteria that accumulate in an area your toilet brush simply cannot reach. Over time, clogged rim jets also reduce flush power, and the buildup can produce odors even in freshly cleaned bathrooms.

Rimless toilets solve this with one design change: remove the rim, open up the bowl, and redirect water flow so the entire surface is cleaned with each flush. The result is a verifiable improvement in hygiene, confirmed by independent laboratory testing. A 2019 study commissioned by Geberit, one of the largest European sanitary ware manufacturers, found rimless toilet bowls harbored 93% fewer bacteria than traditional rimmed bowls after identical use periods.

In the US market, rimless designs have grown steadily since 2018 and are now offered by most major brands including TOTO, Kohler, American Standard, Swiss Madison, and Woodbridge. The category now spans every price tier, bowl shape, flush type, and installation format.

The hygiene comparison between rimless and traditional toilets is not abstract. Standard toilet rim channels develop three distinct problems over time: bacteria accumulate where brushes cannot reach; hard water deposits and limescale build up inside the dark channel; and rim jets become partially blocked by mineral deposits, reducing flush coverage and efficiency.

Rimless toilets eliminate all three issues simultaneously. The open bowl means every surface is reachable with a brush. The full exposure of the inner bowl surface to daily cleaning products means mineral deposits are caught early. And the direct-flush mechanism, whether a pressure-sheet system like TOTO's Double Cyclone or a directed-jet design, covers the bowl surface more completely than restricted rim jets.

It is worth noting that the cleaning advantage is maximized when a nano-glaze ceramic surface is also present. Glazes like TOTO's CeFiONtect, Swiss Madison's ClearShield, and American Standard's EverClean reduce surface porosity so that organic matter and minerals cannot bond to the ceramic. A rimless bowl with nano-glaze is substantially more resistant to staining than a rimless bowl with standard ceramic, which is itself substantially better than a standard rimmed toilet with conventional ceramic.

The shift to a rimless design requires manufacturers to fundamentally rethink how flush water reaches the bowl. Instead of being distributed through small rim holes drilled into a hollow channel, water must be directed through alternative means: a directed nozzle sheet system (TOTO Double Cyclone), a wide direct-flow port, or a centrifugal wash pattern. These alternative mechanisms often produce better total bowl coverage than the original rim-jet design they replace.

MaP testing by the non-profit Maximum Performance organization provides an objective measurement of actual flushing capability. The test involves flushing a weighted soybean-paste load of a specified mass and recording whether it clears the bowl in a single flush. A 1,000-gram score is the maximum, indicating the toilet successfully clears the maximum test load. Multiple rimless models in this roundup achieve this score.

For buyers concerned about flushing power in households with heavy use, look for published MaP scores rather than relying on manufacturer claims alone. MaP test data is publicly available at map-testing.com for all tested models, providing an independent baseline for comparison.

MaP Flush Score

Published MaP scores are the single most reliable proxy for real-world flush performance. Scores run from 250 grams to 1,000 grams. For a household toilet, 800 grams is the minimum worth considering; 1,000 grams is the goal. The MaP testing program tests using soybean paste at specified mass increments, so the score reflects actual solid waste clearing ability, not just water volume.

Water Efficiency and EPA WaterSense

EPA WaterSense certification confirms the toilet meets the agency's 1.28 GPF maximum threshold through independent third-party testing. An older 1.6 GPF toilet replaced with a 1.28 GPF WaterSense model saves approximately 16 to 20 gallons per day for a family of four, based on EPA estimates of 5.1 flushes per person per day. Over a ten-year period, the water savings are substantial. Some dual-flush rimless models further reduce consumption by using 0.8 GPF for liquid waste.

Trapway Diameter and Glaze

The trapway is the S-shaped channel that moves waste from the bowl to the drain. A wider, fully glazed trapway reduces clog risk and prevents waste adhesion inside the channel. Look for trapways of 2 inches or larger. Full glazing means the same nano-glass surface applied to the bowl extends through the entire trapway, creating a continuous slip surface from bowl to drain.

Bowl Surface Coating

CeFiONtect (TOTO), ClearShield (Swiss Madison), and EverClean (American Standard) are the primary proprietary nano-glaze coatings in the US market. These coatings reduce ceramic surface porosity, which means organic waste and mineral ions cannot bond to the surface material. Standard ceramic toilets have surface microporosity that allows stain molecules to anchor; nano-glazed ceramics do not. The combination of a rimless bowl and nano-glaze surface is the highest available standard for toilet hygiene.

One-Piece vs. Two-Piece

One-piece toilets eliminate the tank-to-bowl seam, removing one additional hard-to-clean joint from the toilet. For buyers focused on maximum cleaning ease, a one-piece rimless toilet is the most complete solution. Two-piece toilets are generally less expensive, easier to ship and handle during installation, and offer more replacement-part flexibility, but the seam between tank and bowl requires regular cleaning attention.

Understanding the mechanics helps explain why some rimless toilets flush better than others. The key engineering challenge is distributing flush water across the entire bowl surface without the rim channel to act as a distribution manifold. Different manufacturers solve this differently, and the solution affects both flush coverage and noise level.

TOTO's Double Cyclone system uses two side nozzles that direct water in a centrifugal pattern around the bowl interior. The result is a wide, even sheet of water that rolls down the entire bowl surface simultaneously. This approach is notably quiet relative to its flush power and produces very even bowl coverage, explaining TOTO's consistent 1,000-gram MaP scores.

Other manufacturers use a single wide-aperture direct-flow port positioned near the top of the bowl. Water enters at high velocity and spreads across the bowl surface by momentum and gravity. This approach is effective and simpler to manufacture, though it may produce slightly uneven coverage compared to a twin-nozzle centrifugal design.

Pressure-assisted rimless toilets, less common in the consumer market, use compressed air stored in an in-tank vessel to amplify water velocity. This produces a more powerful flush at the same water volume but generates additional noise. For most residential applications, a gravity-fed rimless design with a properly engineered flow port delivers sufficient performance without the mechanical complexity of pressure assistance.

• EPA WaterSense, epa.gov/watersense
• MaP flush testing, map-testing.com
• Manufacturer published specifications
• TOTO published product specifications, totousa.com
• Kohler published product specifications, us.kohler.com
• American Standard published product specifications, americanstandard-us.com
• Swiss Madison published product specifications, swiss-madison.com
• Gerber Plumbing published product specifications, gerberplumbing.com
• Woodbridge published product specifications, woodbridgebath.com