Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had such high hopes for this innovative looking product. I watched the cool videos, including the one at the big box store that showed a clear plastic toilet flange as all of the wax "injected" into it. Wow, what a seal!! And then I tried this... I've put down probably 20 or so toilets in my time, all using the old fashioned wax seal. Plenty of times to gain a fair amount of experience. And I had great results with every single one of them. I'm also pretty good at laying tile floor, but on my bathroom project, I had a pro do it. I did all the other work in the bathroom, and instructed the tiler to tile so I would then put the bottom of the toilet flange on TOP of the finished tile floor - like ALL plumbers instruct (see terry love's excellent plumbing website). That leaves my toilet flange (1/2" thick flange) sitting 1/2" above the floor. It works fine with traditional wax rings. But not with this Danco product. From reading the instructions, this seal is supposed to accommodate a very wide range of heights, both with flanges BELOW the finished floor, with flanges EVEN with the floor, and, like my case, with a flange ABOVE the floor (the *correct* way as I've already mentioned). So I set everything up just as instructed, leaving off the blue rubber extender ring (for below the floor flanges). I put the bolts into the flange, fit this entire assembly over the bolts and slid it down, and at that point, already, there was a inconsistency. There are 4 holes on the grey ring that sits flat on the toilet flange. Two of the holes are noticeably smaller, with more of the black rubber gasket like material making their holes smaller. So, do I use the smaller holes? I looked very closely at the instructions, and their graphic had some words on the grey ring, and sure enough, on the grey ring of the product, there were words. But following that would have put the big holes lined up over the bolts. I chose to trust my instincts and align the smaller holes of the grey ring with the bolts, and pushed the whole thing down onto the bolts so it sat flatly on top of the toilet flange. So far, so good. I practiced multiple times and then got a helper to guide me onto the bolts. The bolts were aligned in the holes at the base of the toilet, as I slowly lowered it down. Here is where things went wrong. I lowered, and while still a good ways above the floor, I felt the entire Danco product start resisting. I tried very slowly, minimally twisting the toilet to twist it into the rubber female sleeve, but it stayed there, stubbornly at least 1/2" above the floor. I removed the toilet (they claim you can remove it and "reset" it (there is a spelling error in their instructions where it should read "reseat"). Looking at the bare bones instructions, it was unclear, but it seemed to say that I could remove a "black" insert. Surely it couldn't be the black rubber sleeve that reached up out of the grey ring? No, inside that rubber sleeve IS a black, plastic insert that is, presumably the insert they say you can remove so the entire contraption can collapse a bit more to get closer to the floor. I wish the instructions had some kind of blow-apart graphic that showed all the parts to get rid of my confusion. Anyhow, I pulled out the black insert and put it aside. This is when I noticed that the wax had "injected" out unevenly. Instead of injecting into the throat of the toilet flange like all their fancy videos show, part of it HAD done that, but the other half had spewed out the back part of the grey ring. I was ready for my 2nd attempt at reseating the toilet. All I had to do was put the lips of the mouth of the toilet bottom into the rubber sleeve, and all would be well as my toilet slowly seated to the floor. Only...it didn't happen this way on my second attempt. Now, I was upset. Just to give you an idea of how far off the floor the product still was, if I rocked the back end of the toilet until it touched the tile floor, the front end was nearly 1" above the floor - so, still approximately 1/2" evenly shy of contacting the tile floor. Maybe it's my toilet -- a 2010 model American Standard? I don't think so. The "chute" that comes out of the bottom looks to be a normal depth. The only thing it MUST be is this "Perfect Seal" which turned out to not be very Perfect. My high hopes have been dashed. What with the unclear graphic that doesn't exactly specify which holes to use in the grey ring, and with the text on the grey ring showing to use the large holes (what difference could it have made to use them instead?), to the lack of product exploded view, to the misspelled word...all add up to a product still trying to find its legs. Perhaps they can make a version for 1/2" flange depths that actually fits and can sit flush to the floor? If so, then I may try it again. My floor is ANYTHING but non-standard. It's the way a perfectly laid toilet flange should be. Tomorrow, I try again, but this time, with an old fashioned wax product. Now the question is, what do I do about my purchase of a product that clearly didn't perform according to it's promises, other than post up a bad review? Can I package it up and send back the mess?