I remember my first apartment had a wooden tank, not wall mounted or above, but in the basic modern setup.
It was replaced on my watch, but it lasted years with me.
I think of toilets being replaced in 5-10, 15 years at the most. This must have been 70 years or more when it went, maybe in 1990?.
From what I can tell, wooden tanks were falling out of fashion as early as the 1930s. I’ve lived in two houses that had wooden seats but don’t recall a wooden tank in my lifetime (born in the 1970s). One of these home was built in the late 1920s and the other in the early 1930s.
My building was built in the early 20th century, 4 stories, @ 20 units.
That was some hard wood anyway.
I don’t think toilets were ever replaced unless they broke somehow. Why would they?
Over 50+ years I would have thought it would be upgraded at some point. I’m not sure it was broken when I got a new one. It was a general upgrade or maybe a plumbers recommendation.
I think these are still available in China. By which, I mean, these are commercial products still made for the Chinese domestic market. I could be wrong since I haven’t lived in China now for over a decade. I know you can still get wooden toilet seats in China.
The real old toilets used about 7 gallons as I recall. At some point they reduced the flush volume to 5 gallons, so not much incentive to replace an old toilet that could easily be rebuilt if the flush valve went bad. In the 1990s toilet technology rapidly advanced and 1.6 gallons being the law in many areas. But that was just for new construction. Many today are 1.3 gallons. It is well worth it to replace an old 5 gallon flusher. But I have still seen them recently in restrooms. As long as people can get parts there are some that don’t want to spend $100 or more.
I lived in our family home for 45 years (and was 15 years old when we moved in) and we replaced the tank on one because it cracked near the seal. The other toilet has had the bowl and tank seals replaced, but that’s it.
As stated, as long as the parts, which are really only the seals, are available, there’s no reason to replace a tank or bowl if it’s not broken or to meet new low standards.