How much "leak" is normal in a toilet flap

Sil Glyde is as effective and about 1/4 the price.
So it costs $0.003 worth of lube instead of $0.012 worth of lube? I have uses where I need silicone grease so it doesn't save me from buying some, but I have no uses where I'm better off with a castor oil based grease with silicone in it.

If my flappers leak at all, I will take it off, put some Raybestos Silicone brake grease on, clean the mating valve surface with an old, blue scotch brite pad, and this is just to stop the leak till I get around to buying another flapper, IF I don't already have a replacement in a drawer full of such things, which I think I do have at the moment. If I'm going to bother ordering one online or make the mile journey through the mega hardware store, I go ahead and get 2 or 3 at a time.

I don't understand the fascination with high tech toilet flushing. My toilets have the original hardware that came in them and zero inclination to do more than swap a $2 flapper or $1 gasket every ~8 years, which takes a couple minutes.

Most people know how to save water on a standard old school tank, just adjust the float or put a brick or two into the tank to displace the water. Fortunately I get enough fiber in my diet so do not need a more powerful flush. I like a gentle flush that doesn't spray dirty water particles up on the lid or into the room if the user didn't put the lid down.
 
Last edited:
I agree - none at all. Well - I suppose maybe were water diffusing through the material might result in a water leaking through the rubber/plastic over the course of years. But it shouldn't be going past the seal at all.

I have a toilet that uses a plastic Fluidmaster flapper with a silicone ring as a seal. It's adjustable using this mechanism that traps air and slows down depending on how big the opening to the air is. But for a bit of time I was getting it leaking past the seal and resulting in filling during the night. But I turned the seal around and it hasn't leaked since. I've had it for a decade and the flapper is in great condition. The only thing I wish they had was a replacement O-ring, but I could buy a replacement Fluidmaster 540 at Home Depot for less than $10.


american-standard-toilet-flappers-7381193-200-0070a-64_1000.jpg
 
So it costs $0.003 worth of lube instead of $0.012 worth of lube? I have uses where I need silicone grease so it doesn't save me from buying some, but I have no uses where I'm better off with a castor oil based grease with silicone in it.

If my flappers leak at all, I will take it off, put some Raybestos Silicone brake grease on, clean the mating valve surface with an old, blue scotch brite pad, and this is just to stop the leak till I get around to buying another flapper, IF I don't already have a replacement in a drawer full of such things, which I think I do have at the moment. If I'm going to bother ordering one online or make the mile journey through the mega hardware store, I go ahead and get 2 or 3 at a time.

I don't understand the fascination with high tech toilet flushing. My toilets have the original hardware that came in them and zero inclination to do more than swap a $2 flapper or $1 gasket every ~8 years, which takes a couple minutes.

Most people know how to save water on a standard old school tank, just adjust the float or put a brick or two into the tank to displace the water. Fortunately I get enough fiber in my diet so do not need a more powerful flush. I like a gentle flush that doesn't spray dirty water particles up on the lid or into the room if the user didn't put the lid down.

Doesn't work. There's a lot more to getting a decent gravity flush. Wider, fully glazed traps are like polished air intakes. The high efficiency ones usually have bigger flappers - mine are 3 inches wide and some are 4. They're also designed for a high column of water to provide more potential energy and higher static pressure. My tank is about 3 gallons when full, but it's only designed to flush 1.3. It's not perfect (especially when the kiddo stuffs it with TP) but it's worked far better than my older toilets (older than me) that had a traditional sized flapper with a narrow trap. They used the old idea that more water would then flush better. But if there was a massive turd stuck in that narrow trap, I found that it wasn't very good at loosening it, and then more water just meant that it would overflow the bowl and I needed to bring out the plunger and the glove.

My biggest problem is that older style flappers are horrible. The rubber just starts rotting away. I remember one at my parents' place where I removed it to try and clean it, and it just started crumbling. Especially the older style black rubber. Even the red, supposedly chemical-resistant rubber would start a combination of yellowing, hardening, and rotting. It did get kind of slimy, and often the slime buildup was what prevented a tight seal, but at other times if I cleaned it then it would start leaking where the rubber had started pitting and hardening but where the slime had kind of filled it in. But this kind of silicone seal seems to last nearly forever. I'll see a little bit where it seats, but these things just don't fail easily. But I do wish that they would just sell a seal replacement for $3 rather than require that the whole thing be replaced.
 
^ Nothing lasts forever. I can get a black rubber flapper on Amazon for $1.13, and IIRC they are now the longer lasting silicone. Takes 1 minute to replace.

The Fluidmaster 540 I have works like it's brand new after a decade. It's also what it was designed to use. I've heard of Korky replacements that were more like floppy traditional flappers (maybe with more advanced materials) but they're simply not designed like the hard plastic ones with a silicone seal.
 
So it costs $0.003 worth of lube instead of $0.012 worth of lube? I have uses where I need silicone grease so it doesn't save me from buying some, but I have no uses where I'm better off with a castor oil based grease with silicone in it.
....

No, it costs $6 vs $25, which are the unit costs of those two items. Or were are you buying them in single-smear size units? And the sil-glyde can be used for brakes, too. No point in being foolish about the comparison. One does the job. You can pay more for something different, that does the same job, Your privilege but it doesn't make it pointless.
 
^ Why would you let a toilet leak for a week? I don't understand the argument, if nobody's going to be home for more than a day, the main water valve gets shut off for all the various other reasons something could leak like refrigerator, washer, water heater.

I'd had no problems whatsoever, would be far more of a hassle to convert toilets, far more expense, for nothing I long for. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. ;)
 
American Standard 4072, 1.6 gallons per flush, inspired to change out the flapper too, being I had that occasional refill from seepage, seems the Korky Ultra flapper finally stopped it for me. I had a previously acquired Fluidmaster fill valve with flapper, I changed it all out to get the float update, but that flapper that came with it seeped too. My old-stock was previous Goodwill purchases, fill valve $4.99, flapper $1.99.

So I tried the old-stock Korky Plus, but that seeped too. So after some research I found Korky Ultra was the suggested replacement, and now with that I have found no seep tranquility, actually the flush seems impressive better too. I think the one I pulled out was also the Korky Plus, looks similar but It was replaced years ago and I'm not sure of the model.
20220910_103739.jpg


Then it was on to replacing facets, the kitchen one dripped unless shut off in certain position and the bathroom was just replaced to allow for more area under the facet to wash hands, the new bathroom facet, Pfister Eden model, I was sold on right away, the kitchen took a little longer but grew on me too.

I chose the kitchen facet for more distance too, and the Tuscany Baden model had the highest distance spec, with the ceramic valve in my price range. Compliments to Menard's for keeping me in a decent price range of options, I had no idea of pricing and plumbing fixtures. I also thought the kitchen facet would be the easiest too but nothing leaked when I was done.

One tip for the side spray hose is as soon as you can unravel it, do so, seems it comes coiled up and it took a couple of days of keeping it pulled out to get it to retract in an agreeable manner.
 
So it costs $0.003 worth of lube instead of $0.012 worth of lube? I have uses where I need silicone grease so it doesn't save me from buying some, but I have no uses where I'm better off with a castor oil based grease with silicone in it.

If my flappers leak at all, I will take it off, put some Raybestos Silicone brake grease on, clean the mating valve surface with an old, blue scotch brite pad, and this is just to stop the leak till I get around to buying another flapper, IF I don't already have a replacement in a drawer full of such things, which I think I do have at the moment. If I'm going to bother ordering one online or make the mile journey through the mega hardware store, I go ahead and get 2 or 3 at a time.

I don't understand the fascination with high tech toilet flushing. My toilets have the original hardware that came in them and zero inclination to do more than swap a $2 flapper or $1 gasket every ~8 years, which takes a couple minutes.

Most people know how to save water on a standard old school tank, just adjust the float or put a brick or two into the tank to displace the water. Fortunately I get enough fiber in my diet so do not need a more powerful flush. I like a gentle flush that doesn't spray dirty water particles up on the lid or into the room if the user didn't put the lid down.
mine doesn't flush well :( and i already replaced all the parts :(
that's why i'd like to have one of these things.
ever since they removed part of my colon my stool is larger and harder too. probably T.M.I.
 
So it costs $0.003 worth of lube instead of $0.012 worth of lube? I have uses where I need silicone grease so it doesn't save me from buying some, but I have no uses where I'm better off with a castor oil based grease with silicone in it.

If my flappers leak at all, I will take it off, put some Raybestos Silicone brake grease on, clean the mating valve surface with an old, blue scotch brite pad, and this is just to stop the leak till I get around to buying another flapper, IF I don't already have a replacement in a drawer full of such things, which I think I do have at the moment. If I'm going to bother ordering one online or make the mile journey through the mega hardware store, I go ahead and get 2 or 3 at a time.

I don't understand the fascination with high tech toilet flushing. My toilets have the original hardware that came in them and zero inclination to do more than swap a $2 flapper or $1 gasket every ~8 years, which takes a couple minutes.

Most people know how to save water on a standard old school tank, just adjust the float or put a brick or two into the tank to displace the water. Fortunately I get enough fiber in my diet so do not need a more powerful flush. I like a gentle flush that doesn't spray dirty water particles up on the lid or into the room if the user didn't put the lid down.
Actually, I raised the water level in mine! Made the over-flow tube higher too!
 
Doesn't work. There's a lot more to getting a decent gravity flush. Wider, fully glazed traps are like polished air intakes. The high efficiency ones usually have bigger flappers - mine are 3 inches wide and some are 4. They're also designed for a high column of water to provide more potential energy and higher static pressure. My tank is about 3 gallons when full, but it's only designed to flush 1.3. It's not perfect (especially when the kiddo stuffs it with TP) but it's worked far better than my older toilets (older than me) that had a traditional sized flapper with a narrow trap. They used the old idea that more water would then flush better. But if there was a massive turd stuck in that narrow trap, I found that it wasn't very good at loosening it, and then more water just meant that it would overflow the bowl and I needed to bring out the plunger and the glove.

My biggest problem is that older style flappers are horrible. The rubber just starts rotting away. I remember one at my parents' place where I removed it to try and clean it, and it just started crumbling. Especially the older style black rubber. Even the red, supposedly chemical-resistant rubber would start a combination of yellowing, hardening, and rotting. It did get kind of slimy, and often the slime buildup was what prevented a tight seal, but at other times if I cleaned it then it would start leaking where the rubber had started pitting and hardening but where the slime had kind of filled it in. But this kind of silicone seal seems to last nearly forever. I'll see a little bit where it seats, but these things just don't fail easily. But I do wish that they would just sell a seal replacement for $3 rather than require that the whole thing be replaced.
I'm going to get one of those things too!
 
^ Why would you let a toilet leak for a week? I don't understand the argument, if nobody's going to be home for more than a day, the main water valve gets shut off for all the various other reasons something could leak like refrigerator, washer, water heater.

I'd had no problems whatsoever, would be far more of a hassle to convert toilets, far more expense, for nothing I long for. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. ;)
mine doesn't flush well, that's why i'd like to have one of those high-pressure conversion kits like the OP has :(
 
^ Why would you let a toilet leak for a week? I don't understand the argument, if nobody's going to be home for more than a day, the main water valve gets shut off for all the various other reasons something could leak like refrigerator, washer, water heater.

I'd had no problems whatsoever, would be far more of a hassle to convert toilets, far more expense, for nothing I long for. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. ;)
People who use the toilet may not be competent and consider small amount of drip not a big deal and they are not the one paying for water. It is always the "other people's money" that mess things up.
 
Back
Top