Toilet repair woes..

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JTK

JTK

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The commode in our downstairs lav had a slight trickle-by for awhile. The flapper valve was bad. I had to run into town anyway, so I picked up a new flapper. Had it swapped out in no time. When I turned the water supply back on to the toilet (mercifully that valve worked leak free), a seal blew on the fill valve, spraying water way up and out of the toilet tank. Great. Back to the store that evening for a fill valve. Got that swapped out no problem. Now today I hear the toilet running on and on.. only to find the stop on the flush handle to be broken off, allowing the flush handle linkage to flop all the way down, preventing the flapper from seating. Plumbers must have patience like none other.

Next time I'll buy everything and return what I don't use.
 
When I have toilet woes, I just buy a fluid master complete kit and be done with it. 15 bucks.

Had the same thing happen to one of my toilets a few years back; flapper wasn't seating properly. I fixed that and a month later, the American Standard factory fill valve (the yellow bubble kind) failed.

Why do they always have to reinvent the wheel???
 
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If it's one of the old 3.9 gallons a flush, I just replace the toilet.

Even a 1.6 GPF toilet can save you major $$$...
 
It happens to the pros, too. I recently replaced a kitchen sink faucet in an apartment building, and it took 17 minutes from the time I put money in the parking meter until I was putting my tools back in my van.

Then I decided to replace the bathroom faucet at my house. Took two days this time. Of course the old faucet didn't want to come off, I apparently put in on really well. Then I tried to replace the popup assembly, and the porcelain-on-steel lavatory (sink) was rotted out. The angle stops didn't look too good either, so I replaced those. The reason it took two days is because when I realized that the lav was rusted out, it was too late to go to the plumbing supply. Home Depot has stopped selling 18" round pressed steel lavs here. If I had gone into it thinking, "OK, I'm going to replace the faucet, pop-up, angle stops, supplies, and lavatory," it wouldn't have taken nearly as long. But I was just trying to do a "minor" repair.
 
for toilet water tank that has been in service for quite a while, I typically do a one shop run and get the "full meal deal": flapper + flapper seat assembly, water fill valve, sponge seat, brass screw kit and so on.

Fluidmaster has all (if not most of them) in box type deal.

Also: I replace the stainless steel braided hose as well.

Yeah, I know that might take an hour to service the whole thing (drain the tank, get some extra dry rag to dry the inside of the tank, fight with those corroded "fake brass over steel" tank bolts or brass bolts, pull off the tank, etc.

But once that's done, I know it will easily provide another decade worth of consistent, if not reliable service.

getting just enough service parts to repair the "apparant" problems on old toilets just don't cut it anymore, for the extra time I need to spend while driving back and forth to the big box store 6 miles from my house and back just eats into my precious time, and adds frustration too.

Q.
 
Yeah, I thought this cheapo Eljir 1.6GPF toilet was newer than it is. Date stamp in the tank is Nov 2000. Previous owners put it in. The flapper I pulled was a replacement. They don't make stuff like they used to.
frown.gif
 
I just did a dual flush conversion on my toilet the other day.

25 dollar kit.

I went in there for a flapper, and walked out with the whole deal to convert the toilet.

I'm kind of on the fence about it. Everything is plastic including the handle.

Took me about 60 minutes to convert the toilet.

Now, if you go #1 in the toilet, you can use 50% of the water that a full flush would do.

This is a builder grade toilet that is about 9 years old. I will get rid of it and put in a toto when I have a few bucks. But this is working for now.
 
I replaced all 3 of my Eljer 4gal flush (contractor grade, came with the house that complied with the housing contstruction code back in those days) with 1.6gal full flush (MaP 1000g) Foremost Opal, and we've been very happy so far (over 2.5yrs now).

Good, consistent flush, no clogs (as opposed to those Eljers that clogged once every several months, etc.), even though the trap is relatively small if you are to compare with those AStd low flush ones (3" dia trap, as opposed to mine around 2.6"), but no clogs no matter what human fecal matter + tP we thrown at them....

Q.

oh forgot to mention: I tried those dual flush retro kits @ my parent's house (Crane 4Gal flush) and the rim wash part was terrible: left stains which smells, and also requires frequent scrubbing to remove those pesky bowl stains..
 
last time i had to repair a toilet, i got one of the complete kits, had to take the whole tank off to get a good enough grip on the filler.
had everything back together, turn on the water....oops, I didn't have everything back together....
Forgot the gasket between the tank and the Bowl...

water, water everywhere... but at least it was clean & clear water from the tank, not "brown" water.
 
Speaking of water-conserving toilets, I recently put 4 American Standard Cadet Pro "WaterSense", i.e., 1.28 gpf toilets in the ladies' room at my church. So far, they're apparently working fine, or I'd have heard about it. I plan to put either a Kohler Wellworth or American Standard Cadet 3 toilet in my master bath one of these days. We have an older Kohler Wellworth 1.6 gpf toilet in the other bathroom, and it works well.

The bad part about all of these water-saving toilets is that we're heading back toward proprietary parts in the tanks.
 
I recently tried to replace a part in a Kohler toilet that had a triangular hole, and they gave a round gasket for it. It required so much torque and careful positioning, and three hands to tighten it so it would be leak free, it led to a curse fest.

A week later I replaced the entire toilet, threw the old one in the garbage bin, and smashed it with a hammer into little bits.

Do note that the common wax seal between toilet and floor is old technology, and if there is any flex in the floor, not that there should be, will compromise the seal.

They sell these new silicone gaskets which are reuseable and a joy to work with in comparison.


Wax, never again.

http://www.amazon.com/Sani-Seal-Llc-BL01...s=toilet+gasket
 
Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight

They sell these new silicone gaskets which are reuseable and a joy to work with in comparison.


Wax, never again.

http://www.amazon.com/Sani-Seal-Llc-BL01...s=toilet+gasket


WOW! It's about time. I didn't know those existed!

Well, another $5 into the Eljer for a new flush handle and she's all good.

FWIW, this cheapy does have a built in dual flush so to speak. Just hold the handle down for extra water.
 
I hate plumbing, it always runs from one thing to another. I also hate doing that "toilet tune up kit" for $25 because I've got to take it all apart and everything. A new toilet is $80-90.
 
Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
If it's one of the old 3.9 gallons a flush, I just replace the toilet.

Even a 1.6 GPF toilet can save you major $$$...


If its a 3.9 GPF, DONT scrap it. Volume is EVERYTHING.
 
I had the same toilet saga...ended up replacing the tank...
An on-off trickle came from too high a water level...lowered it a bit and it's now silent.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
Next time I'll buy everything and return what I don't use.

I did that all the times, bought every item related to what I tried to repair, used what actually broke and return the rest whenever I had a chance to do so, just keep receipt in the bag all items came with.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
If it's one of the old 3.9 gallons a flush, I just replace the toilet.

Even a 1.6 GPF toilet can save you major $$$...


If its a 3.9 GPF, DONT scrap it. Volume is EVERYTHING.


I've tried my friend's Toto drake and also Toto drake II (the swirl one on the rim of the bowl), and then my Foremost Opal 1.6Gal, frankly I no longer missed any poorly executed yet 4Gal + toilets anymore.While I still doubtful about those 1.26gal (4.8Litre?) HET toilets (anything rated MaP less than 700g is doubtful) about the consistency about those toilets, so far, none of those 1.6Gal toilets I've experienced and/or used so far has disappointed me. The only thing is that I still cannot understand why some AS CAdet or Champion would have costs so much to purchase, and ditto with some fancy Kohler cans. (over 800+ per unit local retail)....

I can definitely live with 1.6Gal for the next 2 decades or so.

Q.
 
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