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puzzling toilet innards

688 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  woodypecker
Hello all, I'm helping my cousin fix up her sister's house for sale. had to change a couple of leaky valves in her bathroom. and when I turned the water back on. the tank wouldn't retain the water. at first I thought it was a bad flapper. I held the flapper down and the tank would fill only to a certain point because the water kept draining from the small holes that surrounds the flapper. here's a pic. hope someone can identify what's going on here. also, what's the purpose of the cup around the flapper? Thanks

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I held the flapper down and the tank would fill only to a certain point
iow... the valve thought the tank WAS full and stopped flowing.

Long story short... Fluidmaster 400A.
Get one.
iow... the valve thought the tank WAS full and stopped flowing.

Long story short... Fluidmaster 400A.
Get one.
the water never stopped flowing. will probably replace both fill valve and flapper to see if it works. thanks
Never seen a housing around the flush valve like this before.
Looks like a home made make shift water saver device that will reduce the amount of water per flush. Personally I would put a complete rebuild kit in it.


Those holes around the flapper are there to equalize the water level between the inner housing and the whole tank. If you still have water leaking into the toilet bowl, it is coming from a leaking flapper.

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Looks like an older toilet. I agree, recommend a rebuild kit for the whole inner tank if possible. Sometimes the newer universal kits don't fit the older type toilets.



What is the manufacture of toilet?
I seen a lot of early water saver toilets that were like that in the early 90's. That was right after the 1.6 mandate was first introduced. Think some manufacturers just took regular toilets and converted them to use 1.6 gal, most flushed really poorly. Well designed toilets using 1.6 or even 1.2 can flush really well, they'll have larger flush valves and larger traps.

All the water that leaves the tank has to either go down the flapper valve or down the overflow tube. The Flapper is likely the problem, but it can also be the flapper seat. The seat can crack or get deposits on them so the flapper doesn't seal correctly. You can buy a repair kit that epoxies a replacement seat over the old one but never had great luck with them, better to just pull the tank and change the whole flush valve assembly. None of the parts are very expensive, just a bunch of messing around, getting old bolts out and cleaning up everything. With an early water saver like that I'd probably just replace the whole thing with something a lot better.
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It looks like an early low water consumption toilet. They are a 3 gallon toilet adapted to flush with 1.6 gallons. They don’t flush well and they stink because the water doesn’t cover enough of the bowl. They get skid marks and stink. I would jettison it and get a modern toilet. I swapped all of ours to handicap height elongated bowl models. Sittin pretty.
Thanks for the responses. will see if replacing the fill valve and flapper works. don't want to have to disassemble the tank until I speak to gerber. sometimes those so call universal kits aren't always universal.
Replaced the fill valve and flapper and the toilet is working again. the new owners can decide if they want to upgrade the toilet. Thanks everyone for your responses.
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