Royal Flush
When I wasn’t busy obsessing over food and being completely bored out of my mind last week, I did a lot of observation. For instance, I found that Sydney pretty much spends the entire day sleeping in the mdidle of the floor. He lays on his back and with his legs curled up and facing the ceiling. I was also able to diagnose what was wrong with our toilet. If I had had a team, I probably could have made the diagnosis even more quickly. Needless to say, it wasn’t Lupus.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, we had been having toilet problems for a while now. The toilet had a weak flush, but Bunky and I just assumed that was how it was designed. The last two weeks, however, the cistern was completely empty, which meant the toilet would not flush. My first theory was that the Fluidmaster 400 (upgrade over a ballcock) was not working properly. I thought what was happening was that when the water was flushed down from the cistern, the Fluidmaster was not refilling the cistern with water. Initial observations supported this theory.
I tried wiping the Fluidmaster down, thinking that mineral deposits were preventing the float from rising and falling properly. Each time, it would seem like the problem was fixed and then several hours later the Fluidmaster was not filling the cistern again. This was very frustrating! Eventually, however, I was reading about toilet repair and I realized that the Fluidmaster was not actually the problem!
The problem was that the bleach tablets we dropped in the cistern had warped the rubber flapper. This is why the toilet had such a weak flush before; the ripples allowed water to slowly escape out of the cistern and into the bowl, and so the cistern was only maybe 50% full by the time the toilet was flushed. Eventually the ripples got worse, and this is why the cistern was always empty after several hours.
Since the flow through the faulty flapper was still relatively slow, the Fluidmaster never tripped correctly, and so never filled up the bowl (a good thing, or our water bill would be even worse than it already was this quarter…); this also explains why it always seemed like the problem was fixed after a few flushes but would pop up again hours later. I was very pleased with the new theory, so I bought a universal rubber flapper for $4 at the hardware store and installed it (took about 1 minute). Bunky and I monitored the water level and it seemed like there was still a small amount of water loss (maybe 5% over 2 hours). I then rubbed down the bottom half of the valve to remove mineral deposits to ensure a tight seal with the new flapper top I had installed. I checked again many hours later, and the problem was fixed!
So now we have a toilet with a strong flush. We’re using one of those over-the-bowl cleaners instead of drop-in tablets, and everything is fabulous. I wish I’d caught the problem sooner, and I’m a little scared to see the next water bill.
By Chris, 8/14/2008 @ 6:19 pm
Just this time, I spare you the toilet humour.
By Kabitzin, 8/14/2008 @ 6:23 pm
Toilet humor can be really flushtrating.
By catnipped, 8/14/2008 @ 10:06 pm
lol.. you should tout that as energy saving alternative. To save water bills, only fill up your water tank to half full.. consequences may include unforseen nastiness..
By Chris, 8/15/2008 @ 8:38 am
That’s not a new idea. You can buy weights that’ll cause the tank to fill up only partially and most toilets allow you to flush just a bit.
There’s one catch though. Especially if urine isn’t flushed properly, urine stone will build up causing a permanent urine odor and eventually congest the conduits (after a few years). Such urine stone build up can only be removed with very aggressive chemicals which may also harm plastic conduits.
By Chris, 8/15/2008 @ 3:10 pm
By the way, you may call me Mario but I’ll call you Luigi in return.
By Jesus159159159, 8/15/2008 @ 10:59 pm
Wow, I never knew toilets were such a hassle. I just let someone else take care of that for me =3. Its good to know when I move out though.
… I love you guys *GROUP HUG*…MY TURN! *thinks hard*… errr, *sniff* ew, did your toy let out some GAS?! *tomatoes thrown at him*…
*BLUSH*
*habit* Did I mention that Luigi is my
2nd Espada2nd main character in SSBB?… SMASH NUMBERS… ANYONE?!?!Oh, and Mr. Mario! Can you lay sum pipe on this here crack of mine! Its leaking!