I hate wasting water! Help fix my toilet. I am sure there is a running joke here....

November 18, 2007 8:54 PM

I can't fix my toilet, help!

I have a mid priced Kohler toilet, so it doesn't have a floating ball, just the floating bar or whatever its called. My toilet runs constantly. If you push the float up or down, it still doesn't cut off the water. I think its techincally part of the valve mechanism.

How do I fix this? What is precisely causing the water to run, or I guess what would the float be acting upon to cut off the water?

posted by stormygrey to home & garden (11 comments total)

Typically toilets have a fill valve, which is a long plastic thing that's attached through the bottom of the tank to the water intake. The fill valve goes straight up to the top of the tank, and, at the very top, there are a bunch of small holes on the sides, which is where the water comes into the tank. When the float rises enough, it pushes up a switch that's attached to the top of the fill valve, thus shutting off the water.
posted by cerebus19 at 9:03 PM on November 18, 2007

It sounds like you have a Fluidmaster -- a popular replacement combination fill/float valve. The black cylinder is the float and is supposed to cut off the flow when it reaches a certain height.

If you can move it all the way up without cutting off the flow, either the mechanism is broken or disconnected, or the gray plastic tube is adjusted too low. Fortunately this is easily remedied because the tube is adjustable via a screw-type method with distinct "steps". All you have to do is grab the outside (if you want you can empty the tank first by cutting off the water supply) and turn it, counterclockwise I believe, and it extends the height by a notch. Do this until you can raise the black float and it makes a sort of soft click that you can feel in addition to the click of the plastic as you "unscrew" it.
posted by dhartung at 9:04 PM on November 18, 2007

Last year I had my old float levers replaced with something like this and about 4 monthes ago had a couple constant run toilets.

Turns out, it had nothing to do with the float mechanism - it was the rubber flapper valves, which had warped over time - bought a couple of them and no more issues.
posted by jkaczor at 9:05 PM on November 18, 2007

I have had both the fill valve/floater unit wear out, and the flapper valve become warped and non-pliable. Replace them both, they are cheap, and if one has worn, it's likely the other is worn too.
posted by The Deej at 9:11 PM on November 18, 2007

The toilet is less than a year old, but checking out the fluidmaster site and going through their trouble shooting, has led me to beleive that the valve inside it is having issues.
posted by stormygrey at 9:33 PM on November 18, 2007

Note that on those fluidmasters you can also easily clean out the valve of accumulated junk if it's not shutting off. You have to turn off the water supply first (or else you'll get a stream of water shooting up) but after that just pull off the cap at the top of the tower and you should be staring at the valve mechanism. Just clean out any mineral deposits and pop the top back on.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:06 PM on November 18, 2007

Previously. Recently, even.
posted by flabdablet at 1:55 AM on November 19, 2007

Not the same problem or beast Flabdablet, sorry.
posted by stormygrey at 6:34 AM on November 19, 2007

Same principles, though, and same diagnostic procedure.

If the running stream is going down the overflow tube, fix the inlet valve.

If the top of the overflow tube is dry, fix the outlet (flapper) valve.
posted by flabdablet at 2:23 PM on November 19, 2007

ok, dudes for future reference it was the two dollar fluidmaster seal for the fill valve that fixed it right up!
posted by stormygrey at 5:31 PM on November 19, 2007

Just in time! I gotta pee!!!!

Thanks for the update.
posted by The Deej at 7:47 PM on November 19, 2007