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zzapper
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

Hi,
Our toilet has been flushing less & less reliably. As it's see through
plastic, I can see that when the plunger which should lift the water
up into the u-bend of the cistern to start the siphon, is failing to
do so, almost gets there.

But I can't see anything wrong.

Is there some kind of seal around the plunger which may have
disintegrated?

Do I have to in case replace the whole cistern unit?

--
zzapper (vim,cygwin,wiki & zsh)

vim -c ":%s.^.CyrnfrTfcbafbeROenzSZbbyranne.|:%s/[R-T]/ /Ig|:normal
ggVGg?"

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Ian Stirling
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

zzapper wrote:
Hi,
Our toilet has been flushing less & less reliably. As it's see through
plastic, I can see that when the plunger which should lift the water
up into the u-bend of the cistern to start the siphon, is failing to
do so, almost gets there.


Is the bowl transparent too?
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Aidan
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

" Is there some kind of seal around the plunger which may have
disintegrated?

There's a flap valve at the bottom of the siphon that has probably failed."


The flap valve is a disc of flexible plastic material like polythene
and it will wear at the edges, becomeing less effective and failing to
lift the water up the syphon, as you describe.

Drain the cistern, remove the syphon, take it apart, take the flap
valve disc to a plumbers' merchants and get a new one. If it's not bog
standard, or if it's a designer job with parts only available by
special order, it might be sensible to source the bits before you
dismantle it, to minimize the inconvenience.
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zzapper
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 20:58:41 +0000 (UTC), wrote:



There's a flap valve at the bottom of the siphon that has prolly failed.

Ypu do not need to replace the cistern, but you will need to replace the
flap, and probably better, the whole assembly, they're not expensive.

You will need to remove the cistern from the bog, and there is a rubber
sealing ring that is probably a good idea to replace at the same time.

Prolly wingnuts underneath will release the cistern which will just lift
off after disconnecting the pipes. These nuts can be a bugger to undo on
account of rusting corrupting, on reassembly grease up nicely.

Thnx for above. The unpleasant aspect of above is disconnecting the
water supply feed, which means switching off main tap.

Me thinks alas that this is a job for a plumber.

zzapper (vim, cygwin, wiki & zsh)
--

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mike ring
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

zzapper wrote in
:


Thnx for above. The unpleasant aspect of above is disconnecting the
water supply feed, which means switching off main tap.

Me thinks alas that this is a job for a plumber.

Could be, if that's the way you feel about it, but the plumbimg skills are
very elementary and could be a confidence builder.

It's within the competence of any spanner jockey really

mike
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Mark Williams
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

zzapper writes:

[Working on cistern]


Thnx for above. The unpleasant aspect of above is disconnecting the
water supply feed, which means switching off main tap.

Me thinks alas that this is a job for a plumber.


The water regulations say that there should be a servicing valve close
to the cistern. If you haven't already got one and decide to call in
a plumber, you might like to consider having one fitted in readiness
for next time (hopefully in the distant future).

--
Mark
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Ian Stirling
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

Aidan wrote:
" Is there some kind of seal around the plunger which may have
disintegrated?

There's a flap valve at the bottom of the siphon that has probably failed."


The flap valve is a disc of flexible plastic material like polythene
and it will wear at the edges, becomeing less effective and failing to
lift the water up the syphon, as you describe.


I've had good results by simply replacing the washer with thick
polythene appropriately trimmed.
Fiddly to get the exact circle with scissors, but possible. and free
if you can find some suitable polythene (say a thick poly builders sack.)
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mike ring
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

Mark Williams ] wrote in
:


The water regulations say that there should be a servicing valve close
to the cistern. If you haven't already got one and decide to call in
a plumber, you might like to consider having one fitted in readiness
for next time (hopefully in the distant future).

The professional builders who did my bathroom put one quite close to the
cistern. It's a compression fitting.

They then boarded over it and tiled over that; it looked very nice.

As the main stopcock was also within 2 ft of the bog I didn't notice the
lack of an isolater, but several years later the lino men must have moved
it a bit.

A couple of weeks after that I started to look for the slow leak that was
oozing under the new lino.......

Always use a professional

mike
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Ian Stirling
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

zzapper wrote:
On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 20:58:41 +0000 (UTC), wrote:



There's a flap valve at the bottom of the siphon that has prolly failed.

Ypu do not need to replace the cistern, but you will need to replace the
flap, and probably better, the whole assembly, they're not expensive.

You will need to remove the cistern from the bog, and there is a rubber
sealing ring that is probably a good idea to replace at the same time.

Prolly wingnuts underneath will release the cistern which will just lift
off after disconnecting the pipes. These nuts can be a bugger to undo on
account of rusting corrupting, on reassembly grease up nicely.

Thnx for above. The unpleasant aspect of above is disconnecting the
water supply feed, which means switching off main tap.

Me thinks alas that this is a job for a plumber.


There is often a shutoff tap near the toilet.
In this case, the absolute worst that can happen is that you can flush
it with a bucket for a while.


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zzapper
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

On 20 Jun 2004 22:33:12 GMT, wrote:



Me thinks alas that this is a job for a plumber.


There is often a shutoff tap near the toilet.
In this case, the absolute worst that can happen is that you can flush
it with a bucket for a while.


There is no isolating tap/valve , otherwise I'd do this job, no prob.
When we lived abroad our 45 year "economy" house had an isolater for
every tap,toilet what a dream, Electrics weren't so good, as the house
predated many electrical gadgets, but even so circuit-breakers.


Thanx for your help: Great NewsGroup!!!

zzapper (vim, cygwin, wiki & zsh)
--

vim -c ":%s.^.CyrnfrTfcbafbeROenzSZbbyranne.|:%s/[R-T]/ /Ig|:normal ggVGg?"

http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=305 Best of Vim Tips
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Ian Stirling
 
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Default Toilet Cistern Siphon not working

zzapper wrote:
On 20 Jun 2004 22:33:12 GMT, wrote:



Me thinks alas that this is a job for a plumber.


There is often a shutoff tap near the toilet.
In this case, the absolute worst that can happen is that you can flush
it with a bucket for a while.


There is no isolating tap/valve , otherwise I'd do this job, no prob.
When we lived abroad our 45 year "economy" house had an isolater for
every tap,toilet what a dream, Electrics weren't so good, as the house
predated many electrical gadgets, but even so circuit-breakers.


Annoying.
Alternatively, if you'r not disturbing the valve, and in many cases you may
not need to, then all you need to do is to tie up the ball-valve, so that
it does not turn on when you empty the tank to work on the siphon.
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