In article , Jon Elson wrote:


Loren Coe wrote:

there was a thread here a few months ago and folks voiced
their experience/s w/FluidMaster valve kits. some loved
them, some hated them (including me) because of a short
life.

today i got a letter from them, responding to a "survey"
i submitted that included my comments about the short life.
they blame it on "Tejas" water(!), too many chloramines and
chlorine, and say two years is a very good result for Texas.
i am getting 18mos or less.

this is a big state but most municipal water is surface, so
this makes some sense to me, but i almost never smell chlorine
in the water, maybe once or twice in the past 10yrs. i test
water for my aquarium and it never registers chlorine strait
out of the tap.



This is the unit with the coaxial float, and a twist-extendable main
"stem"? Not with the arm with float on the end? I have converted

yes, exactly.

pretty much all the toilets, including at relative's houses, to these,
and they seem to last a long time. I'm just starting to see the wearout
of the first ones I put in about 12-14 years ago. This is in the
St. Louis, Missouri area,
much of our water is well, but some is river water. We have pretty
hard water, and get lots of calcium-like deposits on everything. The
toilet tanks look like they have 1/4" of dissolved chalk in them, and
the water heaters fill up with stones and weigh 400+ pounds when
you haul them out (that's AFTER draining all the water out).

Some other toilet tank valves, sink faucets, etc. have either failed, or
needed internal cleaning due to all this calcium, but the fluidmaster
seems to handle what our local water utilities throw at it with no
trouble at all.
So, that's my experience with 3 water utilities in this region. Jon

thanks for the detail, Jon. i have been "rehabing" the valve assy's and
am still on a learning curve. i refuse to buy another, either valve kit
or complete assy. however, if i get the two additional assy's from the
company, i will keep using Fluidmaster (i should have a lifetime supply
of valves ;-).

what gets me is that Peerless is sold here thru Walmart and they carry
a lifetime warranty. of course i have no idea of any "shipping/handling"
charges they may demand, or if Walmart would exchange them.

the problem seems to be "friction" in the valve (a metal pin and butyl
rubber/venturi gizmo) that develops w/use. it's not crud from the water
which is very good here in Plano. magnification indicated that some of
the rubber deposits on the pin. very little however, but cleaning it
and the rubber valve restores operation for some period.

if i can still find "silcone spray", i will try applying it next time.

Regards, --Loren