This is driving me nuts. Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

TIA

HB

"Higgs Boson" wrote in message
...

This is driving me nuts. Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

Inspect the flapper valve and the chain that connects it to
the operating lever. After a year or more's use either can
develop rough edges that impede efficient operation.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Symptoms indicating replacement of toilet guts snipped

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

Call a pro, and pay through the nose. Or find a friend who can do this. I
can take the tank off a toilet, install a new flapper, inflow valve, and
bowl gasket in about half an hour. But, if you are not handy, and haven't
done at least a dozen, there are all sorts of cans of worms that can be
opened. I've done at least two dozen. No biggie if everything goes right,
and that doesn't happen often. The kit is about $20, and get the full kit.
If you don't change everything, you'll be in there again in a couple of
weeks replacing what you didn't replace this time. If you know someone who
can teach you, it isn't rocket surgery.

Steve

--


Heart surgery pending?
www.heartsurgerysurvivalguide.com
Heart Surgery Survival Guide
Now on facebook, too.

On Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:29:43 -0700 (PDT), Higgs Boson
wrote:

This is driving me nuts. Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

TIA

HB

The flapper may not be seating. This can sometimes be slime that
allows the flapper to leak. Do you see water movement in the bowl
during the leaking? Just cleaning the flapper can stop the leak (mine
was like this and I could hear a chatter as water passed by).

If cleaning the flapper doesn't fix it, get a new flapper and replace
the old one. A small crack or split in the rubber will also cause a
leak.

Put some food coloring in the tank, letting it sit overnight. If the
bowl water changes color -- clean or replace the flapper.

On Aug 23, 4:07*pm, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:29:43 -0700 (PDT), Higgs Boson

wrote:
This is driving me nuts. *Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. *I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

TIA

HB

The flapper may not be seating. This can sometimes be slime that
allows the flapper to leak. *Do you see water movement in the bowl
during the leaking? Just cleaning the flapper can stop the leak (mine
was like this and I could hear a chatter as water passed by).

If cleaning the flapper doesn't fix it, get a new flapper and replace
the old one. A small crack or split in the rubber will also cause a
leak.

Put some food coloring in the tank, letting it sit overnight. If the
bowl water changes color -- clean or replace the flapper.

In order of steps:

Remove the flapper and clean the flapper and flapper seat.

If that doesn't work, replace the flapper.

If that doesn't work, replace the flapper seat.

1 and 2 are easy. #3 is a bit more complicated.

The food color is a good way to tell if it's leaking.

They also have whole new assemblies that
include the flapper and the fill mechanism which
include a lockout mechanism. The lockout will
prevent the tank from refilling if water is lost
gradually. For it to refill, the handle must be
activated. I've only recently seen these and
they are pretty cool. With them you know if
the toilet is leaking because you'll find the
tank empty when you go to flush it.

Fluidmaster has that in their LS series, stands for Leak Sentry.
The float has a little strip of metal that slides along the post.
When it gets where it stops, the strip is against the post, and
won't let the float go back down till the strip is reset, by a second
chain to the flush arm.
It really does save water, and lets you know you have a leak issue.

On Aug 23, 5:41*pm, "
wrote:
They also have whole new assemblies that
include the flapper and the fill mechanism which
include a lockout mechanism. *The lockout will
prevent the tank from refilling if water is lost
gradually. *For it to refill, the handle must be
activated. *I've only recently seen these and
they are pretty cool. *With them you know if
the toilet is leaking because you'll find the
tank empty when you go to flush it.

On 8/23/2011 11:29 AM, Higgs Boson wrote:
This is driving me nuts. Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

TIA

HB

call 0jr. see if he will fix it for you.

must be a smart toilet if it runs from you.

In article
,
Higgs Boson wrote:



Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?



I suggest you get handy. But I'm not one of the gurus. I hate learning
stuff and fixing stuff, but you either take the time to study how the
thing works or you call in a pro. There are some good guides online to
toiletology.

One problem with mine is that that the rotational play in the flush
handle mounting system is greater than the slack in the chain. If
someone pushes too hard on the flush lever, then the chain is taut
before the flapper seats. Instant fix then is to force the handle CW to
restore chain slack.

On Aug 23, 11:37*pm, Smitty Two wrote:
In article
,
*Higgs Boson wrote:



Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

I suggest you get handy. But I'm not one of the gurus. I hate learning
stuff and fixing stuff, but you either take the time to study how the
thing works or you call in a pro. There are some good guides online to
toiletology.

One problem with mine is that that the rotational play in the flush
handle mounting system is greater than the slack in the chain.


I think in all the toilets I've seen the rotational play in the
flush handle is governed only by the slack in the chain.
May not be true in all, but no question that's how it works
in many. The flush lever is just an arm with no stop.



If
someone pushes too hard on the flush lever, then the chain is taut
before the flapper seats. Instant fix then is to force the handle CW to
restore chain slack.

In article
,
" wrote:

On Aug 23, 11:37*pm, Smitty Two wrote:
In article
,
*Higgs Boson wrote:



Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

I suggest you get handy. But I'm not one of the gurus. I hate learning
stuff and fixing stuff, but you either take the time to study how the
thing works or you call in a pro. There are some good guides online to
toiletology.

One problem with mine is that that the rotational play in the flush
handle mounting system is greater than the slack in the chain.


I think in all the toilets I've seen the rotational play in the
flush handle is governed only by the slack in the chain.
May not be true in all, but no question that's how it works
in many. The flush lever is just an arm with no stop.


That's why I brought it up, because it's something people don't tend to
think about. The mounting hole for the flush lever is square. The flush
lever mount has a square feature that nests in there. In my case (an
early 1.6 gal. Toto) the square hole in the tank is larger by just a bit
than the square feature on the flush lever mount. So, even when the
mounting nut is snugged down (and it's plastic so it can't be
overtightened without destroying it) there is a little rotational play
there.



If
someone pushes too hard on the flush lever, then the chain is taut
before the flapper seats. Instant fix then is to force the handle CW to
restore chain slack.

On Aug 23, 8:29*am, Higgs Boson wrote:
This is driving me nuts. *Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. *I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

TIA

HB

Two rather remote possibilities but I have had both problems:

1. Lift chain occasionally gets sorta caught on the end of the flush
arm takes all the slack out and ball doesn't fully seat. I cured that
by hanging a fish weight on the chain.

2. Wife can't flush the toilet right. My new TOTO Drake did that.
It wouldn't seat all the way if she held the flush handle while it
flushed. Why did she do that? Who knows. It took me 6 months of
demonstrations, coaxing, yelling etc before she was convinced _she_
was the problem and not the toilet.

Harry K

On Aug 24, 8:31*am, Harry K wrote:
On Aug 23, 8:29*am, Higgs Boson wrote:

This is driving me nuts. *Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. *I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

TIA

HB

Two rather remote possibilities but I have had both problems:

1. *Lift chain occasionally gets sorta caught on the end of the flush
arm takes all the slack out and ball doesn't fully seat. *I cured that
by hanging a fish weight on the chain.

2. *Wife can't flush the toilet right. *My new TOTO Drake did that.
It wouldn't seat all the way if she held the flush handle while it
flushed. *Why did she do that? *Who knows. *It took me 6 months of
demonstrations, coaxing, yelling etc before she was convinced _she_
was the problem and not the toilet.

Tx Harry. What's driving me up the wall, as I originally posted, is
why the ball sometimes seats perfectly, and sometimes doesn't
I tried tracking it by the way I work the flush arm (fast, slow,
abrupt, gradual) but there seems to be no correlation.
I'll try hanging something on the chain & see if that makes a
difference.

HB

On Aug 24, 6:14*pm, Higgs Boson wrote:
On Aug 24, 8:31*am, Harry K wrote:



On Aug 23, 8:29*am, Higgs Boson wrote:

This is driving me nuts. *Sometimes the toilet (low-flow Vitra) runs,
and sometimes it doesn't. *I have tried pushing the handle down
different ways -- fast, slow -- but can't isolate that as a factor.

Now I'm leaving the lid off, which doesn't look so great on the
bathroom floor, just so I can monitor what happens on each flush.

Since I''m not handy, would any of Our Gurus have a suggestion?

TIA

HB

Two rather remote possibilities but I have had both problems:

1. *Lift chain occasionally gets sorta caught on the end of the flush
arm takes all the slack out and ball doesn't fully seat. *I cured that
by hanging a fish weight on the chain.

2. *Wife can't flush the toilet right. *My new TOTO Drake did that.
It wouldn't seat all the way if she held the flush handle while it
flushed. *Why did she do that? *Who knows. *It took me 6 months of
demonstrations, coaxing, yelling etc before she was convinced _she_
was the problem and not the toilet.

Tx Harry. *What's driving me up the wall, as I originally posted, is
why the ball sometimes seats perfectly, and sometimes doesn't
I tried tracking it by the way I work the flush arm (fast, slow,
abrupt, gradual) but there seems to be no correlation.
I'll try hanging something on the chain & see if that makes a
difference.

HB- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It is a remote chance but worthe checking.

Harry K