Did a job today, toilet overflow. One of those boxed in & tiled over
cisterns - very pretty but a bugger to work on.

Came across the weirdest fill valve I've ever seen.

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0Fill%20Valve/


Inlet thread wasn't 3/4 BSP, more like 1/2". Hole in the plastic cistern
was too small to take the 3/4" spigot on the replacement fill valve.

Float on the end was just a piece of polystyrene. No diaphragm, just a
rubber pad - which had perished.

Couple of good points, very easy to adjust fill level, nice big thumb wheel
& easy to adjust arm length.

I suspect it was......

French!

Another odd thing, the supply to the WC & H&C of the basin were 10mm
plastic, same stuff used on microbore central heating. Never seen that
before either. Flow rate didn't seem to bad.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman
wibbled on Monday 16 November 2009 19:58

Did a job today, toilet overflow. One of those boxed in & tiled over
cisterns - very pretty but a bugger to work on.

Came across the weirdest fill valve I've ever seen.


http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0Fill%20Valve/


Inlet thread wasn't 3/4 BSP, more like 1/2". Hole in the plastic cistern
was too small to take the 3/4" spigot on the replacement fill valve.

Pretty sure my torbeck is 1/2" thread...

Float on the end was just a piece of polystyrene. No diaphragm, just a
rubber pad - which had perished.

Couple of good points, very easy to adjust fill level, nice big thumb
wheel & easy to adjust arm length.

I suspect it was......

Can't help with the weird valve - but now you know that you could replace it
with something else...

eg

http://www.bes.co.uk/products/120.asp?kw=18336

(Item 18336)

--
Tim Watts

This space intentionally left blank...

On Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:58:04 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

Did a job today, toilet overflow. One of those boxed in & tiled over
cisterns - very pretty but a bugger to work on.

Came across the weirdest fill valve I've ever seen.

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0Fill%20Valve/


Inlet thread wasn't 3/4 BSP, more like 1/2". Hole in the plastic cistern
was too small to take the 3/4" spigot on the replacement fill valve.

Float on the end was just a piece of polystyrene. No diaphragm, just a
rubber pad - which had perished.

Couple of good points, very easy to adjust fill level, nice big thumb wheel
& easy to adjust arm length.

I suspect it was......

French!

Certainly looks similar to a french valve that I recently took apart to
remove grit while I was on holiday recently (I thought I'd better put it
right, as it we'd borrowed the place from my parents for free!)

Another odd thing, the supply to the WC & H&C of the basin were 10mm
plastic, same stuff used on microbore central heating. Never seen that
before either. Flow rate didn't seem to bad.

Don't know about plastic, but it's quite common for french toilets to be
fed from 10mm copper.

SteveW

On Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:58:04 +0000, The Medway Handyman wrote:

Did a job today, toilet overflow. One of those boxed in & tiled over
cisterns - very pretty but a bugger to work on.

Came across the weirdest fill valve I've ever seen.

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0Fill%20Valve/


Inlet thread wasn't 3/4 BSP, more like 1/2".

I think you mean it was 3/8" rather than the usual 1/2" - some greasy
forriners seem to use the smaller diameter.

Hole in the plastic
cistern was too small to take the 3/4" spigot on the replacement fill
valve.

ISTR having a similar problem a while back, but being able to
bodg^H^H^Hadapt a connection to a Torbeck within the cistern itself.


Float on the end was just a piece of polystyrene. No diaphragm, just a
rubber pad - which had perished.

Do you mean it was a diaphragm type but one in which the diaphragm was a
flat rubber disk rather than the sort with sort of circular ripples we're
used to? Or was it like the plain rubber disc on a piston type valve?
Although they pretty much come down to the same thing: a float-operated
lever pushing a bit of rubber up against a nozzle through which water
enters the valve (or not).

Couple of good points, very easy to adjust fill level, nice big thumb
wheel & easy to adjust arm length.

I suspect it was......

French!

Did it smell of garlic, or was there a frog in the cistern? ;-)


Another odd thing, the supply to the WC & H&C of the basin were 10mm
plastic, same stuff used on microbore central heating. Never seen that
before either. Flow rate didn't seem to bad.

Definitely forrin!


--
John Stumbles -- http://yaph.co.uk

Life is nature's way of keeping meat fresh

YAPH wrote:
On Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:58:04 +0000, The Medway Handyman wrote:

Did a job today, toilet overflow. One of those boxed in & tiled over
cisterns - very pretty but a bugger to work on.

Came across the weirdest fill valve I've ever seen.

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0Fill%20Valve/


Inlet thread wasn't 3/4 BSP, more like 1/2".

I think you mean it was 3/8" rather than the usual 1/2" - some greasy
forriners seem to use the smaller diameter.

Prolly, yes. I had to enlarge the hole somewhat to get a'proper' thread to
fit.


Hole in the plastic
cistern was too small to take the 3/4" spigot on the replacement fill
valve.

ISTR having a similar problem a while back, but being able to
bodg^H^H^Hadapt a connection to a Torbeck within the cistern itself.


Float on the end was just a piece of polystyrene. No diaphragm,
just a rubber pad - which had perished.

Do you mean it was a diaphragm type but one in which the diaphragm
was a flat rubber disk rather than the sort with sort of circular
ripples we're used to? Or was it like the plain rubber disc on a
piston type valve?


The latter.

Although they pretty much come down to the same
thing: a float-operated lever pushing a bit of rubber up against a
nozzle through which water enters the valve (or not).

Couple of good points, very easy to adjust fill level, nice big thumb
wheel & easy to adjust arm length.

I suspect it was......

French!

Did it smell of garlic, or was there a frog in the cistern? ;-)

There was a faint wiff of garlic, yes.


Another odd thing, the supply to the WC & H&C of the basin were 10mm
plastic, same stuff used on microbore central heating. Never seen
that before either. Flow rate didn't seem to bad.

Definitely forrin!

Indeed. It has no place in Medway :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

John Rumm wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Indeed. It has no place in Medway :-)

Twas how I felt on Saturday night, some toad decided the close the M2
on the way back toward the M25. Ended up sat in a queue through
Rochester for an hour and a half just to get over the ironwork bridge!

So did I! I'd been to my daughters in Maidstone to change a radiator & was
coming back around 6:30, so I sat in the very same queue.

The M2 bridge is blowy at the best of times, Saturday a Ford Focus was
flipped over by the wind & a Nissan 4x4 blown across 4 lanes - good idea to
close it.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk