Fill Valve/Pressue Problem

[Christopher H. Laco]

Over the last couple of months, the fill valve in my master bath toilet (ballcock style) has worn out. What used to be a quiet night, has turned into frequent sounds of "whoooosh", a sound I can only describe as a small surge in water pressure that forces more water into the tank.

This didn't happen for the first two years I owned the house, and it doesn't happen to the other two toilets. Suspecting something internal in the valve, like a gasket, has gone bad, I decided to replace the fill valve.

They have 3 kinds at the local Lowes, the traditional ballcock, a Korky, and some other brand. I went with the Korky for no particular reason.

After fighting the flanged feed line, it was in, flushing and happy. Much to my dismay, I've only exchanged one problem for a similiar problem.

After about 10-30 minutes, instead of the "whooosh", I simply get a somewhat constant bubbling/gargling in the new float valve. I'm assuming that again, it's the water pressure issue.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do to get rid of the noise in a once quit bathroom. Any ideas?

-=Chris

[No]

Hey Chris - Sorry to be the first to tell you this. There was probably not anything wrong with that fill valve!

You problem is water leaking from the tank, when the water level gets low enough it causes the valve to add a bit more water in. The "whooosh" and the "bubbling/gargling" are likely two different vendors sounds.

Anyway - There are several places that it can leak and you would never know it. The most likely place is the flapper. (Water leaking into bowl). Thats a cheap thing to replace. Do it and 90% of the time the problem you have will be fixed.

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[Christopher H. Laco]

I would think that the amount of water leaking around the flapper to cause the whoosh every 5-10 minutes would be more audible, but what the hell do I know. I'm a computer jockey. :-)

If I'm going for broke and replacing the flapper too, I might make it worth my while and replace the water supply line. I wasn't terribly happy with the flanged end fit onto the bottom of the fill valve, and would've much preferred to use the cone gasket pressure fit type, or at least a flexible supply.

Guess know what I'm doing this evening. :-)

-=Chris

[Christopher H. Laco]

I would think that the amount of water leaking around the flapper to cause the whoosh every 5-10 minutes would be more audible, but what the hell do I know. I'm a computer jockey. :-)

If I'm going for broke and replacing the flapper too, I might make it worth my while and replace the water supply line. I wasn't terribly happy with the flanged end fit onto the bottom of the fill valve, and would've much preferred to use the cone gasket pressure fit type, or at least a flexible supply.

Guess know what I'm doing this evening. :-)

-=Chris

[Pete C.]

Find and fix the leak at the flapper / flush valve.

Pete C.

[No]

If there is no leak in the supply line then leave well enough alone. If it aint broke....

The flapper is a 5 minute $5 fix. For symptoms like you describe its the first thing to try. There are a few other places that can leak, causing the problem you have, as well.

Some may post here describing a dye test. It can tell you if the leak is in the flapper, or elsewhere. You add dye to the tank. If the water in the bowl changes color then the problem is likely in the flapper. If it doesn't then the leak is elsewhere. I skip this step because its usually the flapper.

OK - Just for fun - where is "elsewhere" Overflow tube

- water can flow over the top - if this is the case then just adjust the float to lower the water level.

- hole or bad connection at bottom of tube - Replace tube or re-seal threads.

Tank to bowl gasket

- water can leak from here, directly to drain (or floor). If the dye test shows no color in bowl, or the flapper replacement doesn't fix it, then this could be your problem.

leak to floor - I assume this is not your problem but for completeness I'll describe these possoble leaks.

- Tank to bowl bolts - These have rubber washers that can leak water to floor.

- Tank to bowl gasket - This can leak into the drain OR on to the floor

- Fill valve gasket - The gasket where the fill valve connects to the tank can leak water to the floor.

Good luck - post back what you find after replacing the flapper.

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[Christopher H. Laco]

Right. Force of habit. Plumbing makes me paranoid. After futzing with the supply line trying to get it tight enough to actually seal against the new fill valve bottom, I don't trust it one bit. But it isn't leaking at the moment :-)

Thanks for the help.

-=Chris

[Goedjn]

Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank. If it doesn't end up in the bowl after 1/2 hour, don't bother replacing the flapper.

[Jeff Wisnia]

You left out one which happened to me a few years ago.

Somehow the little refill tube which squirts water down the overflow tube while the tank is refilling was shoved too far down the overflow tube.

The net result was that the refill tube syphoned water out of the tank after the fill valve closed and lowered the tank level enough to cause the fill valve to toggle back on periodically.

Moving the refill tube back up so that its end was barely below the top of the overflow tube corrected the problem toot sweet.

********************************8

I had another funny one happen when I installed a Fluidmaster fill valve in one of our toilets. The amount of flow through that little refill tube splashig off whatever it hit down below was enough to somehow lift up the flap valve and prevent it from falling down and sealing unless I manually held it down with a stick until there was a couple of inches of water level in the tank.

I emailed Fluidmaster about that and they replied immediately telling me that was a known problem and that they'd be sending me a restrictor to put in the refill tube to slow down the refill stream. Once I heard that I put a little "aguarium air line" pinch clamp on the refill tube and squeezed the flow down some. That worked fine until the Fluidmaster restrictor arrived.

Prolly changing to a "heavier" flap valve would have fixed it too.

Yes, and I'd put my money of the flapper too, or a badly eroded flaper seat, easily fixable with one of those epoxy-on replacement seats.

Jeff

[Christopher H. Laco]

The wife is home today from jury duty, so I set her to task with some dye. It's official: color leak into the bowl. :-)

I guess that answers that question. It's flapper time.

-=Chris