My Toilet Is Confusing Me.

[DerbyDad03]

Over the past few days one of my toilets had been giving me a bit of trouble.

Normally I could just push the handle down and let go. The flap would stay up until the tank was empty and I would get a complete flush.

Recently I found that the flap was dropping down too soon (almost immediately) so the toilet wouldn't flush. I had to hold the handle down for a little while so the flap would stay up and give me a full flush - not the whole time it took to empty the tank, but longer than just a single "push and let go."

This morning I shortened the plastic chain by a couple of links and it's back to flushing with a quick push of the handle.

I checked the plastic rod from the handle - it's straight and tight - and the handle isn't tilted in any way. As far as I can tell nothing has changed in the many years since the guts were installed, yet for some reason I had to shorten the chain to get the flap to stay up.

Any thoughts?

[Van Chocstraw]

It's not an exact science.

[dpb]

DerbyDad03 wrote: ...

Rubber in the flapper stretched/deformed w/ time so in effect the chain had become longer.

--

[DerbyDad03]

In that case, I better keep a close eye on things. If that keeps happening I'm going to run out of chain in 100 years or so.

[dpb]

You know what Twain said about the length of the Mississippi don't you??? :)

In reality, the symptoms are probably a combination of the deformation of the flapper and changes in it's hardness, some increase in weight due to collected sedimentation/lime deposits, etc., and a multitude of other small, individually, effects.

--

[DerbyDad03]

Try this on your friends, especially the younger ones:

Ask them: Can you spell Mississippi without any i's?

After they struggle through M...ss..ss etc, put your hand over your eyes and spell Mississippi.

[Joe]

Joe

[Doug Miller]

If they're actually *from* Mississippi, they certainly can:

Ayumm, ahhh, ayess, ayess, ahhh ...

[David Nebenzahl]

On 1/23/2009 6:16 AM DerbyDad03 spake thus:

[...]

Yes. My present toilet has always worked that way. Rather than even bother to open the lid and look inside, I've chosen to treat this as a feature rather than a bug; I can regulate the length of the flush by how long I hold the handle down (so long for #1, longer for #2, etc.). A true variable-flush commode.

[Jon Danniken]

You know that little guy in the boat inside of your toilet tank?

Sometimes he gets bored and tinkers with stuff.

Jon

[DerbyDad03]

I don't have a little guy in a boat inside my tank. The last time I had the tank open I capsized the boat and held the little guy under the water until the bubbles stopped. Luckily he was small enough to flush.

The boat makes a nice tray for jelly beans.

[Red]

I just replaced both my screwed up Al Gore toilets with Toto brand toilets. The tank-to-bowl opening (plus flapper) is twice the area of the removed ones. The tank empties in about 2 seconds. With the water moving that fast, it sucks the flapper right back down if you don't hold the handle. But that is a very minor inconvience for a flush that works with the force of a garden hose.

Red

[ransley]

Remove the flapper you dont need it, put in a clapper

[hallerb]

e:

so you enjoy the noise of the totos jet takeoff?

not bad if you live alone, horrible if you have a 3 year old...

[Bubba]

more ransley rambling from and idiot. Bubba