tales of a flapper

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My mother was a flapper for a little while, but by the time I met her, there was no way to tell.

So this is a tale of a toilet flapper. No question, just a tale.

OK, I have the old flapper out, not really old becaue I've only been using it for four days, and it is like it is swollen a bit on one side. It even makes the cone in the middle tip to one side. That's why the water wouldn't stop going into the bowel. Have you ever seen this. Do you think this happened because I have had these flappers for

2 years and the plastic wrapper distorted this one? Most flappers are probably used with 6 months of being made, I would think.

Or was this just made wrong in the first place??

I have left the rest of the story, since I typed it, but the story does't have much value since I found the problem with this flapper.

I have 3 identical Elger toilets and had little trouble getting flappers when I first got the house. But then one wore out and the universal one I got wouldn't stop the running, or the next one, so I keep records and I dug out the box or card the flapper came in (or on) and got the model number of my last flapper that fit, a SealMaster flapper Part No. b-264V. Couldn't find it at stores so I searched the web, and got just two hits, one of which was right here in Baltimore. It was a semi?-wholesale store, and they were only charging 1.80 or

1.60 for a flapper, much less than anywhere else, so I bought two cartons of them a few years ago. 24?

The first one or two worked fine, but last month, one let the toilet run. I let it sit with water atop it, and after about 12 or 24 hours, it worked fine after all. I guess the weight of the water shaped the flapper to the opening.

This month, another toilet needed fixing, and this time the toilet ran even faster with the replacement flapper, so much so I could see the constant ripple in the toilet bowel and the valve opened to add more water to the tank every 15 minutes. I ran my finger along the flapper and the surface of the opening in the tank and found nothing that wasn't flat. I used a toilet bowl brush to force the flapper down and the water would stop running. I let it all sit for 4 days, and the last day it got even faster, adding more water every 10 minutes.

So I just replaced the new flapper with another one, and it worked right immediately.

I'm looking at the bad one now and I still can't...

The plastic wrap pack doesn't seem to be distorting the rubber, but maybe it did in that case. After all, most flappers are sold within 3 to 6 months of being made, and used within a week of being sold. Is that fair? This one was made years ago. OTOH, the wrapping has a hole in the cardboard right where the platic hole of the tank would be. So it holds it flat there.

Do you think I should take the plastic off all, or half, of my supply of 20 flappers?

[Mikepier]

I've said this many times in the past before, especially with Eljer. Get the original equipment flappers, not the universal aftermarket ones made by Fluidmaster or other companies. If you go on Eljers website and look up your toilet, you can order the flapper. I had problems with my Eljer toilet and when I got the OEM flapper it fixed the problem.

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You can?

P&M

I went to the Eljer website, but couldn 't find any products.

Meanwhile, the flapper that I said worked fie right from the start leaks enough water that it adds water every hour. That's not as bad as every 15 minutes, and it may get better, like the other toilet did, but it's not great.

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BTW, where is the model number on a toilet?

[Mikepier]

I'm not sure where the model # is if there is one. Maybe in the tank. You pretty much have to look at the picture in the catalog and determine which is yours. I have to make a correction, I actually ordered my parts from these guys:

were helpful over the phone.

Eljers website list most of the toilets they made here, look to the right for "repair parts"

pretty much have to scroll down the entire list of toilets to determine which is yours.

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