So my ballcock wouldn't turn off, so I went to the cabinet and got another one, Fluidmaster 200A. I installed it in a couple minutes with the easy to use bayonet mount, just like I had changed ballcocks several times before.
But this one often won't turn off even when the water gets high enough, even when I pull the float up. It actually shoots up at the base, where it attaches, and might even reach the top of the tank if I didn't, as I normally do, keep the tank filling at about 1/10 max speed (so no noise.)
So I figure I'll buy another, but HD and the fluidmaster webpage don't have 200A anymore, and even worse, the ones they do have don't have the bayonet mount anymore. Am I missing something? Is there another brand that uses the easily replaceable value?
Am I going to have to take apart the whole thing every time the valve fails? Why are we moving backwards?
I have long thought that these things didn't last as long as they should, but since they were so easy to replace, I thought that made up for it. Now I have the worst of both worlds, plus they raised the price from about 6 dollars to about 10 dollars. :(
I found a post on the web that said: "With the old Fluidmaster 200A's it was obvious you could do that because you had to take the whole top off to replace the rubber diaphragm. Most people don't know it, but you can do the same thing with the new 400A's.
So far as I know, Fluidmaster is the only company making ballcocks that you can do that with. With everyone else's, you have to drain the tank and replace the WHOLE ballcock. "
But when I dl'd the instructions for the 400A, I could find no evidence that it worked that easily. The webpage said "Easy to install" but everyone has his own version of easy, especially vendors.
Replying to my own post, YES, it does, but it doesnt' say a word about that on the instructions.
When I looked at the instructions for the 200A, it didn't say anything about that either. For some strange reason, all the text and all the pictures were about installing the valve in one piece, replacing an "old-fashioned" valve that had just been removed. The kind with a metal arm and a metal float ball off to the side. Also on the box was no mention of how easy it was to put in the second valve, after the first was installed years earlier.
Why do you suppose they don't and didn't mention this very attractive feature?
And it certainly is a lot less obvious on the 400 than it was on the
200A. (You have to pull the thing way up! And not lose an O-ring.)
I am disappointed that I have to replace from things from scratch now, on all 3 toilets, as they break, because I can't find 200A's for sale, but I'm going to try to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they had to change things to meet code somewhere. I certainly won't beneift from the adjustable height.
And I was afraid this would happen. I think it happened to me once before, that I had installed an easily replaceable valve but when I wanted to replace it, all that was sold was the 200A, which didn't fit what I had installed in 1 or 2 (or 3?) toilets. I hope they don't do it to me again.
I'm having the same problems you outlines. I found a 200a on ebay, but another one already has a 400, that is very loud. I wanted to just replace it with Korky but I probably can't do that. You remind me that 20 years ago when I installed the 400, I realized you could just pull up the old one and put on the new one. Verrrry strange that they don't say this in their own advertising.
I had googled my question about a quiet fill valve, and I found very little** but in Homemoaners last night, I had found a thread and as you can see above, my own reply is as uninformative as all the others that come from that site. "The same problem"... what problem?
The prior poster, 14 years ago, had the very same problems I have, and I noticed his writing style was very much like mine. It's interesting that there is someone out there like me, but then I realized he was me.
I hadn't paid attention to who wrote the previous post but I looked and it was "mm". I used to call myself mm. !!!!!
**I found little when I searched on bayonet mount. Not sure how many use that term here.
For full context and interesting background, visit
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years ago I complained that they got rid of the easy-to-change bayonet mount, but that was tempered when I realized you could still replace the whole thing with an identical new one just by pulling the old one up and off.
What's amazing is that then and still now, the downloaded printed instructions, the packaging, and now the video too don't bother to say this. It's all about turning off the water, emptying the tank, disconnecting the water line, unscrewing the plastic nut under the tank and still getting some water on the floor if you didn't manage to catch it in something, a slightly dirty job that can easily take 30 minutes, which is what you have to do the first time, but the second time should take 10 seconds. And probably doesn't even require the water to be turned off, important with all the terrible toilet shut-offs around.
Why don't they push how quickly it goes the second time? After all, they knew about that -- that was the big advantage of the model 200 bayonet mount.
And there should still be separate instructions to be careful not to lose the 1" O-ring, because the O-ring came off when I was testing if it came fully apart. After I read my own post last night, all this came back to me.
I just hope when model 400H-002 arrives in the mail, it's the same diameter as 400. Probably is but if not, they should have renumbered it. If they addressed second-time reinstallation, they should say if they're interchangeable or not. Why don't they?
They also sell Fluidmaster 242 Toilet Fill Valve Seal Replacement, which seems like the part most likely to fail and only costs $1.68. If you look at the text of the ad it says it "Fits 400A", but if you look at the picture of the packaging it says it fits model 200 (no suffix), 400 (no suffix) and 747. 8 cents less at Home Depot. If you think it will take 30 minutes to install the second time, it would be wise to just spend $1.68 and repair the one that's in there.
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