Most of you have seen a Fluidmaster toilet valve, 200A or 400A, and most of you have probably unscrewed the top part from the bottom.
The bottom has a hole, and the top has a straight wire that goes into the hole when t he water level is high enough.
But the wire moves less than a quarter inch and it's nowhere near the diameter of the hole in the bottom. So how does it stop the water from coming in>
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The ones I've seen, the water comes in the bottom, up to the top where there is a float connected to the valve. What's the mystery?
Just FYI, if the rubber diaphragm is worn and leaking, just it needs replaced. They are available from, at least, Lowes for about $3 BTDT :-)
Yesterday, when I went to replace the flapper, I saw how damaged the shut-off valve handle was and resolved to replace the valve with a sharkbite. Later that night, I thought of what you have above.
But then I thought of changing the flapper without turning off the water. It went well.
But somehow the ballcock started acting funny as soon as the flapper was changed. I can't see how the two are related but it wouldn't stop filling, even though I pullled up on the metal rod that connects to the plastic arm. Then later it worked fine, then later it didn't work again.
So I decided to change the ballcock without turning off the water. That's harder. I did that as quickly as possiible. With a store icing container, bigger than a cup. Every thing works now, so far.
I am going to look at the old one and maybe just change the diaphragm as youp point out and save it.
What stops it and what starts it.
In the 200A the fill water never gets more than 2" above the bottom of the tank, until it mixes with the water already there. They use the same diaphragm, I think. (An ebay page advertises one diaphragm for both models, but on Amazon and HomeDepot, they push 400A but ignore 200A even though the model number on the backing card is also iirc 242. )
For some reason I had to change the traditional stayle valves, witht he big metal ball float, soon after I moved in, and I bought some 200A. I thought the bayonet mount was great, because it would speed up future replacement.
Then only a few years later, they changed to 400A which wouldn't mount into the 200A mount bottom. So much for clever. But at least in one toilet the 200A had worked for 33 more years. (Not sure what's in the other two.)
The lever on top plugs the hole and depresses the diaphragm when the float gets up high enough. What is so hard to figure out?
The 200 (brown one) sucked so they came out with the improved 400 (black one) . I haven't seen a 200 in years. The local BORGs don't stock them.
On Tue, 06 Oct 2020 23:26:26 -0400, micky posted for all of us to digest...
How did you change the ballcock without turning off the water?
Also don't use sharkbites. IMHO
I had a large cup, which I held upside down in my right hand, while I turned the ballcock with my left hand until it loosened. I lifted it and quickly moved it to the left while I also moved the cup to the left with my right hand until it covered where the water was spurting up.
With my left hand I put down the old valve and picked up the new one and then moved both hands to the right, and twisted the new valve in.
Thanks for the advice. Have you had one leak? Did it do much damage?
I have been using one for several years, and it hasn't leaked. . It's a toilet I never use and the valve is turned off and stays that way. Of course being turned off or on isn't going to affect if it leaks or not from the sharkbite-specific part.
The problem is, how else am I going to replace the toilet valve if I needed to use it?. The pipe only come out 3 or 4 inches from the wall and it's always right beside the toilet which is next to the sink cabinet, the shower, or a wall. Not a lot of room to work. I could turn off all the water to the house, instead of using that valve, but I hate to mess too often with that valve. (I turn off all the water if I go away for a month or more in the winter. Not sure what I should do if it were only 2 weeks.
Installation was easy. I guess I used a tubing cutter to cut off the old valve (or a hack saw?), steel wool to clean off the pipe stub, and then iirc it just pushed on. It 's hard to believe it works.
(BTW, since I put in the only one I have, they have a combination thing for sale, the valve with the hose that goes to the toilet. I haven't seen it up close so I don't know if it's really one piece or they are just attaching a separate hose and selling them together.)
The wire does not stop water from entering the hole so how does it work?
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