Possibly faulty seal beneath the flush valve in a 1935 antique Toilet

[T. T.]

Hi all, we have a 1935 American Standard antique toilet which might have a faulty seal beneath the flush valve (for pictures please see

The thing is that it is an old toilet with brass (I guess) seal, instead of a plastic one, and I'm not sure whether the size of the seal is different from the generic seals that you could get from, say, fluidmaster. I changed the flapper, but it still can not create a tight closure against the flush value. Water still leaks down the drain (very slowly). For this kind of antique toilet, could I still use say the Fluidmaster (fluidmaster.com) Complete Repair Kit (model 400AK) or a flush valve to repair it?? If not, what other options do I have to repair it?? Also, I think this is a 3.5GL type of Toilet which is not conserving water, if I change the Fluidmaster Complete Repair Kit, does it still flush with 3.5GL, or it would become 1.6GL?? Thanks!

[PipeDown]

Its a one piece design so you can't easily just change the seat as with a two piece toilet but since the repair kits are relitively inexpensive, I would just get one and try. You can return it if it becomes obvious that it is unusable. Maybe you can cut a rubber gasket and clamp it with the steel ring again.

As for the volume of the flush, that is a function of the size of the tank and the shape of the bowl, which is not changing. The float valve will fill the tank to the fill line regardless of how many gallons that is.

Look in some modern one piece toilets (in the store) and see if there is a standard kit for them. Do you tiink the leak is between the flapper and valve seat or the seat and the tank floor?

[T. T.]

Thanks so much for your reply, I really appreciate that. I looked at my local Home Depot and also fluidmaster.com, couldn't find any standard "one-piece toilet" repair kit.. I think the leak is between the flapper and the valve seat (the brass ring), the valve seat is probably weared out although it looks fine. I remember that I tried to wiggle the flapper so that it would close more tightly with the valve seat (the brass ring thingy), and at some point it worked, that the water stop leaking into the bowl! Well, I'm hoping that I could find some type of fluidmaster type of complete repair kit that I could repair it, and if I'm really out of luck, I'm considering to buy either a Kohler Santa Rosa (K-3323, one piece, $343), or a Kohler Portrait model K-3591 ($427). As the bathroom was built in 1936 and we don't plan to remodel it in the near future, I figured that if we are going to replace the toilet, we might want to look into something more classic and the toilet color should match with the bath tub and the bathroom sink. Given that the trouble with one-piece toilet (harder to repair), should I just go ahead to buy K-3591 ?? I know a lot of people like ToTo toilet, but they don't carry toilet in "Seafoam Green" color, what are people's recommendation about which model/brand to go for the toilet (that's not too expensive, but has "seafoam green" color available and has a classic look, and reliable)?? Thanks so much!

[T. T.]

By the way, just a side question, I noticed that for the Kohler Wellworth K-3423 (see

it has a oval shaped base that attached to the floor, while the Kohler K-3591 has a more square shaped base (which closer to my current old toilet), see my bathroom floor is tile, does this matter?? I mean if I take away the old toilet, I would guess that it would leave out a squared shaped floor, correct? So if I install a K-3423 (oval base), what would happen to the floor?? Would it look really ugly?? Please advice, thanks!

[PipeDown]

Hopefully the floor is tiled up to the pipe and the toilet sits on top of the tile. In which case just clean the floor and caulk to the new shape. With a toilet that old, the floor may have been done any number of ways. Try flapper valves with different shapes and material. Silicone or rubber might work better than the other. You might be able to build your own new valve seat using silicone RTV but you will have to have a very even edge.

[bigjim]

[T. T.]

[T. T.]

[bigjim]

go to

for vintage toilet parts.

T. T. wrote:

[PipeDown]

I was thinking you would simply take a tube of silicone caulk and lay a bead right onto the sealing surface (with the tank empty and reasonably dry). Getting it flat WRT the flapper valve would be the hard part and all I can suggest is to use a very thin bead and not try and build up a thick ring. Perhaps you can grade the wet silicone with a straight edge. At least you can peel it off it dosen't work, even try a few times if it seems close. Can't say how long it would last.

[wiseoldsage]