One of my toilets had worked fine until few days ago. When I push the handle, the flapper is lifted and water goes down into the bowl. When I release the handle, the flapper should stay up for a few seconds until most of the water has drained. But now, as soon as I release the handle, the flapper drops down and closes the opening. Thus, no water can go down. I have to hold the handle down until most of the water is gone before releasing it.
I went to Home Depot to purchase a new flapper and noticed that some of the flappers come with a float but most don't. I asked a Home Depot employee why some flappers come with a float and some don't, he couldn't tell me. I went to Lowe's, asked the same question and got the same result. They don't know.
Anybody knows? Why some flappers come with a float and others don't? What's the function of the float? If it is to hold the flapper up, shouldn't every flapper come with a float? So, when you change the flapper, you also change, not reuse, the float.