Experience: Fixing flap valve in toilet cistern siphon

Hi,

After reading this newsgroup and the very clear Readers Digest book on plumbing, I braved replacing the flap valve in my sister's toilet. I took the job steadily and got the cistern off the wall - thank goodness when it was installed a ball-o-fix valve was installed on the supply side. The metal plate underneath the cistern was rusted, the foam seal was crushed and the flap valve was shredded (how that happened I don't know). How the toilet flushed at all is beyond me. Anyway, I bought a new siphon from the local plumbers' merchant - which seemed incredinbly wasteful since it was only a thin film of plastic (the flap valve ) that had failed - but I was pressed for time

- and the replacement is accessible by unscrewing the top should there be problems in future. Having to take the cistern off the wall to replace a torn flap valve seems crummy design in the extreme to me. I also got all new coupling set. Parts came to =A315 - plus two hours head scratching and cursing. The original assembly was all "upside-down" so I had to rethink how it fitted together - when I twigged the arrangement it was plain sailing.

Goodness knows how I would have tackled it if there wasn't that isolating valve on the supply to the cistern. When my house is replumbed it will be accessible valves all over the place. If the flap valve fails in future, I'll make my own replacement.

Now my sister has a flushing toilet and much easier access to the siphon should it fail in future.

Clive

Reply to
Clive
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I don't know either, buts its very common.

I alway change the complete siphon. A couple of times I've replaced the flap & the toilet still won't flush - a small split in the siphon will stop it working.

I've always thought it was a bad design as well. Thats why I always change the siphon - same labour as changing a flap, about another £6 in parts. I can do them in about 45 mins now.

The are indeed a godsend. I usually fit them when doing a cistern.

Well done that man!

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Point of information: that is *not* a flap valve. What you're describing is the diaphragm in a syphonic cistern valve. A flap valve is a modern (to the UK, since water regs changed a few years ago) type with a flap of plastic covering the cistern's flushing outlet pipe or orifice. Pulling the flap up (by a linkage to the handle or button) lets water out of the cistern rapidly to flush the pan. A float built into the flap keeps it up once it's been pulled up until all the water has gone out, whereupon it falls back down and seals the outlet. There's a rubber washer sealing the flap to the outlet.

Reply to
John Stumbles

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