Silent Cistern Valves

[john]

Hi

I have bought a Fluidmaster bottom entry valve but it is too tall to fit my cistern, unless I leave the lid off!. If I adjust the height down, the "Critical Line" mark falls below my internal overflow. The instructions say it is supposed to be at least an inch above - so the Fluidmaster is out!

Are there any other models that do not need quite so much height?

Unfortunately I have to find something suitably quiet, SWMBO is insisting ever since she heard her friends loo or should that be didn't hear her friends loo.

Thanks

John

[Andy Hall]

Look for a Torbeck valve. I think that that should work for you.

.andy

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[john]

Any ideas who stocks them, I would rather go to a DIY place or plumbers merchant than online with screwfix to save the postage costs and in case I get problems.

Thanks

[Andy Hall]

B&Q usually have them. I think Focus might as well, and plumber's merchants certainly do.

Here is the Screwfix detail for what you are looking for.

check the dimensions before buying.

There is a diagram at

adjustment is done by rotating the float so it travels up and down in the arm.

If you are tight for space and the stalk of the float fouls the cistern lid, after adjusting you can clip off the excess.

You do need to pick the right flow restrictor when installing. It wouldn't hurt to use a new fibre washer as well.

The usual note about being careful when putting the back nut of the tap connector onto the fitting definately apply to this like all plastic ball valve fittings. A useful trick is to leave the nut fixing the valve in place in the bottom of the cistern loose, then locate the brass nut on the thread of the valve and tighten both. This is much less likely to cross thread.

.andy

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[John Stumbles]

Funny how you wait ages for a subject to come up in a thread and then all of a sudden 2 or 3 come along at once :-) Something similar came up recently in the thread "Cold Water Tank Valve".

If you just want a quiet fill from a standard WC cistern float valve you can hang a bit of plastic pipe e.g. overflow pipe over the outlet of the valve so the water runs down inside the pipe without splashing. You must make sure there is NOT an airtight connection between your bit of pipe and the outlet of the valve (so water couldn't get sucked back up the pipe and into the valve and thereby the water supply if there were a partial vacuum in the main supply pipe - water regulations).

All Torbecks have is a bit of polythene tube - like an open-ended plastic bag about 20mm wide - down which the water flows. I occasionally come across quite ancient brass piston valves with plastic tubes fitted to the outlets for quiet filling, so the idea's not new.

[Dave Liquorice]

Well it will cure the splashing but not the singing which is the main source of noise in a standard ballcock valve. Torbecks (really just a particular make rather than a type) are not only quieter than a normal ball valve but also faster. Note the warning on the packaging about ensuring the overflow can cope, a torbeck type valve lets in water quicker than a normal valve.

They have a different operation principle as well and are far less prone to singing. The difference is more than just 6" of soft poly tubing...

[IMM]

The piston valves had an airtight seal. the Torbeck does not.

[john]

Sorry, I don't follow, are you saying the torbeck is not as good as a piston valve?

[IMM]

The plastic tube dropping into the water. this is nor airtight on a Tobeck.

[Bob Eager]

It doesn't need an airtight seal, it needs a watertight one!

[john]

Well I have fitted a Torbeck. I phoned my local water authority to check my mains pressure to decide which size reducer to use, I was just inside the band for the high pressure reducer so i fitted it. however filling the cistern went from 40 seconds to more than 3 minutes! So I changed to the low pressure reducer it now takes 85 seconds - does this seem acceptable? it's noticably slower than the old one, should I try it with no flow restrictors even though the instructions say not to for mains pressure?

On the positive side it is very quiet which is what the wife wanted, maybe we just have to trade the slower filling times?

[Andy Hall]

I would say that that isn't bad.

You could try cutting pieces of the HP one and using that.

Keeping the wife quiet should be the main aim.

They used to have scold's bridles for that, but for some reason they have gone out of fashion. :-)

.andy

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[Bob Eager]

I fitted a Torbeck a while ago, after a long hard day when everything went wrong (stopcock wouldn't work, old ball valve stuck, no service valve...).

I forgot the flow restrictor, and it filled a little faster than before. No sign of leaks, overflow etc....! I was tired, so I left it...it's been fine.

[IMM]

restrictors

85 secs? What do you run? A train station toilets?

[IMM]

Thatcher wanted the old old ways. The ducking stool would have suited her well.