Toilet flush panic - visitors tomorrw

Tell them to pump the handle until you can get around to replacing the flush mechanism.

Tim

Provide a bucket of water for flushing purposes?

Or provide the bucket for other uses:) You don't want them to use a toilet that doesn't flush properly.

It was useless on the hot Saturday but now has started working again. Seems as if there is a plastic flap as the base of the piston and this gets tears or loses its structure. A gentle depress then another steady one and it works. YouTube fixes look easy providing everything unscrews well and the right doughnut fitting is used.

The last toilet I fixed for non-flushing was a complete PITA.

It was a close coupled unit using this type of fixing

Changing the flushing mechanism was straight forward BUT the cistern was quite small and made worse by very rounded sides - a sort of half oval cross sectional area. I'm beginning to hate anything now described as "designer". A suitable smaller dimension universal fitting flushing mechanism had to be found but luckily found in Screwfix/Toolstation.

If the toilet is close coupled and has been fitted any length of time I highly recommend getting a new fixing kit including doughnut, fixing bolts and rubber seals before starting, and discarding the old fixing kit. There is more than one type of fixing between pan and cistern but Screwfix/Toolstation tend to stock them all.

Thanks for the tips. My flush doesn't need to be replaced.. ...yet (crosses fingers, touches wood and everything else) but after at least

Nick

This

Simple enough except for all the issues alan_m cites. The wing nuts turn ok, one tank retaining screw is completely rusted so will have to be drilled out, and then worry about what is in the middle when it is exposed.

We've been looking at new bathroom suites etc for a couple of months and before this issue. Everything seems to be designed to be invisible and inaccessible. Pipes have to be hidden, no recessed tiles for the toilet roll holder etc etc.

Very likely - they become brittle and crack, possibly because of the use of toilet blocks containing bleach, or just maybe old age and plastic fatigue :) On the last toilet I fixed this was the cause of the problem. It had cracked and on removal poking the plastic with my finger caused it to break into multiple large pieces.

I would recommend replacing the whole unit rather than just the diaphragm.

i) New complete units are relatively cheap. Toolstation do a couple of that type at £6.50 and £12.50. You may have to go to the manufacturers web site to get a full drawing with dimensions to see it it would physically fit inside the cistern.

ii) as the complete units can be different sizes the diaphragm are likely to be different sizes. It's a PITA to dismantle and then source the correct part when you could just swap a whole assembly quickly. Even if specified for a brand the design can change of a decade or more.

iii) If one part of an assembly has failed how long before another part fails?

I have some T shirts. I fitted a toilet and then a few years later I took it out and fitted a different design. Toilets that friends of mine have are crap :)

My advice with toilets, especially if DIY

Avoid the "continental" style with a flat(ish) shelf in front. Urine splashback and having to use a brush on every poo.

Avoid square shaped toilets. You have to stand further back as you cannot straddle the bowl easily. Seats tend to be unique to the brand/model and you will require a second mortgage if you want a replacement.

Avoid toilets that enclose the pipework at the back. They may look neat but unless the waste pipe exactly aligns with the outlet of the toilet you may find that it takes half a life time to get them connected correctly. Maybe more of a problem in older houses.

Check where the fill value has to be located. On many close coupled cisterns the fill value can be fitted either side but on some toilets I looked at only on one side.

Check the reviews for poor flushing. One of the fully working toilets in a friends house doesn't put any water to the top half of the front of the pan. It appears to be a design limitation as there are no holes in the front of the rim. Some reviews I look at when buying a toilet mentioned poor flushing.

Avoid toilets with blind seat fixing holes. In my experience most fixing that go down these holes don't keep the toilet seat firmly in place over time. I would always go with the type with a through hole where the bolt goes through and you tighten a wing nut underneath. I apply a smear of grease to both the bolt and wing nut. Tip: The hole to fit the seat is often much larger than the bolt and the underside of the pan may not be flat. I've used the tapered rubber washer from this

For another T shirt that I own :) If going for a toilet with a lever flush make sure that the lever and collars are on a flat surface of the cistern. Another designer piece of crap I had to fix was a broken lever assembly where the lever was mounted on a rounded corner of the cistern and the collars, outside and inside, were both shaped for this curve. A replacement was made out of unobtainium and the kits available cheaply from almost anywhere couldn't be made to fit. In the end I had to fix the broken plastic collars but it did involve inserting a strengthening ring of wire by melting it into the plastic bits with a soldering iron.

In general I would recommend traditionally shaped toilets/pan, they mainly got it right 100 years ago and it doesn't need a "designer" to come up with something different.

Perhaps go with something fairly plain as some fancy moulding on the cistern may mean that the crappy sink that comes with a good toilet may be on the purchase list. I've seen some really badly designed sinks, mainly installed in office block type environments. Shallow curved sinks that when the tap is tuned on and the pressure is too high either immediately directs the water out to the user or onto a work surface.

Consider the size and positioning of the taps in a bathroom sink. If in the habit,say, of washing your hair in a sink with a centrally located mixer type tap means that you cannot get your head down far enough to rinse efficiently without hitting the tap :(

Some good pointers there, style over substance.

I recently complained about a "high end" toaster. Form over function: Only one side of bread toasts Controls on side and in black so can't see them Thermostat control easily moves when reaching for the lever Lever doesn't raise toast high enough when needing to turn the bread round to toast the other side. Outside of toaster gets hot.

But hey - it looks pretty.

Where's all the engineers when you need them?

Yes.

F*ck the ArtStudents, if what you want is a sensible pee or crap

We were fired years ago for making cheap good stuff that lasted forever. They told us they no longer needed us

They were let go, to make room for more Marketing folk.

Some truth in that :)

The company I ended working for had redundancies approx every 2 years. In general voluntary redundancies with a fairly decent payoff. The first two rounds were mainly design and production support engineers.

It wasn't until the third round that management discovered that they probably didn't require some support staff, especially as more engineers were to go.

A further round of redundancies got rid of more engineers but also a lot of support staff including many PAs or personal secretaries for senior management. I think this is when senior management found some of the internal bureaucratic processes they had instigated were a PITA when they had to use them themselves.

As an design engineer I took voluntary redundancy in a later round with two years to go until my official state retirement date and with 1.5 years salary as a redundancy settlement. It wasn't until this time the marketing department was hit, and I've been told it was mainly compulsory redundancies.

Although there is a view from the other side! This from 1954 for example:

"Because it is its purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two - and only these two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. They are the entrepreneurial functions."

Drucker (The Practice of Management)

nib

I see Jaguar have sacked 400 'managers' - presumably marketing executives, hair dressers and telephone sanitizers.

-- Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early twenty-first century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally average temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a rollback of the industrial age.

Richard Lindzen

That is what prompted me to buy a Dremel. It worked a treat.

That is so clear and comprehensive, Alan, that it gets my vote for being cut'n'pasted wholesale into the DIY Wiki.

Nick

Over time, that was taken to mean 'innovative management', not what the author intended.

I.e. Promote a radical change in structure, with redundancies to cut costs - then move on to a new job sharpish before the fit hits the shan.