Toilet manufactured incorrectly?

[leenowell]

Hi all

I fitted a toilet pan last weekend which sits flush against a stud wall wit h the cistern and waste the other side of the wall. Since I could get acces s to the pipework behind I fitted the flush and waste pipes to the toilet p an pushing it and into the fittings behind.

Flushed the toilet a couple of times and all ok. That night I noticed a bea d water on the floor at one side of the pan between the pan and floor. Wipe d it up and told everyone not to use the toilet. Yesterday same again.

The fittings behind the wall are nine dry so the leak must be behind the to ilet which is odd because I had ensure they were sound before moving it int o position.

Only thing I can think of is.... When I fitted the waste connector onto the pan I was surprised that the pan section was not glazed meaning it was a l ittle tricky to slide the pan connector on. Wondering if this is the reaso n and the connector can't create water tight seal on the "rough" surface.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Lee.

[Tricky Dicky]

In my experience most such leaks are due to the connector not being pushed fully on. I would suggest if you could not grip the connector firmly to pus h it on or pushed the pan on to it without something behind the connector t hat offered resistance then that is your most likely problem. It is not unu sual for the waste outlet pipe on a pan not to be fully glazed on the outsi de.

Richard

[Chris Hogg]

The glaze is probably the most expensive part of any ceramic item, so they don't glaze parts that are not generally visible. Most glazing of sanitaryware (toilets, washbasins, cisterns etc) is done by robots (see for example some of the links here

) While it's not impossible for a robot to miss a bit, I would expect that fault to appear on a run of items and be fairly quickly picked up by quality control inspectors.

Unless there's an obvious scratch or groove on the discharge pipe of the pan, that the boot on the connector can't seal, I'd look for another explanation for the leak.

Failing all else, take them apart, apply silicone sealant liberally to the discharge pipe on the toilet, and re-assemble.

[John Rumm]

I find coating the rubber of the pan connector with silicone grease helps. Firstly it makes insertion easier so there is less chance of pushing things out of place. Secondly it helps form a better water seal.

[leenowell]

Thanks all.

In my case, I attached the pan connector and waste pipes to the pan before fitting it. At that point, it was definitely on fully. I then backed to toilet pan into position pushing the waste pipe (and flush pipe) into the fittings behind the wall.

Something may well have moved in the process but it seems unlikely as I was pushing the 2 together rather than pulling the pipe off.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I had a toilet like that. I ended up up filling the ribbed seal thing THREE TIMES with silicone, and smearing even more round the edges.

Finally, it stopped dripping

[leenowell]

Oh god.... It was a complete PITA the first time so don't relish doing it 3 times. Trying to get the waste pipe correctly aligned with the elbow behind was not easy.

When you say you used grease do you mean the silicone stuff you put on the rubber seals and did you put it on the pan itself or the connector?

[Jethro_uk]

From experience the connector for the flush is very temperamental ... have you eliminated it by pouring a bucket down the pan and seeing if it still leaks ?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Jethro_uk used his keyboard to write :

I had that problem, but I think it is the large waste pipe the OP is complaining about. I mostly solved my leak by putting the slightly distorted plastic ribbed seal in boiling water for a few minutes to allow it to reshape itself. Refitted, the seal was much better, apart from the very rare drip, which was solved by leaving a rag onto of the waste to catch them.

[leenowell]

To be honest at the moment it is unclear which is leaking. Given the inside of the flush was glazed I pointed the finger at the waste one but in theor y it could be either. The flush fitting is a ribbed bung type thing which fits inside the hole in the pan rather than the type which fits over the pa n fitting

[Jethro_uk]

Sounds *very* familiar ...

[leenowell]

So.... I have done some investigation. I remembered I had bought a USB ins pection camera ages ago so put that behind the toilet to see if I could see what the issue was. To be honest it wasn't easy / conclusive but there wer e drips on the top of the pan connector so an going with the theory that it is the flush pipe. Have pushed it is a bit from behind (hardly moved) but. .. The drip seems to have stopped as far as I can tell. Will keep an eye on it but suspect this is not really it. Fingers crossed.

[Bob Eager]

Years ago, in a different house, I had a persistent drip from the flush connector (old high level cistern). I couldn't move cistern or pan, but they *seemed* in line. There was a rubber boot over the joint, and it 'wept' slightly.

In the end a piece of 2.5mm cable (out of T+E) made a good sealing clip, twisted together with pliers at the ends...