toilet won't flush

The washer inside may have degraded enough that it no longer works. I removed the siphon chamber in my toilet, when it started doing this, and repaired it using a circle of polythene cut from a jewsons sack. Worked well.

Yes, this is almost certainly the problem. The correct term is "flap valve", not washer, though. Dead easy to fix & won't cost a penny if you can lay your hands on a heavy duty plastic bag. Just drain the cistern, dismantle everything and the problem & method of fixing will be self-evident. A half-hour job.

Mark

Heh heh!

If it's a close coupled cistern you way well find that the soft rubber 'doughnut' that seals the cistern to the pan needs replacing to make a good seal, and also the rubber washer that seals the syphon to the cistern. Not to mention the bolts holding the cistern to the pan being a bit rusty, ditto screws holding cistern to wall.

Fair comment. I've only done this job once & must have been lucky as it was dead easy, though the cistern was at least 20 years old. Not close-coupled, which I guess helped too. Moral: if you only have the one loo, don't start the job on a Saturday afternoon - unless you know your neighbours well.

Mark

Or have a bucket or a spade and know your neighbours really well...

How true. What looks like a simple quick job turns into a nightmare. Or least it has on the 6 or so I've replaced. Best to replace siphon with one that has a join so it can be spilt and so you don't have to diamantle everthing to get to the flap washer.

Heh. good advice. Pulled out my old loo to replace it, and was left with an imperial cast iron pipe out of my wall and only a metric fitment coupling pipe available in any of the sheds.

Since my girlfriends sister was arriving on a visit the next day, my g/f was less than pleased !

Cheers,

Paul.