What I learned about toilet bowl flappers today

[Karen G]

Two of our three toilets recently started running at odd times of the day and night for short periods and then would shut off. I remember our other toilet doing this last year and my husband replaced the flapper and fixed the problem. Today he replaced the flappers on the two noisy toilets and it fixed the problem.

As he was finishing the task, I proceeded to drop in new Clorox cleaning tablets in the tanks. He said there was a sticker inside the toilet tank saying not to use such products. That's when I went to Google to find out more.

I found this article that addresses the problem. After reading it I looked at the packaging for the new flappers and I'm happy to see that they are "chlorine resistant."

I did notice on the two replaced flappers, which were probably the original flappers on the toilets, that there was some obvious bubbling on the rim that was causing the leaking. It must have been from previous chlorine tablets. I'm glad the new flappers are chlorine resistant because I like using the cleaning tablets.

Just thought I'd pass on this information in case anyone else needs it.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Ohhh. I thought I was going to learn something about the powder room habits of 1920s-era party girls.

 

[philemer]

Ohhh. I thought I was going to learn something about the powder room habits of 1920s-era party girls.

You naughty boy, you.

 

[pjrose]

Ohhh. I thought I was going to learn something about the powder room habits of 1920s-era party girls.

:rofl: :hysterical: :rofl: :hysterical: :rofl:
​

 

[Icarus]

yeah, the plumbers always tell me not to use any of those tablet things, so I don't.

-David

 

[philemer]

yeah, the plumbers always tell me not to use any of those tablet things, so I don't.

-David

Yea, but with the tablets you can go 3 to 4 weeks between cleanings! I hate cleaning toilets. Easier to buy a new $3.00 flapper every 3 or 4 yrs.

 

[Fern Modena]

Karen,
Why not have Rita and her crew come in every other week or so? She'll keep the whole house clean, and you'll never need to worry about the flapper again.

Fern

 

[Htoo0]

DW's using the stick-on one's which go in the bowl rather than the tank. Jury's still out though as to how good they are.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Installed Two -- 2 -- Fluid Master Toilet Fill Valves Today.

The flappers were OK, so I left those as is.

At my brother's house, 2 tank fill valves -- formerly called ballcocks but now called fill valves so as to avoid any hint or suggestion of vulgarity -- had gone bad. One would not shut off -- just kept on letting the water run down the overflow tube. The other leaked at the tank connection, no matter how much I tried tightening it.

Fortunately, Home Depot was loaded with plenty of Fluid Master 400A anti-siphon fill valves, so we picked up a couple of those & used'm to replace the old ones that had gone bad.

One of the defective fill valves was an old fashioned float-arm style ballcock. That was the 1 that leaked at the tank. The other was, of all things, a worn-out Fluid Master 400A. Or if it wasn't worn out, it still wouldn't shut off no matter what I tried. Replacing it with a new 1 didn't cost much & was quicker than messing around trying to get the old 1 to shut off. Besides, even if I had contrived some way to get the old 1 to shut off, I still would not have trusted it to keep shutting off reliably, so replacing it was best all round if only for peace of mind.

For all anybody would ever want to know about fixing toilets -- & then some -- check out Toiletology Dot Com.

Happy flapping.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[AwayWeGo]

No Flapper On This Portable Model.

-- hotlinked --​

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA. ​