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The loo has one of those dual-flush buttons on the top and a dual flush syphon in the cistern. I thought the idea is that you press one bit of the button for a smaller, number ones-y, flush, and the other bit of the button for a more substantial, number-twosey, flush.
Thing is, no matter which button you press on ours, it always does the same number-ones-level flush. The only way to get a flush for number-twos is to press and hold both buttons at the same time.
Is that right? If not, how do I fix it?
Useless without photos.
The only way to get a flush for number-twos is to press and hold both buttons at the same time.
That is the norm from what I have seen
All of ours have two buttons, but they're linked together, so you can push the large button on it's own, but when you push the small button it also pushes the large one.
The small flush button just pushes the large flush button halfway in.
You press half a button for a smaller volume flush and the full button (both sides) for a full flush. If you had different controls from each side you would have to label the buttons and install it the right way which is more faff.Â
That is the norm from what I have seen
Not in our house. The smaller of two buttons is a short flush, the larger is a longer, more powerful one, during which the smaller button remains motionless.Â
My expert analysis is that different flush system buttons work differently, but I'm inclined to believe that the way our flush works makes logical sense. Maybe Scottish ones are different?
So it might or might not need fixing. OP, what make and model is your WC and was it installed by a Scottish plumber? 🙄Â
I have just replaced a Fluidmaster dual flush valve so can speak with some authority on this.
Small button inside big button. All the small button does is stop the big button being pressed 'too far'. The big button fully depressed is the number two button. There are sliders on the valve to adjust the one/two volume.
I'm in a holiday let in Scotland, and in the interests of detail, have just whipped the lid off this cistern for a look.
Two parts to the top button, one slightly bigger than the other. Smaller button produces a quick flush by activating the blue part, bigger one produces a longer flush activating the white part, which seems perfectly logical. Pressing both, I guess, would only produce the same result as the bigger button, judging by how far the water level dropped in the cistern.
So on the basis of a sample of this one, I'd agree with OPs assumption that his ain't quite right. But the design may be different.
Cistern and lid made in UAE of all places. Who knew they had a loo-making industry there? Anyway, that's not so relevant.Â
Thanks all.Â
Two parts to the top button, one slightly bigger than the other. Smaller button produces a quick flush by activating the blue part, bigger one produces a longer flush activating the white part, which seems perfectly logical. Pressing both, I guess, would only produce the same result as the bigger button, judging by how far the water level dropped in the cistern.
Yep, this is kinda what's going on. The siphon in the cistern has two 'halves', one activated by the big button on the lid, the other by the small button on the lid.
Taking the lid off and pressing either half of the syphon directly produces a number one flush. Pressing both together produces a number two flush.
The buttons on the lid work completely independently of each other.
Maybe I've got a syphon/button incompatibility problem.
That sounds like your lid & buttons are similar to the ones I'm looking at, but the mechanism inside the syphon is different. Activating these ones here by hand definitely produces different sized flushes. You either need a different syphon, or just accept pressing both buttons for a twosey.Â
Big button needs held down for a few seconds for full flush, otherwise it is a quick one.
Big button needs held down for a few seconds for full flush, otherwise it is a quick one.
I replaced the one at my mum's a couple of years ago. That was, bizarrely, the other way around. Quick press for a long flush, hold for a short one. Though it was being retrofitted into an old throne with a handle on the side of the tank, none of your fancy buttons.
I've just looked at the two toilets here. They both have the same two-button flush (branded K-VIT) but rather than an outer button with a tiny inset one (where the inner button is clearly only meant to be pressed along with the outer) it's more like a crescent moon and an almond so it's less obvious as to which is which. Similar to the pic below, only in a less gopping finish:
Both pairs of buttons appear to operate the same design of flushing mechanism. The two halves each have a rod which pushes down one of two plungers on top of the syphon (very similar to @thelawman's photo above). The white plunger is as close as makes no odds a full flush, whereas pressing the blue one there's an audible 'thunk' when the water level drops to about 3/4 so I'm guessing there's some sort of (adjustable?) stopper valve within the blue side.
Here's where it gets curious. The mechanisms in the two bogs are mounted at 90' from each other. Ie, one cistern has front & back buttons and the other left & right buttons. Whether this was due to some plumbing / physical space restriction or simply how they happened to get installed I have no way of knowing. But whatever the reason, they are functionally opposite. On one bog the blue plunger is plunged by the almond button, on the other it's plunged by the moon button. So whichever way round it should operate, one of them is wrong.