[Closed] Toilet trouble

bucket of water for flushing while you're working on it.

only issue then is to make sure you get a decent seal on the cold water entry to the cistern when reconnecting it.

The rusty part will be the hardest bit assuming the old bits inside the bog dont fall to pieces!

Give it a shot and if you live near a screwfix or similar be prepared to let it there to buy another bog?

Technically its a very easy job - just remember to switch the water off and flush the water out before fettling!

I recently replaced a Diaphragm in our flushing mech'

The diaphragm was split and I couldn't buy JUST the diaphragm. Bloody B&Q wanted to sell me the whole 'thing' that fits in the cistern. Replacing that would have taken a day or two and involved more carnage than I wanted.

In the end I made a new diaphragm from the plastic side of a 4 pint Tesco Milk bottle like this....

[img] [/img]

If its an old loo you can actually upgrade to a more modern mechanism at the same time. Benefit's are the overflow is integrated .... and you get dual flush so your water bill will be lower.

I fitted a new syphon mechanism in our loo when it became difficult to flush. It was the diaphragm that had split.
With ours I'd been putting it off for ages but it got to the point where one day the loo wouldn't flush at all.

wwaswas - Member

only issue then is to make sure you get a decent seal on the cold water entry to the cistern when reconnecting it.

This shouldn't be an issue. The cold water entry (and ballcock/level mechanism) should be separate from the flush/syphon mechanism. It was on ours anyway.
It did take a little bit of fiddling to get the new flush assembly to seal around the bottom of the cistern.

To stop the water flow, I just propped the ballcock up with a stick.

I fitted this one:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/opella-dual-flush-siphon-220mm/20824

and 2 young children dancing up and down

Do you not have a garden they can pee in?

With ours I'd been putting it off for ages but it got to the point where one day the loo wouldn't flush at all.

To stop the water flow, I just propped the ballcock up with a stick.

I fitted this one:
http://www.screwfix.com/p/opella-dual-flush-siphon-220mm/20824

Do you not have a garden they can pee in?

I had some issues with mine a few years ago, just replaced the whole mechanism, seemed easier and not expensive.

Sorry to hijack, I've had a similar problem with a push-button-style siphon. I got what I thought was an exact replacement that would just screw into the existing bayonet fitting, but it's a slightly different design so I'll need to change the whole shebang.

It looks like this involves taking the whole cistern off, is this tricky?

It looks like this involves taking the whole cistern off, is this tricky?

Only the rusted screws holding it to the wall and the pan. Don't forget to get a new seal for the cistern/pan joint otherwise it will be a bit damp when you turn the water back on.

Stevet1 - Member

Yep, nearly there. Pretty much only me that manages to flush it now. You have to time the multiple thrashings of the handle up and down just right and bingo it flushes. Apparently this is not acceptable long term though.

HA HA! Just remembered that is exactly what we had to do & yes, I was the only one who could get it to flush. Listening to visitors try to flush it was always amusing.
I think eventually one particularly vigorous flush completely split the diaphragm & that was that.

To stop the water flow, I just propped the ballcock up with a stick.

That has an air of inevitability about it that even I can forsee the consequences.

This isn't as precarious as it sounds. The ballcock being at the top of it's travel means no water can flow into the cistern. I can't remember what I used now but anything that holds the ballcock in it's raised position will work. If you have a window above the cistern or some other sturdy fixing point, you could just run some string under the ballcock arm & tie it up.
Turning the water off is probably safer, but where's the fun in that?!

Turning the water off is probably safer, but where's the fun in that?!

I just replaced a wc with a new bathroom. Plumber advised me, after i had purchased a branded wc from a chain, to buy from a plumbers merchant. The reason is the chains can discount as the moving parts are not oem, so inferior.

So he comes to fit it and diaphram does not work, keeps flushing....i took it back to shop and they didnt want to know.

Lesson learnt, buy cheap buy twice.

In the end I made a new diaphragm from the plastic side of a 4 pint Tesco Milk bottle like this....

A real man. I admire you (no sarcasm intended, I mean it).

I am absolutely pants at DIY, but even I managed to fit a new toilet siphon. Replaced the old one with a push button kit - like this one I think:

[url= http://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-bottom-entry-button-cable-dual-flush-bottom-inlet/58353 ]Screwfix siphon kit[/url]

Had to take off the cistern, and buy a new seal for the connection between cistern and pan. New siphon can be replaced from the top, so should never be an issue again. Only issue was that it was cheaper to buy a massive kit of washers than a couple of suitable ones. I have enough washers for several lifetimes.

Like Cheshirecat, I'm ****less when it comes to DIY and also managed to fit new innards to my cistern. Was a pain in the arris due to almost total lack of access (very tight space) but easy enough to do. I removed the spiral bit from the water feed pipe thingie - it's supposed to make the toilet quieter when refilling but all it does is make the whole process longer and it gets furred up with limescale round these 'ere parts.

Thanks folks, sounds like a go-er, I'll pencil it in on Saturday at around 5:30pm I reckon.

Ha, i put off the inevitable for months, we had the trashing at the handle, the listening to the gurgle and the jiggling to stop the cistern draining itself into the bowl.

Eventually the whole thing just packed in and we ended up with a freeflow toilet.

So i bought a new mechanism, spent time unscrewing rusty bolts, snapping things, swearing, skinning knuckles, going to the plumbers merchants again. Then it worked! Victory! A flushable toilet! Luxury.

The following monday the tiler/plumber turned up to start ripping the bathroom out to fit a new one.
Why do you think i'd been putting the original repair off for so long?

You'll have spotted by now that siphons deteriorate when the diaphragm perishes, and that with a close coupled loo you have to take the whole top end off to get at it. If you try one of these:

[url= http://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-bottom-entry-toilet-flush-valve-handle-kit-1/50692 ]http://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-bottom-entry-toilet-flush-valve-handle-kit-1/50692[/url]

Then it's a simple flap that's lifted by the chain from the handle. If the rubber flap wears out, you can replace it leaving the cistern in place. (The first flap lasted 13 years on our bathroom loo.) Bonus is you can choose exactly how much water to flush.

As others have said, give it a go, have a bucket of water for flushing if you get stuck mid repair.

I did this for the filling mech on mine a bit ago - hadn't got around to it for ages as it got slower and slower to fill, in the end the actual job took about an hour including getting tools out, total time including googling BSP threads to get the right size and visiting Screwfix ~2.5hrs. I felt like a manly man.

Not read the whole thread but just mentioned this on the MANLY thread.

I had to replace the diaphragm on my downstairs loo, bought the whole shebang from B&Q and whacked it in. I'm a complete lummox and allergic to DIY and it took me less than 2 hours.

All you people with filled buckets, are you telling me you dont have an isolation on the toilet fill line?

???

Once it's isolated you can't flush it.
So you have a bucket. That you fill from the tap.

So the family can flush.

While you go back to the plumbers merchants for more bits.

ghostlymachine - Member
???

Once it's isolated you can't flush it.
So you have a bucket. That you fill from the tap.

So the family can flush.

Yes, exactly. I pointed this out as people were saying prepare FILLED buckets.

yeah that was me, I didn't think to check for a stopcock on the toilet inlet.