Plumbing help please! Any plumbers out there?

Hi folks,
My girlfriend and I rent out a flat and, of course, we try & keep bills to a minimum (which means me doing all the work.....). I have a problem though - the tenant is complaining of a constantly dripping toilet. I went along tonight with my trusty toolkit but despite fiddling around with it for 1 1/2 hours, I couldnt get it to stop dripping.

The problem seems to be that the ballcock isn't coming far up enough to close the valve off. I tried adjusting the ballcock arm which didn;t seem to work.
Should I bend the ballcock arm? Replace the valve?
BTW, this is a modern toilet and, as such, has plastic pipes & fittings inside the cistern - I've tightened everything I can as well.

Can anyone help? I grudge paying a plumber for such a small job which I should be able to fix myself

Thanks

Ross /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

Bending the arm is an old, well known trick that *usually* works. If it doesn't work, more than likely the valve at the top of the fill pipe has gone bad and needs replacing. I say all of this from a US toilet standpoint, so yours may be different.

If you have to replace the fill valve, it actually pretty easy. Shut the water off at the wall valve, and drain the tank completely by flushing the toilet until all water is out of the tank. Unscrew the water supply hose from the toilet. There should be a retaining ring of some sort around the fitting where the water hose connects that holds the fill valve pipe mechanism in place in the tank, along with a rubber seal either on the inside or outside of the tank or both. Unscrew this ring and the fill pipe should easily lift out of the tank. You'll have to go to your local hardware store to buy the new fill mechanism, and take the old one with you so they can match it.

Keep in mind these are general instructions, and not all toilet are the same so yours may vary slightly. I have plenty of experience with this, as I worked for maintenance on campus when I was in college.

You could try replacing the flapper which might not be making a good enough seal but if you're going to go that far you might want to replace the valve assembly anyway.
The new ones with a sliding float instead of the ballcock can be had for under $15 and replacing it should be 30 minutes or less (provided you have a decent wrench).
A new flapper and a new valve assembly should eliminate 99% of possible problems.

You can bend the ballcock (float) arm downward a little. Don't bend it too far or it might break.
I'm not an *expert* at fixing things that flush, but bending the arm downward a bit so the float goes lower in the water should prevent the toliet from running after the cistern fills up. Your goal is to get the float to stop the cistern from refilling before the water reaches the overflow tube.

Try gently lifting up on the ballcock arm when the water level in the cistern almost reaches the top of the overflow tube. If the water shuts off, you'll have an idea of how much to bend the arm downward. If the water does not shut off, a new valve is probably necessary.

i saw fluidmaster units for $5 at lowes.best thing you could use.

Definately install a fluidmaster. They are fairly cheap and work far better than a ballcock version that usually comes with toilets. They are also easier to adjust.

Also, have you checked the rubber washer in the valve?

I had to fix one this summer that was about 50+years old and solid bronze, it also had the same problem would not shut off compleatly.

I went all over looking for a replacement part. I finally found it in a tiny hardware store (with an owner also 50+ years old /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif)

I found out it was a Leather washer!

It had dissolved over time, leaving no trace.

Put the new one in works just fine. And it cost just 20 cents!

Check for the little things first.

The problem is with modern loo cisterns is that many of the internal parts are now made of plastic which can become brittle with age. The only thing I would suggest is make a note of the make of cistern and pop down to your local B&Q or Focus. Most of the parts are replaceable in most loos.
I had an incident about a decade and a half ago in rented accomodation. The ball broke off the ballcock in the loo and consequently sent water flowing everywhere (the overflow pipe was blocked!)
The landlord replaced the whole cistern!

Ross,

We definitely need MORE information to help you. The suggestions so far are very good, but can not be assured unless we know more about where the leak is comming from. I take it that the water is not leaking OUT of the toilet onto the floor, but rather internally from the holding tank to the flush drain.

One operation that will narrow the possibilities is to shut off the supply water valve. Now, do you still hear the trickle of water, even after 5 or so minutes? If yes, it is the flapper, if no, then the flapper is OK.

Bending the ball arm will only help if it is a regulation problem and the "leak" is really water going through the overspill tube because the supply valve is never told to shut off. To test this, lift up the arm and see if the leaking sound stops at any point. If this fixes it, then bend the arm so that you are moving the ball DOWN. If this does not fix the problem then you have a supply valve leak about which I have no personal experience, but essentially when the valve closes, water is still allowed to leak by into the tank. If this is the case, shutting off the supply water should IMMEDIATELY stop the leaking sound, or at least stop it in a few seconds. The posts above describe the fix.

Hope this helps.

This concludes British plumbing 101.

Continue for British plumbing 102.

Seriously, everything mentioned here is spot on. Good job everyone!!!

Thanks folks! I had a play around with the flapper & the ballcock arm and the toilet no longer drips!! I have told the tenant to call me if it starts up again.

As LEDmodMan said: 'Good job everyone!!!'

Regards

Ross