The New Hotness

Last week Mary reported the toilet in the front bathroom had the sound of running water, which is unfortunately the sort of noise I can no longer hear. I replaced the flush (a.k.a. “flapper”) valve, because it’s always the flush valve, cleaned the valve seat, washed my hands vigorously, cauterized both stumps, and declared victory.

This week she reported it was once again leaking.

A bit of poking around showed the tank was now full to the top of the overflow pipe and the refill tube was piddling down the pipe: obviously, something was wrong with the fill valve, because the flush valve was sealed tight.

Having been through this rodeo a few times, I fetched a replacement valve disk from the Box o’ Toilet Stuff, installed it, and was about to declare victory when I noticed the refill tube was still piddling.

Pop the top off the fill valve and peer inside:

Did you see it? I didn’t, either, when I replaced the valve disk.

More fiddling produced this view:

The valve seat is attached to a plastic stem going down the length of the fill tube, but it’s free to rotate on both ends. I have no idea what applied enough torque or how it could break all those ribs, but there they were(n’t).

Fetch a complete valve kit from the aforementioned Box, drain the tank, install All. The. Parts., verify that the valve now shuts off properly, declare victory, etc, etc.

Whereupon I could switch caps and begin making the weekly pizza.

Never a dull moment around here …