Fluidmaster side entry water coming out of top on toilet

happyhero

Hi can anybody help me please, I have one of these valves and I am able to take it out of my cistern and strip it down.

I have a concealed cistern with wall hung pan and access the inners through a rectangular hole where the push button goes.

I have this valve

http://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-side-entry-fill-valve-euro-3-8/49003

Although it is not this one my cistern arrangement is very similar to this to give you a rough idea

http://www.splashdirect.com/Bathroom-Suites/Toilets/Toilet-Mounting-Frames/sc2190/p14987.aspx

I have googled the problem and it seems common but I cannot still figure out what is wrong. With the water shut off valve full on water squirts out of the very top blue part. My last one did the same after a couple of years. This one I stripped down fully and there was minimal gunk which I cleared. I tried blowing through it and blocking holes off to test but that makes no sense either.

The pin on the shut off part just seem to slide through the rubber seal so I cannot see what that does. The rubber looks perfect but I wonder if it has lost flexibility and that is a problem. I removed the top blue part and cleaned minimal gunk off of that too.

Now to test it, if I only crack open the water valve slightly water still comes out of the top blue part but moving the float up and down does nothing to shut off the water coming in, yet once it reaches the level and the float is pushed fully up the water shuts off like magic, I can only assume some clever pressure thing is going on inside because in this way it works but just takes ages to fill the tank. But it is not supposed to have any water coming out of the top blue part when it works correctly

I see you can buy the rubber seals

http://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-multipurpose-washer-black-pack-of-3/44070

but as my seal appears fine I cannot see how that would make any difference. How do these work if the pin just slide through these rubbers, taking it apart and playing with this it appears to do nothing when the pin moves???

Is the answer in how flexible they are when new, my one seems reasonably flexible?

It is so annoying that the blue top part squirts water forwards instead of backwards as it escapes out the front and makes a big mess when it does this but I have looked and that part is not reversible, and the plumbing in the small opening I have would get too involved to reverse its position by internal plumbing.

I am a little fed up with these valves as they do not seem to last very long, other toilets I have done their valves seem to have lasted donkeys years. I was tempted to switch to this type

http://www.screwfix.com/p/side-entry-fill-valve/64191#rating_link_anchor

but the reviews are a bit off putting saying they leak etc.

I don't know what else there is that would fit in my tank through the hole and would be reliable (remember it is side entry).

Any help and answers to my questions would be greatly appreciated, hoping to go into new year with toilet working

southcoastrgi

no it shouldn't leak out of the top, the washer works by the lever closing off the hole in the washer, they are commonly called torbeck washers, the last link you posted is in fact a torbeck type valve & they are normally fine, they normally come with an insert you put inside the valve (it just pushes in where the water connects) this should be fitted on high pressure (mains) supplies

happyhero

Hi Cheers southcoastrgi for your reply, as I understand it they leak out the top when there is a problem, i.e. it works as some sort of pressure relief valve or something. Trouble is I don't actually know what is wrong to to know if I should by a new rubber or if the whole thing has had it.

southcoastrgi

alot of them are sealed units, a plumber would only change the washer, if there was another prob it's not cost effective for him to mess about trying to get it apart only to find it won't go back together so he would just fit a new one, if you have excessive pressure it can damage any valve you put in there, by you turning down the service (ballofix) valve all you are doing is reducing the flow rate the pressure is exactly the same