Yorkshire Water Broke My Toilet

unrecordings

I'm wondering if anyone has some sage advice:

YW (Yorkshire Water) did some work outside our house which caused dirt to get into the cistern valve so it no longer closed. YW came and and cleaned the valve. All good.

Weeks later the valve will no longer close again - YW come out clean the valve again. All good until 7am the next morning when the top of the valve pops out and floods the bathroom.

YW come out again, replace the entire valve. All good except that the flush cycle now stops with a bang, rather than a steady staunching of the flow until the valve closes fully.

The plumber has variously mentioned high water pressure/it's meant to do that etc but I called them out again and they fitted some plastic spiral device to the valve inlet. This worked for a couple of flushes then overnight we're back to the valve banging shut.

So - is it excessive water pressure ? (it shouldn't be, we have good pressure, and it's always been this good) Is is just a cheap valve they're using and I should insist on a better valve ? Thoughts from my illustrious MSEers appreciated

Furts

A genuinely fascinating post. My home has always suffered from grit coming through the mains. This gives dripping overflows and it is a random and varying experience. It could be every day - after first cleaning the inlet. It just keeps happening. It could be weekly, and other times it may not happen for a year or so. It has never entered my mind to complain to my Water Authority, let alone expect them to send somebody around to remove the grit.

Perhaps I am naive, perhaps I am not in tune with the modern world? The likely answer to both is yes. But I always sort out the grit and just get on with life. Yes it is a minor irritation. But being proactive means I am in control here. I sort the grit when I want to.

We live in a blame culture world. Which comes back to my being naive and not in the modern world. I guess I just do not understand how many people reason matters today. Everything is always somebody else's fault.

unrecordings

Well it wasn't a minor problem, we were losing something like 250 litres an hour out of the overflow pipe the first time it happened. The second time overwhelmed the overflow pipe. So no not blame culture, the work outside included YW deciding to turn my water off and move the main stopcock.

Edited to add: The noise isn't the valve itself, it's like water hammer - but isn't water hammer). It's loud enough to potentially annoy the neighbours

Furts

I am not saying my approach is correct and it is everyone to their own way. But 250 litres water wasting per hour is scary - both in terms of structural damage and in terms of waste of a precious commodity in time of drought. Here I would have been proactive and immediately closed my incoming mains stop tap so the waste did not occur. Then I would have resolved the problem.

When turning the water back on it is a gentle operation building up pressure - not yank it on and await a potential disaster! What happened in your scenario here?

Have you tried adjusting your stopcock - closing it down if your pressure appears too high. This worked to minimise, or cure, my pipe hammer pending me renewing washers.

unrecordings

Furts, really. Why not stay on topic to the request at hand. There are many variables, and many mitigating circumstances and actions taken to resolve the situation. The main one being I'm dying of cancer and now partially disabled - that good enough for you ? If you really want to troll me, just send me a PM and we can take it from there. I will give as good as I get

Furts

unrecordings wrote: »

Furts, really. Why not stay on topic to the request at hand. There are many variables, and many mitigating circumstances and actions taken to resolve the situation. The main one being I'm dying of cancer and now partially disabled - that good enough for you ? If you really want to troll me, just send me a PM and we can take it from there. I will give as good as I get

You are being given advice, you are being given potential answers. If you choose not to read these, if you choose to be confrontational, then so be it. Of course there are "variables" - there are in any building isssues. Only you know these "variables" and those folks on the Forum can only answer the details they have been supplied with. Face facts, engage your common sense, stop being confrontational then go through maters again. The following is plausible ...

You had no problem before. Why? Because somebody will not have flushed the pipes. What result? Blocked inlets. Other reasons? The pressure is likely to be increased relative to before. You have more grit. Why? Because of a lack of flushing. Also why? Because any increased water pressure could be pushing through more grit. You have noises now, but not before. Why? Because the water pressure may be greater than before.

To all this only you know the pressures, only you know what happened., only you know if flushing occurred . To all this you can experiment and adjust your mains tap to try and alleviate matters. A simple operation - but nobody on the Forum knows if you have done this.

unrecordings

I could post a detailed description of what happened and what we tried and who tried it, and how many times we flushed the toilet, but it'll take hours and life really is too short, so for your edification:

It's 7am, you've not slept properly for days and had a major attack of cramp in your right calf two hours ago. You're woken up by the screams of your Dearly Beloved, but since most the left hand side of your body doesn't work properly, you have about a quarter of the strength you once had and your knees are no good and you have continuous joint pain, you sort of stumble out of bed, bouncing off the walls & furniture kicking the skirting board & doorframe several times. Beloved is in a state of panic and although calm, you cannot get the necessary instructions out of your head because you can't form the correct words. You lift the lid of the cistern and staunch the flow of water with your bare hands. You manage to calm Beloved down, tell her to get dressed then turn the water off. Once the water is off, you then get some clothes on and assess the situation. The number you've been told to ring doesn't open until 9am, and last time you rang they didn't seem to think a significant loss of water was that urgent. You find the top of the valve that popped off, then very carefully and gingerly head off to the garage to find a bit of wood, some gaffa tape and a rock, stopping off in the kitchen on the way back as by now Beloved has made a second cup of tea (always leave water in the kettle overnight). Padding the underside of the wood with a toilet roll tube, you carefully position it over the broken valve and weigh it down with the rock so it's holding the top of the valve in place. Beloved is then instructed to carefully turn the water back on while you stand ready with towel. So far so good. The tap is turned up a little further so that you can make use of the water, you can then keep drinking tea until Yorkshire Water wake up...

unrecordings

Now if I'd posted this originally, I'd be whining about my condition. If I started off with a lengthy detailed post no one would read it. And if I didn't at least put a little background in, then there wouldn't be enough context. Now shall we start again.

We have good, vigorous pressure, everything else in the house is fine and has been since we lived here. There has been no noticeable difference in pressure, and the works on the street were just over a month ago. Are all cistern valves made the same or are there cheap versions versus quality versions ?

sevenhills

Furts wrote: »

Have you tried adjusting your stopcock - closing it down if your pressure appears too high. This worked to minimise, or cure, my pipe hammer pending me renewing washers.

Prior to this last winter, I had never had water hammer, I did wonder what caused it, maybe I did turn the mains water off/on. I will try to lower the pressure.
This past week, I have noticed a water hammer noise when next door turn their water on.

theonlywayisup

unrecordings wrote: »

Now if I'd posted this originally, I'd be whining about my condition. If I started off with a lengthy detailed post no one would read it. And if I didn't at least put a little background in, then there wouldn't be enough context. Now shall we start again.

We have good, vigorous pressure, everything else in the house is fine and has been since we lived here. There has been no noticeable difference in pressure, and the works on the street were just over a month ago. Are all cistern valves made the same or are there cheap versions versus quality versions ?

Well, I will say it, it took until your 3rd post to "add context". To me "that context" isn't relevant. Your toilet being broken by a water company has absolutely nothing to do with your state of mind, physical condition, life [or non] threatening illnesses.

I can't help with your loo situation or your personal situation but I wish you well in both. For the former, I do hope you take and succeed with the advice this board gives you.

unrecordings

Thanks, but the early posts ended up, contrary to my better judgement being directed at that other posters attempt to troll me, snipe or whatever. I don't take to that kindly. And you're right - my condition has nothing to do with the toilet problem, other than Furts seemed insistent I get off my !!!! and be 'proactive' with the problem that four (or five) visits from two different plumbers has not yet resolved. My over riding concern is that for a quiet toilet I'm going to have to settle for much lower water pressure than I'm used to, or have a really noisy toilet.

And edited to add, no we've not reached the conclusion its water pressure because we've tried various different tests at different times of the day and it still happening most of the time / and not happening seemingly randomly