Toilet fills only when cold tap’s run

newtons2206

Long story short, Dads had to go in hospital and trying to sort household for his return - only him and Mum at home. It has come to light that their toilet will only refill when the cold tap is run (goodness knows how long it’s been like that). Hoping we can sort this out but can anyone advise what we should look for? Guessing it’s a 1960s era loo. Can’t provide photos as we’re trying to limit visits due to C19. 

We’re willing but clueless!! TIA

flashg67

I'm not a plumber but sounds like something is sticking in the cistern and running the tap reduces the water pressure enough to free off whatever valve is sticking? Either that or there's some weird plumbing been done at the house!

pramsay13

Does it matter? 
Maybe it's a deliberate design to make sure you wash your hands afterwards otherwise you can't use the toilet again.
As flash says it would need to be extremely weird plumbing to deliberately make it do that and actually much harder to plumb in like that, so I also reckon something is just sticking a bit.
Lift the lid off the cistern and have a play about with the float valve, or check back to where the water is switched off for the cistern ideally an isolating valve nearby and see if it can be opened further.

molerat

Sounds like the high pressure is holding something in the valve and turning on the tap reduces the pressure against that object allowing the water to pass.  I pulled a stone out of my SIL's ball valve which was making a howling noise !

Mistral001

flashg67 said:

I'm not a plumber but sounds like something is sticking in the cistern and running the tap reduces the water pressure enough to free off whatever valve is sticking? Either that or there's some weird plumbing been done at the house!

This sounds like the problem.  Some old cisterns have a small float at the bottom of them which effectively returns the outlet stopper  to the closed position when all the water has been used up during flushing.   The mechanism that this float is attached to wears out.  It is almost impossible to get spare parts for old cisterns, so if this small float is the problem, then it will probably mean a new cistern.

PS.  It could be the outlet stopper which is usually made of rubber that is the problem.  It perishes with time.  Again it is almost impossible to get a replacement stopper for very old models of cisterns.  I had to make one out of an old  car tyre inner tube for my 1953 cistern.

southcoastrgi

Mistral001 said:

flashg67 said:

I'm not a plumber but sounds like something is sticking in the cistern and running the tap reduces the water pressure enough to free off whatever valve is sticking? Either that or there's some weird plumbing been done at the house!

This sounds like the problem.  Some old cisterns have a small float at the bottom of them which effectively returns the outlet stopper  to the closed position when all the water has been used up during flushing.   The mechanism that this float is attached to wears out.  It is almost impossible to get spare parts for old cisterns, so if this small float is the problem, then it will probably mean a new cistern.

PS.  It could be the outlet stopper which is usually made of rubber that is the problem.  It perishes with time.  Again it is almost impossible to get a replacement stopper for very old models of cisterns.  I had to make one out of an old  car tyre inner tube for my 1953 cistern.

It's called a flapper valve & you can buy a new one off the shelf in b&q, everything should be available whatever cistern you have plus this will have nothing to do with the op's problem

Mistral001

southcoastrgi said:

Mistral001 said:

flashg67 said:

I'm not a plumber but sounds like something is sticking in the cistern and running the tap reduces the water pressure enough to free off whatever valve is sticking? Either that or there's some weird plumbing been done at the house!

This sounds like the problem.  Some old cisterns have a small float at the bottom of them which effectively returns the outlet stopper  to the closed position when all the water has been used up during flushing.   The mechanism that this float is attached to wears out.  It is almost impossible to get spare parts for old cisterns, so if this small float is the problem, then it will probably mean a new cistern.

PS.  It could be the outlet stopper which is usually made of rubber that is the problem.  It perishes with time.  Again it is almost impossible to get a replacement stopper for very old models of cisterns.  I had to make one out of an old  car tyre inner tube for my 1953 cistern.

It's called a flapper valve & you can buy a new one off the shelf in b&q, everything should be available whatever cistern you have plus this will have nothing to do with the op's problem

My 1950's  Tywfords Vitromat 880 cistern's "flapper valve" does not flap but is fixed to the end of a steel plunger.  

newtons2206

So I have had a poke about in the cistern and it seems like the float on the end of a lever control thingy is not dropping down far enough to trigger the inlet of water - only by mm. It’s slightly leaning so this may be something to do with it. I think I need to try and source a whole new mechanism and get my OH to try and fit it. Hopefully the part will be available via amazon and easily fitted. 

Mutton_Geoff

newtons2206 said:

So I have had a poke about in the cistern and it seems like the float on the end of a lever control thingy is not dropping down far enough to trigger the inlet of water - only by mm. It’s slightly leaning so this may be something to do with it. I think I need to try and source a whole new mechanism and get my OH to try and fit it. Hopefully the part will be available via amazon and easily fitted. 

Can't you gently bend the bar with the ball on the end to position the ball correctly in the water so it does work?