Toilet - repair or replace?

hedgewitchery

Hi, looking for some advice. I've been having an intermittent issue with my downstairs toilet for a while, where after flushing the tank wouldn't stop refilling - you could hear the water just keep going and going. Previously I'd managed to get it to stop by randomly jiggling the flush buttons on the top (because the cistern lid wasn't easily removable) and had been meaning to get around to getting someone out to have a look at it but was humming and hawing because I was also considering updating the sink, etc, in which case it could obviously be picked up as part of a bigger refurb. 

Cut to the other day when I flushed the toilet, went on my way, and came back about 15 minutes later to realise it was still refilling. I was due into a work meeting, so after my random jiggling didn't work, I ended up she-hulking the cistern lid off (with bits flying) and scrabbling about inside to get it to stop. So now I've got a broken toilet and I'm not sure how best to proceed. Here are some pictures of inside the cistern and some of the bits that fell off during my wrecking session:




The problem seems to be that the oval bit at the back needs to stay up to stop the water but is now pretty much hanging loose (probably partly due to the missing bits sitting in the lid, although I guess it was already wearing out or a bit broken before). I can kind of coax it into staying up for now using willpower, but I'm also frightened of it just falling open again in the middle of the night and my water bill going stratospheric. I suppose I could tape it or something for now...

Does this seem like the sort of thing that can easily be fixed, by me or a plumber? I'm also finding it hard to get hold of plumbers that will return my calls, so I'm wondering if they will even bother coming out for something like this? Or should I just bite the bullet and look at re-doing the whole thing? As you can see it's currently a fairly dark and uninspiring symphony in beige:



but I don't have a strong vision for improving it, so that's likely to delay things. I should say that I do have another toilet in the meantime, so I've got time to think, but it is a bit of a pain in the proverbial to have to keep going upstairs while it's out of commission.

FreeBear

A new fill valve and flush siphon will cost you (probably) less than £20 from Screwfix (you'll also need a close couple gasket kit). A local handyman should be able to fit them in an hour assuming there are no problems. This will enable you to use the toilet for quite a few more years or until you do a refurbishment.

If you wanted to tackle the job yourself, it is not difficult. The hardest part will be undoing the nuts/bolts holding the cistern in place. A few basic tools (mole grips or adjustable spanner), and a length of tube to empty the cistern is all that is required.

hedgewitchery

Ah, I hadn't realised a handyman might be able to do it - I'll see if I can find someone local. Theoretically I'd like to have a go myself but I'm concerned about getting myself into an even worse situation with no backup, lol.

Ta for that!

tightauldgit

It's a pretty straightforward task to replace the internals of the cistern (they pretty much just screw on and off) the only difficult part sometimes is getting access into the cistern depending on how its been fitted in. 

hedgewitchery

Thanks - I've gone and watched a video on how to do it and I'm half-tempted to buy some tools and give it a go, however I have a few additional questions/concerns that hopefully you helpful peeps could help with.

1. From this picture, is there a way to locally isolate the water supply to the toilet? If not, I guess I'll need to turn it off to the whole house before I begin? Apologies if this is a daft question, I don't want to just randomly start unscrewing things and causing a flood!


2. I'm a bit worried about the state of these screws and whether I'll be able to get them undone or if that's going to turn into a separate headache - guess I can cross that bridge when I come to it!


3. I'm not quite sure I've found the right parts on Screwfix. Searching for "fill valve" and "flush syphon" seems to bring up a similar set of results, but some of them only look like they have half of what's currently in the tank? This one, for example: https://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-push-button-cable-dual-flush-valve/51173, only seems to correspond to the middle bit of my current setup, whereas it's actually the other bit that's broken? I'm thinking this one seems to look more like what I'm after: https://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-bottom-entry-flush-valve/874fj. Does that look right? Are these things fairly universal or do I really need to be careful to get an exact match?

plumb1_2

Go with the flow master kit the ones with a brass shank,  plus buy a new foam donut washer (Amazon)
you can isolate the water underneath the fill valve by turning the slot a quarter turn.
Spray to close coupled bolts with wd40, you might have to saw off the back fixings screws but try using grips.
Good luck. Usually takes me about 30 minutes to swop um, but I had one this week it took me 2 hrs, had to saw through the close coupling bolts 🙁

FreeBear

The water is an easy one. At the top of that flexible hose is an isolation valve with what looks like a screw head in the middle. With a flat bladed screwdriver, turn the "screw" so that the slot is horizontal.

Those two rusty screws inside the cistern may snap when you try to undo them. One of the risks of using mild steel in close proximity to water.

I'll look at Screwfix, and see if I can spot anything suitable later.

hedgewitchery

Hello! I return triumphant, sort of...

Much to my own disbelief, I managed to get the toilet apart, replace all the internal gubbins and even put it back together again, but I then fell at the final hurdle, when I realised that the little flusher thingy wouldn't fit in the hole in the lid 



I mean, it's a working toilet again, but how annoying is that?? I restrained myself from just hammering it into the hole (but only barely). Is this a thing you can buy on its own, or am I doomed to have to live with this monument to bodgery?

MovingForwards

@hedgewitchery can you take the top off and take another photo of the inside, it seems whatever is under your buttons haven't been set up to align with them.

hedgewitchery

MovingForwards said:

@hedgewitchery can you take the top off and take another photo of the inside, it seems whatever is under your buttons haven't been set up to align with them.

The thing is, it doesn't actually align with anything inside. It actually seems to be quite a clever arrangement - the button post just "clips" into an otherwise totally separate free-hanging unit that's attached to the flush mechanism by a flexible wire.

This is the unit that's attached to the flush mechanism:



The grey cog thing on the top is like a spring-loaded holder, so you just squeeze it to put the button post in and out, if that makes sense. Then the button itself goes through the hole and is secured by a plastic screw/washer thingy:



 So it doesn't need to be aligned with anything - I think you're just meant to post it through the hole in the lid, secure it with the washer and then clip it into the unit. It's just that the button unit is physically too big to go through the hole in the lid. As you can see, it actually came with a removable cowl to make it bigger(!) so maybe my toilet is non-standardly small?

I've tried shoving it a bit in case it's meant to squeeze in somehow, but it doesn't feel very yielding and I think it will just break it if I try too hard. So, it just stands proud:



I had a look on Screwfix and they sell the button separately but it only seems to come in one size, so I don't think that'll help and I don't know if other manufacturers' buttons will work the same way with this springloaded unit thingy.

Oh, and I spoke too soon about everything else working fine as I now notice that my connection is leaking a bit:



The new connector is brass instead of plastic, which I thought would be better but obviously not! I'm not sure if I just need to try and brute force it tighter, but the whole thing seems to twist and I'm frightened of damaging the actual pipe thing. Bah!

hedgewitchery

Wait a minute - just watched a different video and now realise that the cowl is actually to make it look prettier if it won't fit snug into the hole, d'oh! So I've put it all back together and now it's done! Not as neat as if it fit properly flush (lol) with the hole, but better than it was before.



Still leaking a tiny bit, but I've got a heating engineer coming tomorrow to look at my boiler, so might just ask his advice on that one...

Thanks to everyone who contributed - never thought I'd have been able to do it!