Well, that was the last straw. The toilet in the master bath took forever to fill. This problem was not new. It was already taking a while to fill. And then it would end with a shrieking sound letting us know it was done.
I knew it was the toilet fill valve, which was a replacement from the toilet I replaced in the powder room.
Replacing the toilet in the powder room was part of a process of figuring out which toilet was leaking.
About two years ago, we received a notice from the city that we were using more water than in the past. They suggested getting some blue dye pills to drop in the tanks to find out if a toilet was leaking.
We found out that the toilet in the powder room was the culprit. I tried to troubleshoot the leak. I replaced the flush valve seal rubber and the fill valve. Neither one worked.
So, we decided to replace one of the original toilets. The other one was in the master bathroom. I bought a new toilet and installed it. But only after I replaced the flooring in the powder room. (Read my blog post)
In the process, I saved the fill valve. Why throw away a good fill valve? The one in the master bath was not holding its setting. I was constantly adjusting it. Either there was not enough water in the tank to get a good flush or there was too much water that just poured into the overflow tube.
So, the one from the powder room went into the master bath. The life on these fill valves is about two years, so the shrieking sound was telling me the time was up with the one in the master bath.
Efiwym, my wife, and I agreed it was time to replace the last of the original toilets. I had plenty of things going on and a DIY project had to wait. However, we needed to fix this toilet, so we decided to spend money on a new fill valve.
I really liked this fill valve. No float and easy to adjust. However, they just did not last.
I did some shopping online. There were the traditional fill valves with the float. I wanted to find the cheapest and easiest way to fix the problem. I would replace the toilet soon, so I went to the place with the helpful hardware folks to get the same fill valve. It was cheap and easy to install.
I learned that the valve works by using an internal float that rises with the water level to automatically shut off the water supply once the tank is full. So, this one has a float except it is inside the unit. Who knew?
It took about 10 minutes to replace the fill valve. The tank filled up quickly and there was no annoying shrieking sound when it was done. Problem solved for now, but for sure, the toilet was on my short list.
