One More Thing

As time goes on I am involved in fewer projects at my son’s house. One of the last updates in the family bathroom was to change the dual flush unit in the tank. The dual flush button on the toilet was too difficult for a three year old to flush. It was a retrofit dual flush unit that used a two button flush. I just happened to have a bargain Restore dual flush unit that I never installed in our old toilet before I replaced it with a Niagara toilet.

Fluidmaster Dual Flush
Fluidmaster Dual Flush

As usual the project was much more difficult than I planned. The old unit had been installed with the overflow tube at an angle instead of parallel to the rear of the toilet. This particular toilet had a narrow tank front to back so the bulky dual flush unit could only be installed parallel to the back.

Parallel Install
Parallel Install

In order to reorient the flush valve seat and overflow tube I had to take the tank off the toilet. So I purchased a new gasket and bolt set and even a new filler valve.

Tank disconnected
Tank disconnected

The gasket and bolt set proved to be my undoing, however. I tried at least three times to use the new gasket and each time the tank leaked badly when I flushed it. The gasket rubber must have been too hard to compress with the bolts or I didn’t have the strength but finally I fished the old gasket out of the trash and used it again and it didn’t leak.

One of the other issues I had was that I had not properly identified that the flush valve had an angled seat.

Flush valve seat types
Flush valve seat types

I assumed it was a flat seal when it was actually angled. Once I figured that out I had to add a section to the bottom of the assembly that adapted to the angled seat. Time consuming. On this unit both flush volumes are adjustable which is a nice feature and setting them to the lowest successful flush for each type was not difficult. Water saving and easy to use is a good combination.

After a few hours of working on the toilet I was able to have my 3 year old grandson test the flush and it worked!

Lever style dual flush
Lever style dual flush

It is going to be hard to get in the swing of finishing projects at my house. I have enjoyed working on theirs so much. But it’s time to get back to work.

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