Learned an expensive water bill lesson

ChrisJ

Apparently I have had a leaky ballcock on one toilet for two months as our water bill more than doubled.

This little leak couldn't even be heard until I took the lid off of the tank and yet it wasted 6000 gallons in 2 months.  Moral of the story? Check your water meter occasionally to make sure its not running when no water should be being used.  Same can be said for the gas meter if you have natural gas.



I tried changing the seal which I always have on hand and cleaning the mating surfaces and its still leaking so something is either cracked or maybe a leak between the two main mating peices so I'm buying a new one. 

rick in Alaska

water leakage

 looks like your water level is too high in picture 1. Can't tell if it is high enough to go over the top, but something to check out.

The easiest  way to tell if it is a flapper leak is to turn off the water supply and see if the level in the tank drops over time. If it does, then it is a flapper leak. 

Rick

BobC

6-7 years

I find myself replacing my flush valve about every 6 or 7 years, usually because of a small leak into the tank. It does not seem to matter what brand and they don't look like they are all made by the same factory.



The last time it just opened up and was dumping water at full flow, it's a good thing I was home when it died. I ended up replacing everything in the tank this time. have you ever tried removing 40 year old brass bolts that secure the tank to the bowl? it took me about a half hour using the Dremmel tool and a half dozen cut off wheels. The new ones are nylon bolts, we'll see how those fare.



They will have to pry my old crane toilet from my cold dead hands. It may not be quite as good as a Ferguson but it's better than these low flow jobs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL2YRDzpTL4



Bob

icesailor

Checking Leaks:

Turn off the water to the tank when you go to bed. If the water level is down in the tank in the morning, replace the flapper WITH THE CORRECT ONE!!! Many sold in home stores do not fit properly.

Spray the brass bolts with Kroil and try to get them apart the next day. They will almost always come out. Many cheap toilets look like they are brass bolts but are actually steel with a brass wash/coating. EVERY cheap toilet I have seen (excluding Mansfield and Sterling) have steel bolts. Where I work, they rot off within 10 years.

With fluidmaster Ballcocks, the older ones have a tendency to stick on the sides and the float will hang up and overflow. Many try keeping the water level just below the overflow. That can lead to overflowing. One evening of overflowing can lead to a huge increase in water usage. The Fluidmaster 400 with the red top and black bottom seems to be much better.

ChrisJ

Fun

I still have not had a close look at the ballcock but it must have a small crack or something because even with the new seal it kept leaking. I went out and bought a new one as well as a new 1/4 turn shutoff and a chrome plated riser.



Oh boy did the fun start when I tried to remove the shutoff. I thought the chrome nipple was turning and I was wrong. Apparently whoever drilled through the floor just hit a joist and drilled on an angle. They then installed the pipe and bent it which weakened it at that point. So I ended up spending 2 hours in the worst part of my house which is a small low crawl space under the downstairs bathroom sweating pipe.



Actually its a good thing I messed up like that because the chrome nipple was leaking where it screwed into the copper female in the floor and it was all green and the floor isn't in happy shape there.



My 30 minute ballcock change turned into a 5 hour nitemare. Unfortunately its 30 minutes each way just to get to a store near us so that time adds up fast.





icesailor : not sure if its necessary to shut the water off to check the flapper with ballcocks like this as you *should* hear them run once in a while to refill the tank. The brass style I agree, you probably wouldn't notice. I will admit I have had 4 or 5 of these fluidmasters and it seems like some shutoff hard and others shutoff slow for no apparent reason even in the same house? I like to keep my fill level about an inch down from the top of the overflow tube. I feel this gives good flushes and leaves a nice amount of tolerance.



As far as flappers I prefer the red fluidmaster one that has numbers on it and can be adjusted by turning. They fit all of my toilets and seem to hold up well.

ChrisJ

level

Hi Rick,



The level was too high because the ballcock was leaking. If you look closely in the picture you can see that the float was completely submerged.