ICON_PLACEHOLDEREstimated reading time: 9 minutes
Hi I’m Roger Wakefield, LEED AP, The Expert Plumber.
Today we’re gonna talk about changing out the flush valve in your toilet and how easy it is to do and we’re gonna talk about it
right now.
Now the flush valve is this piece in the middle.
As you can see when you pull down on the toilet handle and raise the flapper, the flush valve is what its attached to, that’s what we’re gonna look at changing out today.
When you change out your flapper, you should reach down and feel around the seal that the flapper seals off to.
If there’s a nick, if it feels rough or scratched or anything you’ll either want to try to resurface that face by lightly sanding it down or possibly even changing out your flush valve.
So today we’re gonna look at changing out the flush valve and how easy that really is.
Now it is one of the more difficult things to do on the toilet but this is one that being shown the right way this is something that you can do yourself.
As you can see I have a very unique toilet here.
We’ve got a toilet but the back of it is cut out so I can show you better how to work inside of it.
Now remember before you start any project plumbing wise, whether you’re changing out a disposal, a toilet, a faucet or parts, always keep towels handy because in a little bit we’re going to turn the water off and when you go to disconnect these things you’re liable to get some water out.
So it’s always a good idea to lay towels up under your toilet or your lavatory or your kitchen sink or whatever it is you’re working on to absorb any water to help from creating a problem.
Y’all ready to do this?
Let’s go.
First thing you’re going to want to do is turn the water off.
Turn the water off at the angle stop.
Now like I’ve told y’all before, turn it off flush the toilet, check it and see if it’s still running.
If your angle stop is not holding you may need to go out to the meter or the valve box in front of your house to turn the water off.
If you do have to do that I would recommend changing out the angle stop at this time.
If you don’t have to turn it off, flush the toilet make sure the water goes down as low as possible and then either reach in here with a big sponge a wet vac or some towels.
You’re going to want to try to get all the water out of it and I’ll show you why here in a little bit because we’re actually going to take the tank off and any water in there gives you the opportunity to spill it on the
floor and make a mess.
So the first thing you’re going to want to do is turn it off, flush it, drain down as much water as you can and then you’re going to take off your flex connector or your water supply line to the toilet.
Very easy to do.
When you’re looking down in here from the top you’re gonna see, like I said the flapper is attached to the flush valve.
Now there’s different kinds of flush valves, make sure that you’ve looked on the inside of your tank, you get the right part number.
That way you get the right one and you always want to make sure too that the top of your flush valve is below the vacuum breaker on your fill valve because what that does that keeps you from creating a cross connection where you can actually suck toilet water over into the drinking water.
Once you’re in here, you’re going to reach up, you’re going to take apart the flapper, pull it off.
I normally go ahead and disconnect it from the handle to get it completely out of the way and set it out of the way.
You don’t want to have to fight anything in here.
Now what you’re gonna, do you’re going to reach up under here and under your tank on each side you should have some nuts.
Most toilets have two tank to toilet bolts, some have three.
You’re going to reach under here and loosen all the nuts that you have, that way we can actually take this toilet tank off.
Now I just happen to have a seven sixteenths nut runner and a flat blade screwdriver here so I’m going to show you what we’re gonna do to loosen this up.
You’re gonna reach that in from the top and you’re gonna put your screwdriver down in the flat slot on this tank to bowl bolt and then you’re gonna reach up under and loosen it up.
Once you get it loose it’s going to come apart really easy.
Now remember get all the water out of it because whenever you go to pull this up that’s when you will get any extra water spill out everywhere.
Now this is the bottom, this is the gasket.
This gasket normally comes off pretty easy sometimes if the tank is very old it will stick to it, you may have to pry it off.
You will want to change this gasket out because you do not want to leak here if you have a leak here every time you flush the toilet water is either going to come down the edge or run down behind it and this could cause damage to your floor.
As you see we have a very large plastic nut on the bottom of this flush valve so I’ve got my very large channel locks with me.
Once you get it loose you may be able to undo it by hand.
Now guys this is actually the flush valve.
This is the part that we’re changing out.
This is the round smooth surface that I told you where the flapper sets and it actually clips on these arms right here.
So every time you flush your toilet it pulls up the flapper like this lets water go down in here down into the bowl and then after the water level comes down it goes down and seals off again.
As you can see now the inside of the tank all we have is this hole here you want to make sure that this surface is clean and also the surface on the bottom so we don’t have any leaks.
You’ve got a rubber seal around here I just like to make sure it’s nice and clean.
Stick it in, line it up the way that you want it.
When I do this I like to get it about hand tight and then turn it just about a quarter of a turn and once again I grab my big old channel locks for this.
You can over tighten these and crack the flush valve.
I have seen people crack the bowl.
Normally not by doing this, but normally by over tightening the tank to bowl bolts.
Once you get that put together, put your gasket on and push it up.
You want to make sure that that goes up all the way around to the bottom of the tank and seals off around these threads real good.
You want to make sure that you get your tank to bowl bolts right.
Look at your direction, see which way that they go.
The rubber gasket goes on the inside of the tank to help seal off there and then you always get a steel washer and the nut down on the bottom.
Once you get it in, hold your screw ,get your nut started and thread it as far as you can by hand.
Now you want to make sure that when you put your tank on it doesn’t wobble.
As you can see I haven’t tightened it up and this one is wobbling.
So first of all I’m gonna look at the front and make sure that I’ve got it straight, then I’m gonna grab my screwdriver and my nut runner and make sure that I get it snug.
Now remember I told you you don’t want to over tighten it but you do want to tighten it down and if you look in the front you can see where it touches.
Tighten it down till it just touches and when it’s not wobbling you know it’s good and if you’ve got a new flapper, check the length of the chain on your old one make sure you adjust it before you put it in.
It just makes it a little bit easier.
Put it in and attach it back to the handle and while it’s still dry make sure that when you let go that handle your flapper secures on the flush valve and you’ve got just a little bit of slack in your chain.
Once you do that get everything put back together you should be set to go.
Now hook your supply line back up.
You guys I will tell you if you’re just changing out the flush valve it might be a good idea to go ahead and look at your fill valve.
You’re gonna change your flapper out anyway.
Changing your fill valve out you might even check your handle see how old it looks.
Changing up the flush valve is one of the hardest things on the toilet so as long as you’re doing that you might as well change everything else then you’ve got a complete major rebuild.
This toilet should last you a good another five or six years depending on the water quality in your neighborhood.
So once you hook your supply line back up, hook it back up to your angle stop.
Whether you turn the water off outside or in here go ahead and turn your water back on.
Turn it on slowly as you’re looking around make sure you don’t have any water coming out from around the bottom of your tank that may cause a problem or any damage to your floor.
So when you turn your water back on let it fill.
You should have a fill line mark on the inside of your tank.
You want that water to stop about a half inch to an inch below the top of your flush valve and that is how easy it is to change out the flush valve on your toilet.
Guys I hope you enjoy these videos, if you do, if you don’t, either way please leave us a comment below and let us know what you think.
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My name’s Roger Wakefield with Texas Green Plumbing, saving you money one drop at a time.
