Our toilet valve was leaking, which sounded like the water was always running and slowly, but constantly refilling the bowl. Luckily replacing the toilet fill valve is an easy fix. This post shows you how we did it.
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I’m sorry, but today’s post is NOT beautiful. Simple, yes. Practical, most definitely, and even necessary, but not beautiful. Today you get to be up close and personal with our toilet. How fun.
The toilet fill valve comes with more detailed instructions than I’m going to give, but I always think having pictures to explain things helps a lot. I hope it’s not too confusing that the toilet is hard water stained. In most of these pictures there is no water in the toilet, the porcelain has just been colored up to the water line after decades of use.
Turn off the water for the toilet. You don’t need to shut off the water for the whole house. Every toilet has a little knob on the wall that, when turned clockwise, shuts off the water to the toilet.
Empty the tank. Basically, flushing the toilet empties most of the water. Remove the water supply hose in the back (connected to the water shut off) with a bucket under it to catch the rest of the water.
Remove the old valve from the tank. Our was a ballcock mechanism (I know you just giggled at that name). It unscrewed from the bottom of the tank.
Insert the new valve and test the height compared to the overflow pipe. There’s a CL line marked on the valve that has to be 1 inch above the overflow pipe. The wrench was just a convenient straight line.
Twist to adjust the height of the valve so that it comes to the right height.
Install the new valve by screwing on the locknut to the bottom end of the valve from under the toilet tank.
Attach the refill hose (the little tube) to the valve and to the refill clip, which is on the side of the overflow pipe. The hose may be a too long. We had to cut a few inches off.
Double check to make sure the CL line is high enough and the whole thing is low enough to fit when the toilet lid is on.
Reattach the water hose. That hose that’s been sitting over the bucket, screw it back on.
Turn on the water for the toilet and watch the tank fill. You can adjust it if you need, but it’s important to watch it fill this first time so you can see if there’s any problems.
Finally, replace the lid and enjoy the silence of a non-leaky toilet!
