Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Is water leaking from your toilet bowl or your toilet tank? You have to jiggle the handle
on your toilet to make the water stop. Hi there! I'm Jeff with Home Repair Tutor.
And if your toilet keeps running, you probably have to replace the toilet flapper valve.
So stay tuned, I've got a ton of tricks for you. This isn't a hard repair, but there are
some things that you should consider, and I'm going to show you those tips right now.
Let's get to it. The first thing you want to do is pick a flapper
that has Microban technology. Microban helps prevent bacteria from breaking down the flapper.
This is a 501 flapper by Fluidmaster. And it's for toilet's that have 3.5 gallons per
flush. It's for older toilets. Now if you have a newer toilet, you want to use the Fluidmaster
502. And newer toilets have 1.6 or 1.28 gallons per flush. And these are toilets that were
made since 1994. What makes this flapper so cool is you can adjust it to adjust the min
or max of the flush. Now you can also find how many gallons per flush your toilet has
by looking on the toilet bowl. Turn the shut off valve clockwise to turn
off the water to the toilet. Flush the toilet by holding down on the lever and most of the
water will be gone after doing this, which is great. Now in this case, I'm going to be
choosing the Fluidmaster 502 flapper because I have a 1.6 GPF toilet, so it's a newer toilet.
I'm going to take off the top of the tank. And as you can see here, again, most of the
water's gone which is awesome. Now all you have to do is remove the flapper
from the right tab of the overflow tube, and then remove the left portion of the flapper
from the left tab of the overflow tube. You'll have to remove the chain from the toilet handle
arm. And that's it. As you can see here, there is some bacteria
growth on this flapper. And that can cause the flapper to distort and create a bad seal
with the seat of the flush valve. So you'll want to clean that seat really good in case
you have hard water because if that seat isn't smooth—and you'll want to feel it with your
finger—the flapper won't seal properly. As you can see here, there's Microban in this
flapper which will help prevent the breakdown of the flapper due to bacteria. And you can
adjust the 502 flapper from min to max. So I want a maximum flush capacity, and that's
why I turned it the whole way to 9. Take that flapper. Put it on the flush valve seat. Press
down on the left side to get it on the left tab. And then press down on the right side
to put it on the right tab. Now you want to adjust the chain to have about
½" of slack. Attach the chain to the arm. Then all you need to do is trim off any excess
chain so that it doesn't get caught between the flapper and the flush valve.
Turn the shut off valve on and allow the toilet tank to fill with water. And a good rule of
thumb is to have the water level about 1" below the overflow tube. Flush the toilet
and make sure that the flapper goes up and down smoothly, that the chain doesn't get
caught between the flapper and the flush valve. And that there's a good seal between the flapper
and the flush valve. That good seal will make the water stop eventually in your toilet tank.
Now at this point, I decided to clean the toilet. Fun times... fun times...
The soap suds in the toilet bowl allow me to see whether or not there's a good flush.
And as you can see here, all the water is removed from the bowl. So that flapper valve
is good. And all you have to do is put the top of the toilet tank on and you're done.
Well that's it. That's how you replace a toilet flapper valve on a toilet that keeps running.
Pretty easy, right? Can I get a high five...? You're leaving me hanging...
See if I can do it, you can do it, too. You'll be able to save a lot of money on your monthly
water bill by buying just a $5 piece of equipment known as the toilet flapper.
So that's it for today. Thank you so much for joining me.
Remember, if you haven't already done so, you can click on the subscribe button at YouTube.
That way you'll see all my videos that come out every single Friday. And you can head
out on over to HomeRepairTutor.com and sign up for the email newsletter. That way you'll
be updated on my weekly tips that come out, again—you guessed it—every single Friday.
So take care. Have a great day. And I'll see you in the next video.
Can I use the toilet now? Yes.