How to Fix a Toilet

In this article, we’re going to talk about the most important appliance in your house: your toilet. We’ve all experienced the inconvenience of having a toilet that doesn’t work properly. The good news is that sometimes, to repair a toilet, you don’t necessarily have to call a plumber. There are a few solutions that you can try to do yourself which are easy solutions for a non-working toilet. 

These tips are easy to do if you’re willing to try to tackle the problem yourself. But if you aren’t, or if you run into trouble, you can always call our team at Rocketman Plumbing and we’ll be happy to help you out. 

Know the Parts Inside the Toilet Tank

Before we get into the problems and solutions, you should know what the parts inside of a toilet tank are:

  • Flush valve. This is located at the bottom of your toilet tank and allows water to flow from the tank into the bowl when you flush.
  • Fill valve. Situated inside your toilet tank, this mechanism controls the water flow to refill your tank after you flush. 
  • Flapper. This is the rubber or plastic seal that sits on top of the opening to the flush valve on the bottom of the tank.
  • Flush handle. This is the handle you use to flush the toilet. It connects to the flapper inside and pulls it up to release the water from the tank into your toilet bowl. 

Two Common Toilet Problems

There are two things that normally go wrong with a toilet which are easy to fix: 

  1. The flapper is warped or not attached securely, which prevents the flush valve from sealing properly.
  2. The fill valve does not shut off all the way, which causes your toilet to run all the time and can cost you thousands of gallons of water per month until it’s fixed. 

For both of these issues, you will hear the toilet come on and off repeatedly, as though it’s trying to fill with water even though no one has flushed it recently. 

How to Replace the Toilet Flapper

Replacing a toilet flapper is simple if you follow these steps: 

  1. Turn off the water supply to your toilet tank at the shut-off valve located behind your toilet. 
  2. Flush the toilet and listen to make sure water’s not coming in. If water is coming in, you will see a small amount of it flowing in from the tube connected to your fill valve. See How to Replace the Fill Valve below.
  3. Detach your flapper, which will be attached to both the flush handle and to the flush valve. Detach it from the flush valve overflow tube first. If your flush valve overflow tube has two small “ears” on either side of it that are holding the flapper in place, simply pull it off. If your flush valve overflow tube goes through a hole in the flapper, pull the flapper up over the end of the tube to take it off. Once you detach the flapper from the flush valve, unhook the flush handle chain from the top of the flapper.
  4. Take your new replacement flapper and attach it to both the flush handle chain and the flush valve overflow tube the same way your old flapper was attached. 
  5. Make sure that when the flapper is resting on the flush valve that there is enough tension in the flush handle chain. You can adjust the chain length by attaching it through the different holes on your flush handle to make it tighter or looser. You want it to be taut enough to pull the flapper up when you flush, but loose enough that the flapper can fully seal the flush valve again when you let go of the flush handle.  
  6. Turn the shutoff valve into the open position to let water flow back into your toilet tank. Let it fill up; then check to make sure it flushes and the flapper seals properly. 

How to Replace the Fill Valve

It will take a little more time and effort to replace your fill valve, but it’s easy to do if you’re willing. First, make sure you have your supplies: a replacement fill valve, a bucket that can fit behind your toilet, and a pair of channel locks (locking pliers). Then follow these steps to replace your fill valve: 

  1. Turn off the water supply to your toilet tank at the shut-off valve located behind your toilet. 
  2. Flush the toilet and listen to make sure water’s not coming in. If water is coming in, you will see a small amount of water entering from the tube connected to your fill valve. It will be a slightly bigger job if your shutoff valve does not shut the water off completely because you will have to replace it with a new quarter-turn shutoff valve. That will require you to turn the water off to the whole house.
  3. Using your channel locks, disconnect the water supply line from the bottom of your toilet tank. Have your bucket or a towel ready to catch the small amount of water that will spill out.
  4. Using your channel locks again, loosen the nut for the fill valve from the underside of your toilet tank. When you can get the nut unscrewed with your hand, push down on the top of the fill valve with enough pressure to plug the hole underneath so the water doesn’t spill out.
  5. Get your bucket under the hole, pull the old fill valve up, and let the water drain completely from the tank and into your bucket. If your bucket gets too full, you can insert the fill valve back into the hole to plug it so you can dump the water from your bucket, then pull it out again to continue draining.
  6. Once the water finishes draining, pull the fill valve out of your toilet tank and set it aside.
  7. Open your new fill valve. I recommend a Fluidmaster 400a fill valve because it comes with everything you need to do this replacement.
  8. You will find a small rubber washer included with your new fill valve kit, which is called a shank washer. Depending on your fill valve brand, this may already be pre-installed. If it isn’t, simply pop out the inside section of the washer to make it look like a little donut, then slide it up the bottom end of the fill valve tube with the flat end up.
  9. Stick the new fill valve into the hole in the tank. On the side of it is an attached lever with a piece called a water adjustment screw. Lift that screw up and ensure that when it is raised, it is about an inch lower than the top of the flush valve overflow tube. If it isn’t, pull out the fill valve and twist the bottom of it to raise or lower that water adjustment screw to get it in the right spot. Then put the fill valve back in the tank so it is plugging the hole as before.
  10. Replace the nut that you removed in step 4 (or use a new one if your fill valve kit comes with one) and screw it onto the bottom of the fill valve on the underside of your toilet tank. Get it as tight as you can with your fingers.
  11. You will find a thin rubber tube called a refill tube included with your new fill valve kit. Attach this to the corresponding peg of your fill valve, located on the side of the fill valve body, beside the water adjustment screw.
  12. Find the clip in your fill valve kit that attaches to the other side of the refill tube. Attach this to the tube; then attach the clip to the flush valve overflow tube. Align the refill tube so that the end of it is centered over the flush valve overflow tube.
  13. Hook your water supply back up to the toilet tank.
  14. Open the water shutoff valve. Give your tank about 45 seconds to completely fill back up. (It will take longer to fill after you install a new fill valve because we drained all the water from the toilet tank.)
  15. Watch to ensure the water shuts off before it reaches the top rim of the flush valve overflow tube. If it is too close to the top of the overflow tube, you can twist the water adjustment screw on your fill valve. Flush the toilet and watch it fill again to ensure the water does not get too close to the top of the flush valve overflow tube.
  16. When the water fills to the correct level, put the lid back onto your toilet tank and you’re done.

Call Rocketman for Fast, Professional Plumbing Services

Replacing the toilet flapper or the fill valve will handle the most common problems people have with their toilet not filling or draining properly and wasting water. You can do this on your own if you want to. But if you would prefer a professional to take care of it for you, call Rocketman Plumbing at (509) 209-8932 and we will come give you a hand to get your toilet in working order.