I installed a dual-flush toilet a couple of years ago and, for the most part, have been happy with it. I certainly felt better about not wasting as much water per flush. But, when the darn thing started the habit of "kicking in" to fill-the-tank mode every 15 minutes, I was a little worried. You see, the inside workings of a dual-flush was a little intimidating to me. After all, if there's a button instead of a lever, everything else must be different, too...right?
So, quite foolishly, I let this go on for several weeks, wasting goodness only knows how many gallons of water. Finally, I couldn't take it any more and decided to put the old handyman skills to the test. Admittedly, the center tower was different, in that it had the two buttons on top, but once I turned off the water to the tank and flushed out as much water as I could, I discovered that I could remove the tower by simply depressing two tabs near the bottom.
I knew the water could only be leaking out of the tank through the opening beneath the tower, since there was no water on the floor from a leak elsewhere. When I pulled out the tower, I discovered this interesting fault in the large washer:
Water blisters! Somehow, the outer membrane of the rubber washer had pockets of water trapped inside and those little bubbles prohibited the washer from properly sealing. Needless to say, I was disappointed in myself for letting this go on for so long without addressing it. But, there is a happy ending.
With the tip of a razor knife, I punctured all the blisters, removed all the trapped water, replaced the washer and tower, turned the water back on and it hasn't run once since. That was over a month ago, by the way.
The moral of this story is don't automatically convince yourself that you can't fix something just because it looks differently that the "norm." And, if you're just not sure where to begin....I'm just an email away!
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