When we moved into our new home a decade ago, we had a plumber replace the cheap, low toilets that had round seats. He put in taller ADA-compliant Toto low-flow (1.28 gallons per flush) models that had elongated seats. Eventually the rubber seals in the tank flapper and fill valve will deteriorate, and the toilet will start wasting water.
Recently I heard the fill valve on the toilet in our ground-floor half-bath running. That was odd because it had not been used in the previous hour. I shut it off and looked at the pink flapper (shown above) and its mating white plastic seat. On the seat there was a pink area where material had transferred from the surface of the flapper. When I removed the flapper, I found the rubber was slightly gummy and there was an area (arrow) matching where the material had transferred. I got and installed a Korky generic replacement flapper to eliminate the leak. A YouTube video I watched about replacing the flapper also mentioned that the seal on the fill valve also could deteriorate and result in a leak.
A week or two later the fill valve started to malfunction by not reliably shutting off. I watched some more YouTube videos that described how to completely disassemble and inspect the Toto #528 fill valve, (shown above). But the valve seat (arrow) did not look or feel unusual, and I didn’t find anything else obviously wrong. I decided to spend the $10 for a replacement valve seat. When I went to a plumbing supply store (Grover’s Pay & Pack Electric and Plumbing) I found they didn’t have the replacement for the Toto valve seat – but that a whole new Korky #528 fill valve was only $11. So I got one and installed it. The overflow tubing on the new valve interfered with the brass arm from the flush handle, so I had to shorten it.
Rubber also can crack, as I discussed back on April 27, 2012 in a post titled Seeing what is there that shouldn’t be.
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