Leaky Toilet and Lousy Repair Guide

Our toilet has had a leaky flapper valve for several months, maybe even a few years. The symptoms are a toilet that runs briefly every fifteen minutes or so. The one and only comprehensive home repair guide that I bought 15 years ago offers only two fixes for this.

The first fix is simple -- a five minute job requiring no tools. You just lift off the flapper valve, coat the seal with a layer of petroleum jelly, and put it back. Of course you have to shut off the water (and lift off the tank lid first), but that's easy if your supply valve isn't frozen. This simple fix worked. But it lasted for only about three weeks. Then the stuff needed to be cleaned off and reapplied.

The second fix is only for the serious DIYer. It recommends replacing the flapper valve and seat. That involves first draining the toilet completely, disconnecting the water supply line, and removing the tank. After that you can remove the valve and the seat, and put the new ones in.

I've been too lazy to reapply petroleum jelly to my valve every few weeks, and so I've been suffering from the mysteriously running toilet, with its wasted water, unexpectedly weak flushes (and clogs) and sudden episodes of hot showers.

Until now.

I finally decided to search on the Internet for "how to fix a leaky flapper valve." I came across two interesting videos.

The first one is as simple as the petroleum jelly fix from the book. Except that it involves smoothing the flapper valve mating surfaces:



This didn't actually work for me, but it did give me the idea to replace the flapper valve without also replacing the seat, as shown in this video:



And that worked. The reason I didn't do it before is that I thought all flapper values were rigid and had to be installed with the seat when the tank was apart.

Here's another video that describes how to fix a different cause of a running toilet, such as when sediment gets caught in the flush valve, preventing it from closing completely:



And let me just mention that if for some reason your water supply is shut off, you can still flush the toilet by quickly pouring a bucket of water directly into the bowl. This is handy during extended power outages in homes that are supplied with well water, but only if you've prepared by filling the bathtub with water.

Wednesday Weigh-In 20120118

These weight and fat measurements might respond less to what I eat and more to how much sleep I get, according to "Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival," by T. S. Wiley, with Bent Formby.

Waist = 37.5"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Dream: Delicious Purple Filament from Weed

I'm staying in a vacation cottage. It is early morning, and we call the next door neighbor to order take out. She has a catering business. Eventually everyone wakes up, and we all go outside. The folks that are familiar with the area are handling clumps of weeds and talking about them. One shows me a delicate purple or lavender filament from the weed and encourages me to taste it. I try it. It's extremely tasty. But the filaments are difficult to separate from the chaff.

Trust and Respecting the Unknown

When you choose not to trust, you invite those who are untrustworthy into your hut....

- Ginevee in Crystal Woman, by Lynn Andrews

There is often great darkness in those who think they know. Great evil has been done on earth by people who think they have all the answers. They have no respect for the unknown....

- Ruby Plenty Chiefs in Crystal Woman, by Lynn Andrews

Blog Update

Just a quick note to let you know that I did indeed change this blog a bit.  I'm now using Blogger's Pages feature to offload some content from the sidebar.

While I was at it, I updated the links to the list of blogs I visit.  The sidebar had at least one link to a blog that hadn't been updated since March 2010!  And there are so many other sites that deserve mention.  Please let me know if I've left out yours.

I hope you enjoy the changes!

Weigh-In 36 Month Graphical Summary

My Five Year Graphical Summary Can be Found Here:
http://square--peg.blogspot.com/2013/12/weigh-in-five-year-graphical-summary.html

I'm past the 3 year mark and have the graphical data to show it!

The main reason I publish this is to demonstrate that weight is not constant. It's important to weigh yourself regularly and not take any one reading too seriously. That goes for both low readings and high ones. So if you've been trying to lose weight and get a reading that's at or below your goal, you can celebrate briefly and perhaps switch to a maintenance plan. But then remember to keep checking your weight and revert back to the weight loss plan if the weight is consistently higher.

Peace!

Wednesday Weigh-In 20120110

I'll be on the road tomorrow, so I decided to do the Weigh-In today.

Waist = 37.5"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.