Replacing the toilet flushing mechanism.

I guess by now some of our fellow residents would have had to do some work on their flush systems. One of ours started leaking a few years back but I let one of the contractors do the job. This time round I decided to DIY and found out some interesting things about the parts used in our condo.

As you can see from the above diagram. This is the old filling system. The water comes in through a flexible metal braided hose at the bottom and then joins to a copper pipe inside the reservoir. The water metering system is attached to the top of the copper pipe. There is an overflow stand pipe attached but is has no use at all. In fact, it is often the cause of water leakage from the metering valve that leads to overflow. The floating valve control mechanism is also very ancient and flimsy.

This photo shows the old filling system and the new one which I bought from the hardware shop at Loyang Industrial Estate. The new one is more compact. Its water level adjustment mechanism is also more 'state of the art'. The best part is that the rubber seal at the bottom is a lot more sturdy than the old one.

The flushing mechanism is right in the middle. Which I had to remove to get some space to take out the refill mechanism. Most flushing mechanisms are very easy to temporarily detach by just turning it anticlockwise until you hear a click. Putting it back is just the same. Make sure you align the slots and then turn clockwise.

All that remains is a small hole on the left side where the flexible metal pipe from the outside connected to the old internal copper pipe.

This the new refill system sitting beside the flush mechanism which i temporarily removed. The flush mechanism was also replaced about a year back because the old black rubber seal was eroded until it leaked. I suspect the parts used were not meant to be in contact with chlorine/flourine which is in our tap water. All the rubber parts looked very eroded.

This is the view of the hole from the bottom where the flexible braided metal hose connects.

Now everything back in place and working. Fingers crossed, my leaking problem will end.

TIP: If you have a shutoff valve upstream of flexible braided metal hose, turn it half closed. A contractor told me that if left in the fully open position, the constant high pressure will cause some of the parts of the system to fail faster. The plastic mesh that I found in the copper pipe was badly damaged which I suspect is due to this high pressure.