Broken toilet pan - how easy is it to replace?
Discussion
Our delightful cleaner accidentally broke one of our toilet pans today. Ours is a fairly modern house and the suites will be around 10 years old. The sinks and baths are marked Twyford but the toilet pans aren't marked at all. The broken pan is a back-to-the-wall, floor-mounted one and the cistern is boxed in to a built-in cupboard behind it. Standard modern house, low-unit-cost stuff.
No idea how to identify the toilet pan so I can buy an identical replacement, so can I just buy any alternative we like the look of? Do the outlet and fill pipes always have the same position and dimensions for mainstream pans? Or do I need to measure the existing pipes and somehow find a matching pan?
Would appreciate any help!
No idea how to identify the toilet pan so I can buy an identical replacement, so can I just buy any alternative we like the look of? Do the outlet and fill pipes always have the same position and dimensions for mainstream pans? Or do I need to measure the existing pipes and somehow find a matching pan?
Would appreciate any help!
The plumbing should be fairly easy to fix/adjust. It's just two push fit pipes. The waste is often on a flexible coupler and the water can be adjusted up and down a bit or a replacement pipe us pretty much standard 32 or 40mm pipe with an elbow.
A change in footprint is the most tricky and might look odd depending on flooring a others have said
A change in footprint is the most tricky and might look odd depending on flooring a others have said
It might be worth claiming on buildings insurance. Some policies will cover accidental damage to sanitary ware even if you don't have full accidental damage cover.
Not all policies are the same, check your own policy, and you should check to see how much the excess would be and if you would lose any element of no claims discount.
Not all policies are the same, check your own policy, and you should check to see how much the excess would be and if you would lose any element of no claims discount.
Thanks all. I'm not too worried about the flooring because it's not tiled. I can fix a footprint issue with new lino if I need to. Unfortunately there's no sign of an identical pan on the Twyford website.
Maybe I should remove the broken pan and see how much access I have to the pipes if i need to adjust them. Is the outlet pipe relatively fixed, usually?
Hadn't thought about claiming on household insurance, but I guess I could. The cleaner has offered to pay but it seems like it was a genuine mistake and she's not exactly overflowing with money. Ho hum.
Maybe I should remove the broken pan and see how much access I have to the pipes if i need to adjust them. Is the outlet pipe relatively fixed, usually?
Hadn't thought about claiming on household insurance, but I guess I could. The cleaner has offered to pay but it seems like it was a genuine mistake and she's not exactly overflowing with money. Ho hum.
What I'd be inclined to do is go down to your local independent bathroom supplier/plumber's merchant, with that photo, and see if they can identify it.
I broke the lid off a cistern in my office, so took the pieces to my local guys, who had a complete cistern gathering dust on a shelf in the warehouse.
You might just drop on something. Whereabouts in the UK are you?
I broke the lid off a cistern in my office, so took the pieces to my local guys, who had a complete cistern gathering dust on a shelf in the warehouse.
You might just drop on something. Whereabouts in the UK are you?
Spudler said:
Looks bog standard to me.
Super Slo Mo said:
What I'd be inclined to do is go down to your local independent bathroom supplier/plumber's merchant, with that photo, and see if they can identify it.
...
You might just drop on something. Whereabouts in the UK are you?
A colleague just suggested the very same thing. Last night I was googling to find it but couldn't, so started to assume it was a pointless exercise....
You might just drop on something. Whereabouts in the UK are you?
I'm in Sussex.
How the hell do you break a toilet pan? She didn't try to open a bottle of wine with it did she?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYV3jyHNdKU
Put a lid on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYV3jyHNdKU
Spudler said:
threadlock said:
Good idea!
Like I say, I think it's a Twyford suite in there but the pan has no markings on it. Would be about 10-12 years old.
Looks bog standard to me.Like I say, I think it's a Twyford suite in there but the pan has no markings on it. Would be about 10-12 years old.
There's a hole in the front of the pan that I can put my fist through and a big crack running about half the circumference of the pan just under the rim. It might be fixable but I wouldn't want to put my weight on it ever again. 
A big glass bottle of bubble bath (one of those pointless decorative dust collectors that everybody's wife has somewhere) was knocked off the windowsill straight into the pan. Only pity is that the bubble bath bottle didn't itself break.
A big glass bottle of bubble bath (one of those pointless decorative dust collectors that everybody's wife has somewhere) was knocked off the windowsill straight into the pan. Only pity is that the bubble bath bottle didn't itself break.
threadlock said:
WinstonWolf said:
Can you post a pic of the pan
Good idea!Like I say, I think it's a Twyford suite in there but the pan has no markings on it. Would be about 10-12 years old.
http://www.twyfordbathrooms.com/products/toilets-b...
We had similar in a previous house.
SWMBO managed to smash the hand basin weeks before we were due to move. Searching on the net it wast clear if the range is still avaliable. Speak to an independant bathroom supply shop I am sure they will be able to get a replacement pan.
EDIT - https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/twyford-refresh...
£166inc VAT.
Edited by BristolRich on Thursday 2nd July 10:36
BristolRich said:
Thats a Twyfords "Refresh" Back to Wall Pan...
Thanks, but I don't think it's identical The one you linked to has a lip around the outside of the rim, about 2" down from the top surface, which ours doesn't. It's very similar though so maybe it'll be close enough. I need to take the broken one off and measure its key dimensions.
threadlock said:
BristolRich said:
Thats a Twyfords "Refresh" Back to Wall Pan...
Thanks, but I don't think it's identical The one you linked to has a lip around the outside of the rim, about 2" down from the top surface, which ours doesn't. It's very similar though so maybe it'll be close enough. I need to take the broken one off and measure its key dimensions.
It might be easiest to go to Homebase / B&Q etc and buy one of their cheapo 'all-in-one' toilets. Even a cheap loo looks quite classy if you throw away the horrible plastic seat and put a nicer one on.
This is what I had to do a few years ago. The loo stopped flushing, probably due to a failed diaphragm. "No problem", I thought, "I'll whip the cistern off the wall and surely I can either buy a new diaphragm, or worst case a new flush mechanism".
So I stored the cistern in the garage while I looked around for appropriate parts. Next day, the cistern had toppled over and smashed.
Eventually, after much searching for a replacement cistern, I decided it would be easier to get rid of the whole thing and replace the lot. It wasn't that hard, and luckily the floor tiling had been done properly, underneath the loo.
It was the one and only time I've done "brown" plumbing.
This is what I had to do a few years ago. The loo stopped flushing, probably due to a failed diaphragm. "No problem", I thought, "I'll whip the cistern off the wall and surely I can either buy a new diaphragm, or worst case a new flush mechanism".
So I stored the cistern in the garage while I looked around for appropriate parts. Next day, the cistern had toppled over and smashed.
Eventually, after much searching for a replacement cistern, I decided it would be easier to get rid of the whole thing and replace the lot. It wasn't that hard, and luckily the floor tiling had been done properly, underneath the loo.
It was the one and only time I've done "brown" plumbing.
It did occur to me to take the identical pan from our en suite and move it into the main bathroom... but I just know if I do that my wife is going to say, "Well, darling if we're fitting a new style of loo then perhaps we could remodel the whole en suite?" £5k later and our cleaner's little mistake becomes a bit of an issue.
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