Toilet cistern not refilling

[Challo]

Morning,

Our bathroom toilet is not refilling once flushed. It will refill if you play around with the handle, but generally it wont fill at all.

We have just moved into the house and replacing the bathroom is on the list, but at the moment its a fix and make do job.

I have lifted the top off the cistern and this is what I can see. All looks old and crusty, but would I need to replace the refill valve? Are these standard or will i need a like for like replacement?



I should be ok replacing it myself, but at least need to know what I am talking about at the local DIY Store :-)

[alfabeat]

The "filler" mechanism is on the right of your picture. Probably just stuck. Just fiddle around with it and see if you can free it up. It could be jammed against the handle, if that is affecting it.

[CambsBill]

tbh if you have access to where the pipe enters the cistern and can isolate the supply I'd just replace the whole lot with a Flowmasta system, just a few quid from Screwfix/Toolstation or wherever and you could potentially re-use is when you get round to replacing the bathroom.

If you've only got the one WC in the meantime, you can always use a bucket to refill

[CambsBill]

alfabeat said:

The "filler" mechanism is on the right of your picture. Probably just stuck. Just fiddle around with it and see if you can free it up. It could be jammed against the handle, if that is affecting it.

Actually, looking again at the pic, is the lever at the top of the float valve wedged on the arm attached to the handle? Can you pull that arm closer to the handle to release it?

[Challo]

Thanks All.

I will have a look at seeing if anything is stuck or jammed and re-adjust firstly. If not I will look into replacing the complete system with Flowmasta.

Being the only toilet in the house I would rather not resort to a bucket

[Mr Pointy]

The bit that's gone wrong is called the filll valve.

Are you in a hard or soft water area? Ours is hard & the valve was crusted up with scale. Check the float (that's the blue bit attached to the inlet valve) is free to move as well. It's likely that the blue cap on the top of the fill valve comes off to reveal the rubber washer underneath but make sure the water is turned off first. TBH unless there is a name on the fill valve somewhere it would be difficult to know what the right spare part would be.
https://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/fill-f...

[Challo]

Mr Pointy said:

The bit that's gone wrong is called the filll valve.

Are you in a hard or soft water area? Ours is hard & the valve was crusted up with scale. Check the float (that's the blue bit attached to the inlet valve) is free to move as well. It's likely that the blue cap on the top of the fill valve comes off to reveal the rubber washer underneath but make sure the water is turned off first. TBH unless there is a name on the fill valve somewhere it would be difficult to know what the right spare part would be.
https://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/fill-f...

Hard water area, and looks crusty underneath.

I will have a look tonight and see if I can fix it.

[EmailAddress]

If it's clean and operational, a few dabs of washing up liquid in the cistern can keep things from seizing with these plastic crap internals.

[Mr Pointy]

Challo said:

Mr Pointy said:

The bit that's gone wrong is called the filll valve.

Are you in a hard or soft water area? Ours is hard & the valve was crusted up with scale. Check the float (that's the blue bit attached to the inlet valve) is free to move as well. It's likely that the blue cap on the top of the fill valve comes off to reveal the rubber washer underneath but make sure the water is turned off first. TBH unless there is a name on the fill valve somewhere it would be difficult to know what the right spare part would be.
https://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/fill-f...

Hard water area, and looks crusty underneath.

I will have a look tonight and see if I can fix it.

As someone above has said it looks like the white arm on top of the fill valve is jammed on the handle arm so the float isn't dropping & the valve is being held shut.

[Baldchap]

It would be well worth blathering a load of descaler in there whilst you're at it..

[Challo]

Thanks for all the advice. The arm had worked loose from the handle and was stopping the refill function from working. Realligned everything and its now working ok, but its seen better days.

Might be worth replacing the internals when I have a bit more time over the Xmas break, even if its just trying to descale a little bit.

[lufbramatt]

If you start taking it to bits be prepared to replace the flush valve, cistern to pan seal and various nuts and bolts at the same time, as it's pretty much guaranteed to all fall to bits as soon as you disturb it. Been there, done that. Wife wasn't happy to come home to find the toilet cistern being hosed down in the back garden where I ended up having to take it off the wall

[alfabeat]

Glad you got it sorted. If you do want to replace all the flush mechanism, you will need to remove the cistern from the pan. So check there is an isolation valve on the cold water feed to the cistern and that it works. Or you could isolate it by turning off the main stopcock.

The two screws holding the cistern to the wall will probably be totally rusted.

The two wing nuts holding the cistern to the pan will probably also need replacing and also the cistern/pan seal.

It's quite straightforward, and shouldn't take too long, but plan to be without the toilet for the day!

[Challo]

alfabeat said:

Glad you got it sorted. If you do want to replace all the flush mechanism, you will need to remove the cistern from the pan. So check there is an isolation valve on the cold water feed to the cistern and that it works. Or you could isolate it by turning off the main stopcock.

The two screws holding the cistern to the wall will probably be totally rusted.

The two wing nuts holding the cistern to the pan will probably also need replacing and also the cistern/pan seal.

It's quite straightforward, and shouldn't take too long, but plan to be without the toilet for the day!

Cheers maybe I will leave it till it totally breaks.

[Whoozit]

Challo said:

alfabeat said:

Glad you got it sorted. If you do want to replace all the flush mechanism, you will need to remove the cistern from the pan. So check there is an isolation valve on the cold water feed to the cistern and that it works. Or you could isolate it by turning off the main stopcock.

The two screws holding the cistern to the wall will probably be totally rusted.

The two wing nuts holding the cistern to the pan will probably also need replacing and also the cistern/pan seal.

It's quite straightforward, and shouldn't take too long, but plan to be without the toilet for the day!

Cheers maybe I will leave it till it totally breaks.

I've replaced the fill and flush on all three toilets in my house. It's much easier than it appears, once you've turned the supply off. The bits unscrew and new bits screw on, pretty much as simple as that. If the wing nuts are rusted then worthwhile replacing those before you fit the new fill/flush.