Toilet leak
It started with a small leak from the side of the toilet on
my high mileage 2012 Cougar 318SAB . Just a drip drip but enough to get my attention at the start of a four month winter trip to get away from a Canadian winter. I had stopped for the night near Lewisburg, PA and I set about tracing the problem. Well, the leak was coming from the valve that sends the water up to the bowl when the pedal is depressed and it looked quite simple to pop the valve from the housing. I shut off the water and pressed the pedal to drain the system and loosened the nut on the elbow connector joining the valve to the supply pipe. I was expecting some trickle, but the water came up the pipe like I hadn’t shut it off at all. Two more attempts and the same result and the realization that the water coming from the blue supply pipe was hot…….
I figured that residual pressure in the hot water tank was the problem so I opened the drain and that solved the problem. I was fortunate to find a replacement valve ( for $75.00!) and installed it without much difficulty. I noted that the new valve had a webbed reinforcement where the old valve had leaked. End of story? Not quite. About a month later I flushed the toilet, turned to wash my hands and the water was still flushing and the bowl filling. When the bowl was half full, the valve closed with a clunk. Over the next week the same thing kept happening until the valve stayed open and I had to shut off the water supply to stop it. So, I searched out a short shut off valve and installed it on top of the supply line so I didn’t have to make a mad dash outside to the standpipe and used that to control the flushing. Later I removed the new valve and, sure enough, it was sticking in the open position. I introduced some light oil and worked the piston with limited success but when I ran hot water over it freed up and has been working fine since.
OK, the reason I didn’t fix the valve when I installed the shut-off was because it refused to pop out of the housing. I tried, I plied, I said some unkind things about Dometic, but couldn’t get it out. Last week I had another go at it using my wife’s magnifying makeup mirror behind the toilet so I could see the back of the valve. It was then I remembered that the new valve had come with two mounting screws that were not on the original installation…………..
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