Plumbing Tip 102

So for the past few weeks my toilet has been a little down. When I flushed it, it didn't have the same power it once had. It was sort of lazy and sad. Sometimes I'd have to do a double flush just to finish the job or whatever. I made some halfassed attempts to fix it but just didn't understand how it worked. When I took the top of the tank off, the water line was low and I knew the bobber thing determined the waterline somehow but beyond that I was lost. I tried a couple things to see if I could fix it. Screw this. Poke at that. I couldn't figure it out. So I sort of put it off as a project-to-be.

Anyway, yesterday a friend over came over and I told him about my toilet. He said he could definitely fix it. I was psyched. We went over and took the top off and looked in. Here's a diagram:

"The waterline is too low" he said. I told him I knew that part. He asked me if I tried screwing the screw on the thing tighter. I told him I tried but it didn't seem to change anything. He asked me if I tried loosen it. I told him I kind of played with it but it didn't seem to change anything. He then asked me if I tried to screw the actually bobber thing onto the arm tighter. I hadn't tried that so I tightened it up and flushed. It didn't change anything.

He said maybe it's the water valve sticking out of the wall and that it wasn't letting enough water in. I said, 'You think?' He said, 'Or maybe it's this lever thing over...' I interrupted him at point because I realized he had no frickin idea what the hell he was doing at all! I got mad and told him if I wanted to think up random shot in the dark things to fix it I could do that by myself! I asked him why he told me he could definitely fix it in the first place?! He told me he just "assumed he could". I told him that's what I thought too! But here we are!

I looked at the bobber arm thing and pulled up on it. Water started to flow in. I knew I needed to make the bobber thing float higher. I tried screwing the screw again. It didn't change anything. I tried screwing the bobber looser. Nothing. I thought maybe I had to let some air out of the bobber and maybe it would float higher or something. Nope. Dumb. I stared at the metal arm connected to the bobber thing. How could I make the bobber be higher? What screw? What lever? Finally I just grabbed the metal arm of the bobber and bent it upwards like a plumber superman. I forced the issue. The bobber was higher. The water went higher. I flushed. It filled up. It flushes fine now. I shut the lid.

Right after it was fixed my friend told me he was thinking about suggesting bending the arm up...

thanks for your help. mr. fixit.

ok bye!

tOdd