markl75•2d agoProlific Poster

Vent: Spent two hours trying to fix a toilet that just needed a $3 part

Last Sunday I noticed my toilet in the basement was running constantly, like that annoying hissing sound that never stops. I figured it was a flapper issue, so I ran to the hardware store on Center Ridge Road and grabbed a new one for $8. Got home, swapped it out, but the toilet still kept running after I flushed. I spent another hour messing with the fill valve and the chain length, getting frustrated and almost calling a plumber (who would have charged me at least $150 just to show up). Turns out the little rubber seal on the refill tube was cracked and letting water leak into the overflow pipe, not the flapper at all. I found a replacement seal at Ace Hardware in Westlake for like $3 and it fixed everything in five minutes. Has anyone else spent way too long overthinking a simple plumbing fix around here?

2 comments

2 Comments

knight.oscar2d ago

And the funny thing is that $3 part was probably sitting in a little baggy at the bottom of the plumbing aisle the whole time while I was walking past it with the wrong stuff. You get so convinced the problem has to be the obvious thing that you don't even look at the cheap little rubber piece that's actually causing the headache.

robinwalker2d ago

The Ace in Westlake has saved me more times than I can count. I walked in there last month for a faucet cartridge and ended up chatting with the old guy in plumbing for twenty minutes. He probably would have pointed you to that $3 seal right away if you'd asked. Funny how we all jump to the expensive fix first.