fluidmaster junk
 

I've got three good American Standard toilets in my house - the kind that use a lot of water (thankfully).

They've all been retrofitted with the cheap fluidmaster toilet repair kits. The problem is that they never seem to last that long. They run for like 10-20 seconds, usually in the middle of the night and then stop. Leaking somewhere obviously, but I've replaced all parts inside the tank - including the flapper.

I've had to replace them all regularly - like once every three years. When I was a kid, in Illinois, I can't recall my dad ever replacing a toilet flush mechanism. We had those old brass or bronze? mechanisms with the big plastic ball float.

Is there a premium, old-fashioned kit for American Standard that I can use so I'm not buying and changing these Fluidmaster kits so often?

Thanks.

I've replaced all of the OEM kits in our toilets with the FluidMaster kits after about seven or so years (or about the age of the house). After that, I too noticed leaks and other issues within two or three years after installing the FMs.

Some of it can be rectified with float adjustments, or an errant hose that worked itself loose, but mostly, the rubber seals in those kits deteriorate a lot faster than the original manufacturer setups. So prepare to do frequent R&R on the flappers and valve mechanisms...sucks!

I know. I've replaced them a bunch of times. They're so cheap too.

I don't believe the Fluidmaster kit is the sole culprit here.

In certain environments, the chlorine level in the water is quite high and the rubber degrades at a much faster rate than normal. One house in VA that I'm quite familiar with will need attention to the toilets every two years.

However, in NY, the chlorine is reduced and the rubber will last 5-10 years or so. In general, I've been pleased with the Fluidmaster kits. The flappers are typically the first thing to go.

I have Fluidmaster/Kohler units in all 3 of our toilets, plus a spare unit or two. When I put in new toilets they came with Fluidmaster units, so I saved the units I had installed in the toilets.

I think they are great and will agree external factors may have more to do with it.

One problem I had, before I put a house filter in, was grit getting into the unit.
Grit got caught in the valve and allowed it to leak, you can snap off the top of the unit and check there.

They do sell premium rubber flappers that are not in the kits. Also make sure the seat for the flapper is clean and free of gouges or cuts. I replaced the stock Lowe's/Home Depot Fluidmaster flapper with the Korky premium flapper (also from Lowe's, I think) http://korky.com/flappers.html

It sounds like you have the classic slow leak with the mysterious late-night "why is the toilet filling back up?" noise after the float drops a fraction of an inch.

Have you also checked for a cracked tank, a bad gasket between the flapper seat and the tank, or some other source of a slow leak?

I too, think it's the water additives. My mom has well water and haven't had to fix either of their toilets since purchased in the 90s.

Sometimes the surface the flapper rests on can have a flaw that allows water to seep past. I had this happening on one of my toliets. So I got the Korky brand flapper with the "flapper surface repair kit", its essentially a plastic circle that is ringed on top for the flapper to lay on, and you attach it to the old surface with a silicon adhesive. I installed mine a while ago, and now the toliet doesn't leak a drop! No random water-fill sounds anymore.

My other toliet I just installed, replacing the 60 year old unit that was original to the house and sucked at flushing effectively. (an old Briggs) New one is a glacier bay with the dual flush system with buttons on top of the tank. The mechanism in the tank is an engineering marvel. And it has a teflon type gasket that sets on the opening, and is guaranteed to never leak. So far so good.

X3 on water quality. We use rain water here. The flush mechanisms are good after 50 years. There is no chlorine or any other chemicals added to the water.
I know of people in towns with chlorine in the water that have flush mechanisms fail every couple of years.
The new houses are plumbed with plastic pipes instead of copper. The brass taps fail after a couple of years.

Its the water quality that gets you, around here they last forever.

Also I find the best place to get plumbing parts is from plumbing supply houses. The stuff you get at the big box stores while it may have the same name on the box is often made a bit cheaper.

If you have a fluidmaster and it turns on for a few seconds and you are sure no water is leaking from the tank, then all you need it one of these Fluidmaster seal

A quarter turn on the black top and it comes off revealing that seal. It's a common issue and a quick fix. The hardest part is getting to the shutoff valve to cut off water to the toilet

I had that exact problem. Had a low profile Am Std with a plastic flapper seat that had warped out of round. But they are larger than normal so I don't know if the Korky thing would fit. I know the Fluidmaster flapper fixer kit was too small.

If the thing fills in the night, water is leaking somewhere, probably at the flapper. You can get a dye kit/tablet that you put in the tank and you can then detect leakage. Water companies give them out for free sometimes.