How to Fix the Fill Valve on a Toilet
A running or leaking toilet can waste up to 73,000 gallons of water per year! And when it comes to how to fix a leaking, running toilet, the cause is usually a failing or malfunctioning flapper.
But often, the problem is a little bigger. Sometimes, a running toilet is caused by a bad fill valve that needs to be replaced. If you look inside the tank of your toilet and see that the fill valve is leaking or spraying water from either the top, or leaking water from the bottom of the tank, chances are good it needs to be replaced before it wastes you any more water or causes any damage to your home. Fortunately, it’s a relatively easy fix that can be done with minimal expense and a few basic tools and supplies.
Pick up a new fill valve at your local hardware store, making sure it’s the correct fit for your toilet. This will generally run you anywhere from $10-$20. You may also need a new supply line (the tubing that runs from beneath your tank to your water supply) if yours is a solid, inflexible line. Check this first and pick up a flexible supply line so you have one on hand to make this repair. Other supplies you will need include a small bucket, a sponge, a pair of pliers, a pencil, a screwdriver, a tape measure and possibly a utility knife. Let’s get started!
REMOVE LID AND MARK WATER LEVEL
Remove the lid from the toilet tank, then take a pencil and mark the level of the existing water line. This shows the water level of your tank so you can match it once you’ve replaced the part.
TURN OFF WATER
Next, turn off the water supply to your toilet. The shutoff valve is usually found behind and near the bottom of the toilet. Turn the water off by turning the valve to the right. Next, we are going to be underneath the toilet, and loosen the nut that's on the bottom of the fill valve.
DRAIN TANK AND REMOVE WATER
Next, flush the toilet to empty the water out of the tank. Hold the handle down so all of the water drains out of the tank. Remove any additional water from the tank by soaking it up with your sponge.
REMOVE WATER SUPPLY LINE
You may need adjustable pliers to loosen the bolts at the top and bottom of the supply line. Remove the water supply line nut and line.
REMOVE OLD FILL VALVE
Once the nut is off, remove the old fill valve by lifting it out the top of the toilet tank.
INSTALL NEW FILL VALVE
Next, you're going to prepare the fill valve for installation. You'll need the locknut and the shank washer that comes with the new fill valve and for some models, you’ll need to remove an inner piece of the washer with your utility knife. Slide this piece up over the bottom shank of the fill valve.
Place the new fill valve in the toilet, making sure not to tighten it down yet. Adjust the top of the fill valve to about 3 inches above the overflow pipe. If you have a standard tank, the fill valve will probably come preset to the right height. But if you have a shallow tank or a deep tank, you may need to adjust the height of the fill valve by loosening the lock ring and raising or lowering the fill valve.
Next, while applying downward pressure to the fill valve, take the locknut and screw it to the bottom of the fill valve, where it exits the bottom of the tank. Tighten it down so the rubber washer squishes out and forms a good seal. You don’t want water to leak out after you've installed the new fill valve--but you also want to be careful not to overtighten it. Overtightening can crack the fill valve or crack the tank and cause flooding.
ATTACH REFILL TUBE TO OVERFLOW PIPE
Attach the refill tube to the fill valve and attach one end of the refill tube to the refill clip. Place the clip on the side of the overflow tube. You don't need excess tubing, so measure how much you need and then cut any excess. Attach the other end of the tube to the nipple on the side of the fill valve; the tube should form a slight arc.
RECONNECT WATER SUPPLY LINE
Next, reattach the water supply line. Note: In this step, if you have looked under your toilet and found that you have a solid supply line instead of a flexible one, here's where you'll need that replacement supply line. You can save yourself the headache of trying to fit the solid line both now and anytime you may need to replace your fill valve in the future by simply replacing the line now. To remove it, loosen the nut at the bottom and it should come right off. Once it's removed, take your flexible line and tighten it down. Once you finger-tighten it at the bottom, attach it to the bottom of your fill valve. Take your pliers and maybe give it another quarter turn, being careful not to overtighten any connections.
TURN WATER BACK ON & CHECK FOR LEAKS
Turn the water back on and check all connections for leaks. If it’s working without any leaks, you’re good to go.
ADJUST WATER LEVEL IF NEEDED
Finally, check the water line and adjust the water level in the tank if it’s too low. You can check this by matching the water line to the mark you made with a pencil before you got started. If the water level needs to be adjusted, you'll find an adjustment screw on the fill valve. Flush the tank first and then make your adjustments while the water is refilling. Clockwise will make the water level go higher; counter-clockwise will make the water level go lower. Put the lid back on the tank and you're all done!
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7 How to Replace a Toilet Fill Valve
Do you want to know how to fix a running toilet or fix a toilet that won't stop running? Anyway, in this video, we are going to show you how to replace a fill valve which is one of the two most common things that cause a toilet to keep running the other is a flapper, we made a video on how to replace a toilet flapper as well. Just check the description below to find a link to that video. Anyway, come on, let's go do this.
I feel like I forgot something. I'll be right back. That's better. Now let's go talk about how to fix a running toilet by replacing a bad fill valve. You remember in the video where we replaced the toilet flapper and there was the fill valve that was all jacked up, it was spraying out of the top that's not normal, so we actually are going to make a video on how to replace a fill valve.
Anyway, we just have to get back to that toilet. Gotta use my teleporting app. See ya there. You know that technology's going to work someday, VR will probably come first. OK, how to replace a toilet fill valve. We're here at this toilet This is a fill valve that you should be able to pick one up at your local hardware store. Anywhere from, I don't know, $10-$20 bucks. There are different styles, there are different features. Find the one that's compatible with your toilet. The installation steps should be the same.
Now you're only going to need a few tools. You may not need all of them, but you're probably going to want to have a bucket handy to set underneath to catch the water. You're gonna want a sponge, we'll show you why in a second. You may need some adjustable pliers to help take off the old connections. You're not going to need the pliers necessarily to crank down the new ones. You may need a screwdriver, you'll need a pencil, tape measure, and you might need a knife.
The first thing you're gonna do, is we're actually going to remove the lid to the tank. Use a pencil to mark the old water level, so that when you are adjusting the new float, you know where it's at. Turn off the water supply. Go ahead and flush the toilet. Hold the flapper up so that you can drain as much water out of the tank as you can. Use the sponge, and soak up any extra water in the bottom.
Next, we are going to be underneath the toilet, and loosen the nut that's on the bottom of the fill valve. If you follow your shut-off that's in the wall up to the bottom of the toilet tank, that's where you'll find it. Sometimes you'll need adjustable pliers to loosen them to get it started. Remove the water supply line nut.
Next, we're gonna remove the old fill valve from the tank. Remove the lock nut. Once the nut is off, remove the old fill valve by lifting it out of the toilet tank. Next, you're going to prepare the fill valve for installation There should be some parts that come with it. You're gonna need the locknut and the shank washer. Now, this washer has an inner piece that needs to be removed. Then you can slide it up over the bottom shank of the fill valve.
Place the new fill valve in the toilet, but don't tighten it down yet We need to adjust the top of the fill valve to make sure that it's about 3 inches above the overflow pipe. This will help to make sure that it works properly. If you have a standard tank the fill valve will probably come preset to the right height. But if you have a shallow tank or a deep tank, you may need to adjust the height of the fill valve by loosening the lock ring and raising or lowering the fill valve.
Next while applying downward pressure to the fill valve you wanna take the locknut and screw it to the bottom of the fill valve, where it comes out of the bottom of the tank. The idea here is to make it tight so that rubber washer squishes out, forms a good seal and doesn't allow water to leak out after you've installed the new fill valve. Tighten the locknut as much as you can with your hands, then take a pair of pliers and make it snug. Give it an extra quarter turn. You want to be careful not to over tighten. Overtightening can crack the fill valve, or crack the tank, and cause flooding.
Next, we're gonna attach the refill tube to the fill valve. Attach one end of the refill tube to the refill clip. Place the clip on the side of the overflow tube. Now you don't need excess tubing so measure how much you're gonna need by eyeballing it and then cut if necessary. Attach the other end of the tube to the nipple on the side of the fill valve with a slight arc.
Next, we are going to reattach the water supply line. We ended up running into a problem, you may run into the same thing. This is real life now. If you end up with, if you look under your toilet and you see that you have a solid supply line and it's not flexible, save yourself the headache and just grab a flexible one when you run to the store and get your replacement fill valve. What happened with this one is it was just the right length for the other fill valve and when we put the new one in, it was a little short, so I tried to bend it to make it fit, and it started leaking from the bottom. Anyway, it was a mess. So save yourself the headache and just pick up one of these flexible toilet supply lines.
While we are on the subject, if you ever attempt any of these projects and you feel you've gotten in over your head, stop and call a plumber you trust, anyway back to the video.
I think you guys saw me messing with this old solid supply line, it's not flexible. All I did to remove it, to replace it, is I loosened this nut here and it came right off. So anyway, just remove that, take your flexible one and you're going to put it over the end. Tighten it down. Once you finger tighten it, take your pliers. You don't want to like really go crazy with it. Perfect and then you're going to take your flexible one and you're going to attach it to the bottom of your fill valve. Again you shouldn't have to like, go crazy tightening this thing with the pliers on this end, you should just be able to get plenty of torque with your hand.
Put that on there, and then we turn it back on check it for leaks. That is much much better as you can see now we don't have any leaks. Coming here where we did before, this was spraying all over the place, so we fixed both of those. Great!
Now we need to adjust the water level in the tank. You made a mark with a pencil before of where the old water level was. If the water comes up and it's at that level you should be good. But, if you need to make it go up or down from that. You'll find an adjustment screw on the fill valve, but flush the tank first, and make your adjustments while the water is refilling. Clockwise will make the water level go higher. Counter-Clockwise will make the water level go lower. Then just put the lid back on the tank, and you're all done.
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Jun 1st 2017
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