Slow cistern.

Sixtoes

I have Cistern that is very slow to fill up. The water is only dripping out and refilling can take an hour. Do I need to replace the ballcock mechanism or could something just be jammed.

I tried to unscrew the round plastic nut things but they are very tight. It’s been like this a long time but never bother to fix as it’s not used much.

listermint

3 areas of concern are

1 the feed pipe (blocked or dirty)
2 the feed terminal thats the lower part of the shaft that feeds the water into the cistern. These shafts can have a filter or water seperator in the end to make the water more silent flow.
3 the top part of the shaft where the water comes out, there is a rubber stopper which opens and closed on the ball cock activation.

All these need to be clean, each can slow the water coming in.

Sixtoes

listermint wrote: »

3 areas of concern are

1 the feed pipe (blocked or dirty)
2 the feed terminal thats the lower part of the shaft that feeds the water into the cistern. These shafts can have a filter or water seperator in the end to make the water more silent flow.
3 the top part of the shaft where the water comes out, there is a rubber stopper which opens and closed on the ball cock activation.

All these need to be clean, each can slow the water coming in.

Cheers. I’ll have a look at those areas.

The Continental Op

There are two sizes of Ball Valve Seating Orifice for those (bottom feed) Plymouth fittings. One is much bigger often red in colour and for low pressure the white Ball Valve Seating Orifice is for high pressure. (I think there's even a green one for really really low pressure???)

Woodies, B&Q or any plumbers or builders merchants should have them.

Replace both the orifice and the Diaphragm Washer https://www.woodies.ie/diaphragm-washer-for-traditional-float-valves-1038687

Switch off the water and hold the main body of the fitting with a water pump wrench (or any spanner that will fit) and use another to unscrew the end which is nearest the ball valve. The rest is easy the diaphragm and orifice shouldn't be too hard to get out replace them and off you go.

Maybe stick with the white high pressure orifice and see how it goes before changing to the low pressure one they are only pence each.

Links added so you can see what the items look like.

EDIT> My bad The diaphragm is under the end by the ball valve and you need to remove the other end to get to the orifice so you have to unscrew both ends.

Think this video covers it all

Sixtoes

That’s brilliant, thanks to you both. I’ll let you know how I get on.

dodzy

Sixtoes wrote: »

I have Cistern that is very slow to fill up. The water is only dripping out and refilling can take an hour. Do I need to replace the ballcock mechanism or could something just be jammed.

I tried to unscrew the round plastic nut things but they are very tight. It’s been like this a long time but never bother to fix as it’s not used much.

Turn water cold water in hot press off.
Get a wrench on the ‘round plastic nut thing’ and open it. (The end nearest the ballcock)
Replace black rubber diaphragm inside.
Job done in 5 mins.

If you can’t turn off water, run any taps (excluding main kitchen sink) on full cold. This should reduce the pressure sufficiently for you to work live.

westyIrl

^^This. 9 times of 10 is the problem. Rubber diaphragm loses its flexibility over time to the point where it barely lifts of the valve seat.

If you have a number of tiolets in the house reaching a similar age, buy a couple while you're at the local hardware as they're cheap as chips. Just be mindful to put them in the right way around.

Jim

dodzy

Simple reason for this is the fact that the diaphragm sits in the CLOSED position for probably 99.9% of its life, only changing state after a flush and then back to closed; with it being hard rubber, it basically reshapes to a closed form. ****ty hard water doesn’t help.

Sixtoes

Cheers guys. All sorted now. 5 min job. €1.40 for the washer and €15 for a stinson wrench to loosen the “round nut thing”!
Great tip about running all the cold taps so I didn’t have to turn off water.

darragh o meara

Sixtoes wrote: »

Cheers guys. All sorted now. 5 min job. €1.40 for the washer and €15 for a stinson wrench to loosen the “round nut thing”!
Great tip about running all the cold taps so I didn’t have to turn off water.

Had a similar problem happen here a few times. In the end replacing the washer was no use so picked up new ball cocks for a few quid and replaced them. Never an ounce of bother since.

Sixtoes

Same problem back again! 2 years life pan on the rubber.