The toilet cistern has a Fluidmaster bottom inlet float valve I fitted
about 13 years ago which has been fine until this week. Now when I flush
the valve goes: fill-stop-fill-stop-fill..... with a frequency of about
1Hz. Any ideas what's causing it? We're in a hard water area so could it
be lime-scale build up? Is it curable or must I replace it?

--
TOJ.

On 21/03/2024 20:06, The Other John wrote:
> The toilet cistern has a Fluidmaster bottom inlet float valve I fitted
> about 13 years ago which has been fine until this week. Now when I flush
> the valve goes: fill-stop-fill-stop-fill..... with a frequency of about
> 1Hz. Any ideas what's causing it? We're in a hard water area so could it
> be lime-scale build up? Is it curable or must I replace it?

Some of them you can take the cap off the valve and clean the sealing
diaphragm inside (just rubbing it between your fingers usually does it).

If the cap comes off, it normally requires pushing while rotating a bit
anti clockwise - it is a bayonet style fitting.

(turn the water off first, unless you like wet ceilings and everything
else!)

--
Cheers,

John.

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On 21/03/2024 20:06, The Other John wrote:
> The toilet cistern has a Fluidmaster bottom inlet float valve I fitted
> about 13 years ago which has been fine until this week. Now when I flush
> the valve goes: fill-stop-fill-stop-fill..... with a frequency of about
> 1Hz. Any ideas what's causing it? We're in a hard water area so could it
> be lime-scale build up? Is it curable or must I replace it?

I had a Fluidmaster fail a couple of weeks ago. It wouldn't turn off
when the cistern was full. I tried removing the valve and cleaning it,
and soaking what I could see of the valve and Fluidmaster body in scale
remover for an hour. It made no difference and the Fluidmaster had to be
replaced.

We are also in a hard water area. The Fluidmaster was about 9 years old.

--
Jeff

On 22/03/2024 08:01, Jeff Layman wrote:
> On 21/03/2024 20:06, The Other John wrote:
>> The toilet cistern has a Fluidmaster bottom inlet float valve I fitted
>> about 13 years ago which has been fine until this week. Now when I flush
>> the valve goes: fill-stop-fill-stop-fill..... with a frequency of about
>> 1Hz. Any ideas what's causing it? We're in a hard water area so could it
>> be lime-scale build up? Is it curable or must I replace it?
>
> I had a Fluidmaster fail a couple of weeks ago. It wouldn't turn off
> when the cistern was full. I tried removing the valve and cleaning it,
> and soaking what I could see of the valve and Fluidmaster body in scale
> remover for an hour. It made no difference and the Fluidmaster had to be
> replaced.
>
> We are also in a hard water area. The Fluidmaster was about 9 years old.

I meant to add that you don't have to unscrew the Fluidmaster from the
cistern to replace it. The plumber just pulled the body and float off
the screwed-in part. He then disassembled the new one and pushed the new
body and float over the screwed-in bit to the same level as the one he'd
removed.

--
Jeff

On 22/03/2024 08:01, Jeff Layman wrote:
> On 21/03/2024 20:06, The Other John wrote:
>> The toilet cistern has a Fluidmaster bottom inlet float valve I fitted
>> about 13 years ago which has been fine until this week.  Now when I flush
>> the valve goes: fill-stop-fill-stop-fill..... with a frequency of about
>> 1Hz.  Any ideas what's causing it?  We're in a hard water area so
>> could it
>> be lime-scale build up?  Is it curable or must I replace it?
>
> I had a Fluidmaster fail a couple of weeks ago. It wouldn't turn off
> when the cistern was full. I tried removing the valve and cleaning it,
> and soaking what I could see of the valve and Fluidmaster body in scale
> remover for an hour. It made no difference and the Fluidmaster had to be
> replaced.
>
> We are also in a hard water area. The Fluidmaster was about 9 years old.
>

Often with something of this age and relatively cheap it's less
frustrating to just buy new and replace.

Last year I replaced the 20 year old flushing mechanism in a friend's
house which involved a 15 mile round trip to Screwfix. I had the
foresight to also buy the connecting kit to join the cistern to the pan
which turned out to be the correct decision as the old doughnut was
misshapen and the metal bracket had rusted.

What I didn't do was to replace the inlet valve (probably also 20 years
old) at the same time which, 9 months on, I'm told is now intermittently
and not stopping the fill. Not to serious at the moment as an additional
flush will correct the problem. It's another 5 minute job for me when I
visit later this year :)

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Thanks for all the replies. I've found the installation instructions
which also includes troubleshooting advice, so I'll give it a good coat of
looking at :)

--
TOJ.