Leaking toilet flappers can waste an enormous amount of water without you realizing it. The water goes quietly down the drain often without you noticing the fill valve refilling the toilet then one day you receive the water bill and wonder why it is hundreds of dollars higher than it used to be. Often a flapper costing less than $10 is the culprit. If dye testing reveals a leaking flapper you need to replace it.
Unfortunately it is not a simple matter because there is no universal fits all toilet flapper. Today you are faced with a bewildering array of flappers for different manufacturers and models. Quite a few are proprietary and difficult to get if you are unlucky enough to have a less than popular model. You are also faced with flappers that are for older toilets that allow the entire tank to empty before closing, and flappers that close after allowing a certain amount of water into the bowl before closing.
You will probably need to know the make and model of the toilet as well as whether it is a full flow or, low flow toilet. It is also not a bad idea to shut off the water to the toilet and bring the flapper with you, so that a knowledgeable salesperson can identify the flapper. Researching on line and knowing the manufacturer part number is not a bad idea. Interestingly enough there are also times when the OEM part works best, and others where an aftermarket part manufacturer has a better part, this is an area where a plumbing pro will often have an edge from the experience of replacing many over time and knowing what works best. Another factor in determining if a flapper is good is whether or not the rubber it is made of is resistant to chlorine and chloramines. Those are chemicals that are used in water treatment of municipal water supplies to sanitize the water and keep it safe to drink. They are detrimental to the life of rubber when used in high amounts.
Conventional Flappers
Older toilets before the days of low flow toilets had flappers that allowed the water level to drain completely to the bottom of the tank. Also some low flow toilets use this type of flapper because the flush valve was raised off the bottom of the tank so less water was available, or a device was placed around the flush valve to hold the water back from reaching it. If you were to put a low flow flapper on an older toilet you would probably end up with a toilet that flushes every other flush. Some of the flappers that allow the toilet tank to drain to the level of the flush valve are shown below. There are indeed many more that aren’t shown and if you will note many look very similar but are not interchangeable.
Low Flow Flappers
Low flow flappers are designed to only let part of the contents of the tank to flow into the bowl before closing. Through a variety of designs such as floats that hold the flapper open until the water level drops to the set amount. Or, parts that turn to different positions so an air vent takes longer or shorter amounts of time to allow water into the flapper controlling buoyancy and when the flapper can close. Or, different discs that have differing orifice sizes controlling the speed water can enter into the flapper air camber again controlling the buoyancy and when it is allowed to close. If you put an older style flapper on a modern low flow toilet you will often see the toilet flush multiple times and sometimes the incoming water will actually prevent the contents of the bowl from leaving properly. Some of the more modern low flow toilets have an extra large diameter flapper that allows the water to flow from the tank to the bowl extra fast resulting in an extremely powerful flush. Some of the flappers for low flow toilets are shown below again you will note there are many with subtle differences and also some of them are the large diameter models.
Tank Balls, Flush Discs, and Flush Tower Seals
If the differences in the flappers I discussed above aren’t enough there are other types of devices other than flappers used to control the flow of water into the bowl such as triple seal tank balls, discs, and seals that screw or snap onto parts that are reused. Some of these are pictured below.
Success is often determined by research and knowledgeable sales persons at where you shop for the parts. Selecting the right part and installing it correctly is the difference between a job well done and failure. When you are finished the toilet should flush one time completely by just pressing and releasing the handle, and not leak water from the tank to the bowl when you are not flushing. If that doesn’t happen something is wrong and you need to fix it.