Video – Toilet Repair – Fill Valve Replacement

Bad Fill ValveThe Handyguys have a new video! Toilet fill valves are the second most common toilet repair after flapper replacements. We put this short video together to take some of the mystery out of the process. We hope you find it useful. As always, comments are welcome.

We will be back after the first of the year with our regular podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss a future episode.

Happy New Year

The Handyguys

21 thoughts on “Video – Toilet Repair – Fill Valve Replacement

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  2. Good to see the faces behind the voices!
    Good video. Is this a sign of things to come? More videos?
    I hope so.
    Happy New Year!

    1. Thanks Steve! Yeah, that’s us. We may have more videos, yes. You can see them in HiDef if you visit youtube directly too. We want the quality to be as good as the audio podcast. We haven’t pushed them out in the feed to be viewed in iTunes and stuff. Would this be something you would be interested in or is youtube or vimeo okay?

      Thanks Again and Happy New Year to you too.

  3. Hi guys! I have a question for you. Last year I purchased a home built in the 80’s and I’m slowly morphing into this Handy-Guy-Do-It-Yourselfer-Inspector-Gadget kind of guy. When I bought my home the garage had a nasty stained floor. I decided to epoxy paint it after seeing an “easy-how-to” DIJ Home Depot video. Boy was that a mistake and I had no idea where that brain child would lead. Oh yeah, I’m a first time home owner.
    While using a 3000 PSI washer to clean the floor I had layers of latex paint falling off the walls and revealing termite trails in the sheet rock. The previous owner had gone to great lengths to cover up and disguise lots of termite and water damage. Originally the windows had leaked and the water damage and wood rot led to the termites etc….you get the idea. Like you guys say, standing water is your number one enemy!
    After many quotes I found out that replacing my two windows in the garage with single-pane cheap fiberglass windows would cost just as much as highly insulated double-pane windows. Even though the fiberglass would be done by fly-by-night contractors and the insulated windows would be done by reputable name brand companies. You know how it went from here right, if I’m going to put double-pane gas charged windows in the garage, I might as well insulate the rest of the garage, right!?
    I figure my garage being 800 square feet that I can utilize this space in the cold months to do projects out there. In any case, I ripped all the sheet rock off the walls and am about 60% deep in the project of fully insulating the garage. I’m installing Champion windows, a new back door from Lowes, and even insulating the inside of the 20 foot main garage door with a neat Owens Corning garage door insulation kit. I’m doing everything myself accept the walk out door and windows…so far anyway.
    I’m a pilot by day and a Handy Guy Podcast Warrior by night. A fellow pilot I fly with lives in Minneapolis and is doing a similar project, I live in Wichita, KS, and we are both based out of O’hare airport. We battle our garages on our days off and then compare notes at 41,000 feet. We were talking the other day about how to heat our garages once were done. We came up with lots of ideas, including radiator heat in my garage fed by my existing 266,000 BTU/HR pool heater. Unfortunately my pool pump room is in the garage which contributed to much of the water damage. I have many unknown challenges ahead such as sealing and venting this pool pump room properly in order to prevent future water and mold damage. In any case I digress as we were talking about heat.
    We decided we are probably both going to go with a hanging natural gas type heater but here comes our question. We thought about just breaking through the wall and piping one of our main house heater ducts into the garage for heat. When the garages are all insulated and sealed up it shouldn’t take a lot of heat to keep them warm, or warm enough to work out there. We were not familiar with any homes that have done this before and figured there must be a good reason for us NOT to do this. We decided to ask you guys if you know of any reason why we would NOT want to simply tap off and route one of our main house ducts into our garages for heat?

    Thanks Brian and Paul, keep the podcast coming! I’d be in the poor house if I had to hire somebody to do all the jobs this house needs!

    Captain Kent

    1. Captain Kent.

      If your garage is converted to living space you can extend your homes HVAC system if it has enough capacity. In you case the space will still be a garage and you cannot extend the system regardless of the capacity.

      800 sq feet is a pretty large garage.

      My garage is about 500 sq feet, I think, and is uninsulated. I heat the space with a kerosene heater when needed. The kero heater barely can do it. When its very cold I need to turn it on several hours before a project begins. When it is 20 degrees outside i can maintain about 50 degrees with the kero heater.

      The hanging natural gas heater is a pretty good option if you can conveniently get gas to where you need it. Are you thinking ceiling mount or wall hanging? Some of the ceiling mount ones like designed for warehouse spaces can really put off a lot of heat. The inexpensive wall mount units may not have enough BTUs.

      I know people who are woodworkers and will also have woodstoves. They can burn their scraps while heating the workshop. I know someone else who had a second furnace mounted on the ceiling just for heating the garage.

      One popular garage heater is the hot dawg. Check it out here http://www.modine.com/v2portal/page/portal/modine/modineMarketsDefault/modine_com/markets/building_HVAC/market_level_3_content_013.htm

      Thanks for listening
      Handyguy Brian

  4. Great video guys, I’m a plumber and have been for 20 years and I want to say what a job well done on all of the information you give to people. I’m sure a lot of people will find your information helpful.

  5. Pingback: 206FIX » Blog Archive » Video – Toilet Repair – Fill Valve Replacement
  6. Great video! Seems simple enough. Why hire a plumber when you can easily install this yourself?

    Would this valve cause the toilet to run constantly after being flushed, or what would cause that?

    1. Yes, the problem in the video would cause constat running. Like leaving on a faucet. For an ocasional running its most likely a bad flapper. It could be other things but 90% of the time it would be the flapper. For $5 to replace one its usually the first thing to try when fixing a running toilet.

  7. Thanks to your video, it empowered me to do it myself, and all went well and good. You definately saved me money and time, and of course I now have an ability and confidence to help myself and others in the future. Again thank you and have a great day!

    – Fred

  8. Thanks for helping me solve a very annoying problem (30 minutes for tank to refill) on my own! I usually shy away from plumbing but the replacement was as straightforward as your video showed. Glad I watched this video and did not have to rely on printed Kohler instructions.

  9. Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it
    to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the
    shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
    She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is
    completely off topic but I had to tell someone!

  10. I actually came to this website to watch someone do the intricate stuff involved with installing a fill valve. Such as code compliance. I just bought a new Kohler Toilet and being as the tank was already assembled I assumed it was assembled correctly. In doing so, assuming, when I went to put the tank lid on I realized there was more work to be done. So not only do I need to lower the fill valve so my tank can have a lid, I also have to take into consideration the C. L. Mark/Critical Level Mark. This mark also relates to the Water Level. Wherein both of those relate to the height of the top of the overflow, which relates to the height of the Tank Lever Hole. My question for Kohler, if your going to sell something already assembled. Why not get it right????

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