First House Confused About Parts For Gerber Toilet Help...

Users who are viewing this thread

JpNH

New Member
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
New Haven Area CT
HI everyone,

If you have a spare moment I would appreciate any help you could provide! I just bought my first house. It came with two Gerber Aqua Saver toilets W28-790. Probably the worst toilet, I have ever used, but I digress. I hope to replace them with Toto Drakes towards the end of the summer.

One of the toilets developed a leaky fill valve and a leaky tank to bowl gasket. The problem I am having is figuring out exactly what tank to bowl gasket it uses. I went to Lowe's and purchased a Gerber T to B gasket. It is the: Plumb Pak Gasket for Gerber Toilets. Like this:

Lowes Plumb Pak Gasket for Gerber Toilets.jpg


The gasket that was on the toilet when I opened it up looked like this:

Closet Spud Gasket F AM.jpg


It is listed as a Closet Spud Gasket F/Am. There was a white plastic hex nut in the recessed portion. The tank sat directly on it. There were two plastec nuts on each screw, but they were both end to end below the toilet.

Anyway, I decided to replace the fill and flush valves with Korky's. Kind of wish I would have chose FluidMasters after doing some research here. Oh well just needs to get me through the summer.

My question is are either of these the correct gasket for the tank to bowl? Am I supposed to use the big thick one from Lowe's, and use one of the white plastic bolts as a spacer between the tank and the bowl, and the other one underneath the bowl tightened? Was the Closet Spud Gasket, above, not the correct Gerber gasket? Or does the Gerber for the 28-790 look similar.

Sorry for all these confused newbie questions! I would like to try to find one locally, instead of ordering online, and it would be great if I could use the one I already bought at Lowe's.

Thanks for any and all help you can provide. Since I bought this house, I have been learning so much about everything from plumbing, carpentry, electrical etc. And I can't wait to learn more!

EDIT: Did a little more research. I am thinking that the closet spud gasket on the Gerber was possibly an American Standard tank to bowl gasket. Does that maybe sound right?
 
Last edited:

Plumbs Away

Active Member
Messages
234
Reaction score
25
Points
28
Location
Tennessee
If memory serves, that gasket you bought at Lowe's is for the pre-1994 Gerbers. I don't know about its compatibility with the 1994 and later models. I know that the Aqua Saver was Gerber's first mainstream 1.6 GPF and it, as you mentioned and like most all of the others, failed miserably. The best bet, in my opinion, it to take the old gasket to Lowe's and find a match that way. I hope this helps and congratulations on your home purchase.
 

JpNH

New Member
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
New Haven Area CT
If memory serves, that gasket you bought at Lowe's is for the pre-1994 Gerbers. I don't know about its compatibility with the 1994 and later models. I know that the Aqua Saver was Gerber's first mainstream 1.6 GPF and it, as you mentioned and like most all of the others, failed miserably. The best bet, in my opinion, it to take the old gasket to Lowe's and find a match that way. I hope this helps and congratulations on your home purchase.

Thanks Plumbs Away! I actually got if figured out today. I went to the plumbing supply house near me and asked for the gasket that fit. To my dismay, when I got it home, it looked like the one above I bought at Lowe's. So I figured I must have been doing something wrong. So I inserted the gasket, on the bottom of the Korky flush valve, that sticks out of the tank.

Suddenly I remember those four plastic nuts on the tank bolts when I removed everything. So I screwed tight two of the bolts, to the actual tank, on the tank bolts. I then tipped the tank upright in position, and noticed those bolts and the tank screws, fit through two holes in the bowl. So I took the two other plastic nuts, tightened them to the bowl, and it pulled the tank down compressing the gasket giving me a leak proof seal! Yay!! Looks like the previous resident of house, used a gasket meant for a different brand that was recessed, which threw me for a loop.

So in the end, no more leaks, I learned something new and the toilet is preforming as good as a Gerber Aqua Saver could possibly perform.

Thanks again for your help! Now I can't wait to install some Toto's! :D
 

WJcandee

Wise One
Messages
3,182
Reaction score
170
Points
63
Location
New York, NY
Sounds like you got it.

I rebuilt 3 toilets in our house with Korky fill valves and flush valves, and installed Korky fill valves in the ones that didn't have them or come with them (as one Toto did). Now all 7 toilets in our house have had the Korky fill valves for up to three years and not a single problem with any one of them. Perhaps that's why Toto uses a Korky fill valve as its Universal Replacement Fill Valve, Toto Model TSU99A.X. When it comes time to replace the moving parts in the valve in 5 to 10 years, you just buy a little $3 replacement cap that contains all the wear parts for the valve at Home Depot, and it's as good as new in less than 5 minutes.

HJ and a lot of plumbers prefer the Fluidmaster. For a homeowner, a Korky is reliable and easy to install and to fix. It's the valve Terry recommends to homeowners and DIY-ers, and often installs himself.

PS We have two Original Drakes (CST744S) and a Carlyle II (and several older toilets). We love, love, love the Drakes, one of which replaced a Kohler low-flow which was torturing us. I knew it was worth the money and effort to replace the Kohler the moment I first flushed the Toto after installing it following Jamie's directions above, and that's why we bought two more Totos. The Carlyle II is in the master bath, and looks very attractive and performs exceptionally-well.
 
Last edited:

JpNH

New Member
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
New Haven Area CT
Sounds like you got it.

I rebuilt 3 toilets in our house with Korky fill valves and flush valves. Now all 7 toilets in our house have had the Korky fill valves for up to three years and not a single problem with any one of them. Perhaps that's why Toto uses a Korky fill valve as its Universal Replacement Fill Valve, Toto Model TSU99A.X. When it comes time to replace the moving parts in the valve in 5 to 10 years, you just buy a little $3 replacement cap for the valve at Home Depot, and it's as good as new in less than 5 minutes.

HJ and a lot of plumbers prefer the Fluidmaster. For a homeowner, a Korky is reliable and easy to install and to fix. It's the valve Terry recommends to homeowners and DIY-ers, and often installs himself.


Yeah wheww!

Thanks for the tip! I was afraid I made the wrong decision, but it seems to be working great, and it only needs to last until Summer. I plan to put the Toto's in around then. Just building a little emergency fund first. I went the 528MP Quiet Fill Max Performance and 410PK flush valve. If I do upgrade to Toto toilets can these be used in those? If the stock fill/flush valve in the Toto goes bad. Just wondering if I should pull them out before taking the Gerbers to the scrapyard. Or if the ones for Toto are specially made to their specs.
 

WJcandee

Wise One
Messages
3,182
Reaction score
170
Points
63
Location
New York, NY
Yeah wheww!

Thanks for the tip! I was afraid I made the wrong decision, but it seems to be working great, and it only needs to last until Summer. I plan to put the Toto's in around then. Just building a little emergency fund first. I went the 528MP Quiet Fill Max Performance and 410PK flush valve. If I do upgrade to Toto toilets can these be used in those? If the stock fill/flush valve in the Toto goes bad. Just wondering if I should pull them out before taking the Gerbers to the scrapyard. Or if the ones for Toto are specially made to their specs.

The 528MPs are absolutely something you can save to use in the Totos. Some Totos come with Korkys, and the 528MP is essentially-similar to the TSU99A.X replacement valve. It's a Korky valve with a cover that Korky makes that says Toto on it, but it functions the same. Some other Totos come with a Toto-design fill valve that is made in China and has an uneven reliability record. It works, but it sometimes squeals and squeaks when shutting off. One of our Totos came with the Korky valve, and the other two with that Voreto valve. When they started squealing, Toto sent me another Voreto for each (this before they came out with the Universal Toto valve made by Korky). When those started squealing after a while, I put in 528MPs and all has been quiet since. So take yours out and save them; they will have years of life left in them. Toto has eager-to-please customer service at their toll-free number in Georgia, so they're good about sending out replacement parts under warranty, but I would just go with the Korkys if you need them.

On the flush valve side, your replacement flush valves are probably the 2" size. The Drakes take a 3" flush valve, and Korky makes one, but you won't likely ever need a new one. You can just keep replacing the flapper when it wears out after 5-ish years. Korky makes a universal replacement flapper for Toto, which work, and the Drakes actually also take a different 3" flapper that Korky makes. One nice thing about Toto is that most of their toilets use standard replacement parts that you can find in any good hardware store or HD or Lowe's.
 
Last edited:

JpNH

New Member
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
New Haven Area CT
The 528MPs are absolutely something you can save to use in the Totos. Some Totos come with Korkys, and the 528MP is essentially-similar to the TSU99A.X replacement valve. It's a Korky valve with a cover that Korky makes that says Toto on it, but it functions the same. Some other Totos come with a Toto-design fill valve that is made in China and has an uneven reliability record. It works, but it sometimes squeals and squeaks when shutting off. One of our Totos came with the Korky valve, and the other two with that Voreto valve. When they started squealing, Toto sent me another Voreto for each (this before they came out with the Universal Toto valve made by Korky). When those started squealing after a while, I put in 528MPs and all has been quiet since. So take yours out and save them; they will have years of life left in them. Toto has eager-to-please customer service at their toll-free number in Georgia, so they're good about sending out replacement parts under warranty, but I would just go with the Korkys if you need them.

On the flush valve side, your replacement flush valves are probably the 2" size. The Drakes take a 3" flush valve, and Korky makes one, but you won't likely ever need a new one. You can just keep replacing the flapper when it wears out after 5-ish years. Korky makes a universal replacement flapper for Korky, and the Drakes actually take a different 3" flapper that Korky makes. One nice thing about Toto is that most of their toilets use standard replacement parts that you can find in any good hardware store or HD or Lowe's.

That's great! Thanks for the info! As an engineer, I always hate to throw something out that works, because I may be able to re-purpose it into something else in the future. :D Thanks again!
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks