Need help w/ Kohler toilet, please!

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Bull2

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Hey all,

I'm at the end of my rope and thought I'd come here and beg for help.

I have a Kohler toilet (not sure of model, but hopefully the pics will shed some light). For a couple weeks, it has been running after full way too often and too long. I thought this would be a flush valve/gasket problem for sure, but I colored the water in the tank with food coloring just to satisfy myself. Surprisingly, no color entered the bowl. So, I figured I'd go ahead and replace both the fill valve and the rubber gasket on the flush valve.

I went out and bought a Fluidmaster fill valve and the proper gasket for the tower-style flush valve and installed both. I never could get the new Fluidmaster to work. I had to physically press down (rather hard) on the float to get it to start to fill, and also had to physically pull up (again, hard) on the float to get it to shut off. It was a nightmare. I went out and bought a Korky WaterWise fill valve and replaced with that.

Now, with new gasket and new and working fill valve, water pours out of the fill valve in the 3 spots it's supposed to, but the tank never fills. I again added color to the water, and it's not going in to the bowl either. Where in the hell is this water going?

After I initially installed the valve and gasket, the tank did seem to fill a couple times, after I first manually filled up the tank with a pitcher. (I thought this was maybe because with this style flush valve, it needed the weight of a few inches of water "on" it to keep the seal tight so it could fill and not leak.) But, it literally took 10-15 minutes to fill. After a couple test flushes, I took the dog out and grabbed a few beers from the basement and came back to check on the toilet. It had been at LEAST 15 minutes and there was only an inch of water in the tank and the water was on full-blast.

Can someone please give me some advice before I have too many beers and take a sledge hammer to it?

EDIT: Now, after about an hour with the tank full, water off and green food coloring in the tank, the bowl has a bit of green color at the bottom and the tank is down about an inch.

Thanks so much in advance!

Bull

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Flapper

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So is the leak prevention device working correctly? When you flush, the valve turns on? So you hear the valve running but it takes forever to fill?
 

Bull2

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So is the leak prevention device working correctly? When you flush, the valve turns on? So you hear the valve running but it takes forever to fill?

Yes, when I flush the valve turns on and sends water. It just seems to pour water in to the tank, but only fills about an inch or two. Normally, after a flush, there are about 4 inches of water left in the tank. I just cleaned the rim where the flush valve gasket meets the "PVC" rim with steel wool. I also hooked the fill tube up directly to that thing in the middle of the flush valve (rather than using the clip to hook up to the rim). I've refilled the tank and added color again, and then shut the water off. It did seem to fill much faster this time. Maybe there was leftover rubber from the old gasket on the rim, creating a compromise in the seal? We shall see, and THANK YOU for the reply....

Bull
 

Bull2

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A day later and all is well, I think. It seems it was either residue or a non-uniform "lip" where the flush valve gasket mates up. The steel wool did the trick.

Thanks again for anyone who read/replied/etc. I hope this might help someone else in the future.

Bull
 
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