Toto Aquia Dual Toilet with leak at connection of supply line and fill valve

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kevinmcguinness

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When water supply is turned on leak starts. It appears to be a slow drip at the connection of the supply line and the fill valve. Do I need to take the tank off the bowl to service it or can I try and tighten the coupling nut fro underneath to see if that helps? I have a flexible steel braided supply line.
 

WJcandee

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Do not use tape on the threads.

It can be hard to distinguish between a leak between the supply line and shank of the fill valve, and one in the seal between the fill valve and the inside of the toilet.

I would try tightening the supply hose first, by hand. If you have a decent grip, strongly hand-tight should be enough. If you had the thing professionally-installed, make sure they didn't put any plumbers' tape on the threads of the fill valve, as Gary said.

If it's still leaking, then try the connection between the fill valve and the tank. The fill valve on the Aquia is usually a version of the Korky 528, and there is a ring that you can hand-tighten to make sure the gasket on the base of the fill valve that presses against the inside of the toilet is making a good seal. Hold the valve body (not the head) with one hand and use your other hand to tighten that nut, which usually has some protrusions on it that you can grasp (disconnect the supply line from the valve shank first). Usually hand-tight is enough, but if you want to snug it up 1/4 turn with pliers that's fine, too, but you really don't want to overdo that. Then reconnect the fill hose. If it's still leaking from the tank, you can pull the fill valve and sand around the hole where the fill valve goes with a very fine sandpaper to make sure that nothing rough there is causing a leak, but I doubt you will need to do that.
 

Terry

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It sounds like you cross threaded the supply line.

The supply line should thread on smoothly. No tape on those threads either.
 

kevinmcguinness

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Thanks for the help. There was no cross threading or tape. I took the tank off and undid the supply line to fill valve and fill valve to tank. There were no cracks in the fill valve shank. I tighten everything up , hand tight with an extra wrenched quarter turn. I then reassembled tank to bowl and reconnected the supply line. There is a small leak (Nothing like before). I can can tell by looking up with a flash light that it is coming from where the lock nut attaches to the shank not the from the coupling nut. I asmsue that when I reattached the supply line to the fill valve the fill valve looking from the bottom rotated clockwise clockwise undoing some of the tightening of the lock nut which attaches from the bottom of the tank and pull down the seal inside the tank trapped between the tank bottom and the valve body. I should have retightened the lock nut after attaching the supply line to the fill valve or held it in place with another pair wrench as I tightened the supply line.

I guess I should pull the tank off again and see if I can tighten up that lock nut for the fill valve. Or maybe I should try some light sand papering you suggested.

Thanks again.
 

WJcandee

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If it's leaking around the lock nut, it's actually leaking between the rubber seal on the bottom of the fill valve and the bottom of the tank. If you have to pull that tank again, I would definitely try sanding the area. Depending upon what a PITA it is to remove and reinstall that tank, you also might try swapping out the fill valve while the tank is off. You can use a Korky 528MP (528MPK on the Lowe's web site) fill valve, which has a silver cap. You don't need to buy the green one from Toto, which is more expensive as they do a smaller, hand-made run of them for Toto.

If the toilet is brand-new, I would speak to Toto about sending you a new fill valve if a leak developed in the rubber around the old one. If it's new, it is also possible your installer just didn't give that nut that holds the valve in place an extra snug before hooking it up to the water supply. We don't often see leaks developing around the fill valve gasket, but it can happen, particularly if anyone is using a bleach-based cleanser inside the tank.

So, I would see if snugging (and sanding before snugging) it does the trick. If not, I would swap the fill valve, not because there is anything wrong with the valve per se, but because that gasket may not be holding.
 
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