Archimedes
New Member
Hi everyone. Kind of an unusual problem here. Should filling a swimming pool make the toilets in my house not shut off?
Here's what happened: I was filling my pool so I put the garden hose in, turned the water on, walked away (obviously this decreases the water pressure in the house). I left the house, came back at night, and found the cesspool overflowing (yikes)! When I checked, I found one of my toilets was not shut off, even though the float was fully raised and the flapper sealed, the water was just flowing through the fill tube. I tried flushing a few times to make sure something wasn't jammed somehow, but each time the float went up, but the water kept coming through the fill. I thought something had managed to break and I would need a new fill valve, but out of curiosity, I turned the pool water off, and the toilet fill immediately shut of. Now I was really curious. I turned the pool back on, tried this in another bathroom, and had the same thing happen. Tried again in the original one, same problem. So when the pool was being filled, the water would not shut off in the toilets.
Ok, so now I am very confused. Even though the float was raised (which I thought would shut off the water), and the flapper sealed, water kept coming through the fill tube. It definitely was somehow controlled by the garden hose being on in the bottom of the pool. So somehow lack of pressure in the house, or some sort of siphon effect. But does this make any sense to anyone? I could replace the insides of the toilets, but they work fine when the hose isn't on, which makes me think it's something else.
I guess what I'm asking is, can anyone explain why they wont shut off? Thanks!
Here's what happened: I was filling my pool so I put the garden hose in, turned the water on, walked away (obviously this decreases the water pressure in the house). I left the house, came back at night, and found the cesspool overflowing (yikes)! When I checked, I found one of my toilets was not shut off, even though the float was fully raised and the flapper sealed, the water was just flowing through the fill tube. I tried flushing a few times to make sure something wasn't jammed somehow, but each time the float went up, but the water kept coming through the fill. I thought something had managed to break and I would need a new fill valve, but out of curiosity, I turned the pool water off, and the toilet fill immediately shut of. Now I was really curious. I turned the pool back on, tried this in another bathroom, and had the same thing happen. Tried again in the original one, same problem. So when the pool was being filled, the water would not shut off in the toilets.
Ok, so now I am very confused. Even though the float was raised (which I thought would shut off the water), and the flapper sealed, water kept coming through the fill tube. It definitely was somehow controlled by the garden hose being on in the bottom of the pool. So somehow lack of pressure in the house, or some sort of siphon effect. But does this make any sense to anyone? I could replace the insides of the toilets, but they work fine when the hose isn't on, which makes me think it's something else.
I guess what I'm asking is, can anyone explain why they wont shut off? Thanks!