How to lower the water level in my toilet

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yamaha_piano

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Hi there,

I find that the water level in my toilet bowl (in my rented apartment) is too high and it causes unpleasant splashes. I did some googling, and found that the water level in the toilet bowl can be adjusted by adjusting the "fill valve" in the tank.

Apparently, there is a screw I can turn, in order to raise or lower the "float arm". I opened my toilet tank, and I saw no screw. The picture is attached above. So, is there any way I can adjust the water level in my tank (and consequently that in my toilet bowl)?

Thanks a lot for your help!!
 

JohnCT

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You can adjust the water level in the tank by adjusting your fill valve, but my understanding is that the water level in the bowl is predetermined by the height of the drain cast into the ceramic and is not adjustable.

John
 

Jadnashua

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While you might be able to lower the bowl water level by restricting the flow from the rubber tube to the overflow, you will likely find that seriously affects the performance of the flush. All toilets of that type are designed to be completely full to properly flush. So, in reality, your choice really is live with it, or select a different toilet. What tends to happen when the bowl is lower than design is that it takes two flushes...the first one leaves the bowl properly full when it fails, and then the second one actually clears it. That would mean wasting a lot of water and time, since you'd have to wait for the tank to refill before you could get the second flush in.
 

Reach4

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I find that the water level in my toilet bowl (in my rented apartment) is too high and it causes unpleasant splashes.
Try dropping a sheet or two of TP onto the water before doing your business. That can inhibit splashing.
 

JohnCT

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Pick up a PerforMax fill valve from Fluidmaster. It allows adjustment of the bowl level refill.
https://www.fluidmaster.com/products/toilet/fill-valves/400ah-performax-fill-valve/

Holy crap! (yep). I just read the instruction sheet for the 400AH and one can indeed lower the bowl level with this fill valve.

There is a natural level to the bowl however. If you slowly empty a bucket of water in the bowl (so as not to start the siphon effect), the bowl will slowly settle to it's natural level as determined by it's casting. This is most likely a set value which will effectively clear the bowl in one flush without wasting water.

That fluidmaster however does allow an adjustable restriction that will *short fill* the bowl if desired, although the instructions are really for setting the bowl fill to it's natural level, not lower. Still, this fill valve will do what OP wants.

And of course jadnashua is correct in that short filling the bowl may require multiple flushes.

John
 

Jadnashua

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There is a Korky valve that has an adjustable fill (ratio) for the bowl as well, but you'll be lucky to drop if very far and still have good performance. Let us know your end results. One of the persistent complaints is that a toilet doesn't flush properly consistently. A good portion of the time, they've changed the fill valve and not installed or adjusted the bowl fill hose properly.

You can keep the same valve you have and just use an adjustable clamp to slow the flow in the hose to the overflow tube. Anything you can cobble up to narrow the outlet so it doesn't flow as much will work.
 

JohnCT

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There is a Korky valve that has an adjustable fill (ratio) for the bowl as well, but you'll be lucky to drop if very far and still have good performance. Let us know your end results.

Agree.

Giving this a bit more thought, if the bowl level is artificially lowered, then the tank water volume will need to be increased. The natural siphon effect that powers the actual flush won't start until the bowl level rises above the cast-in drain elbow, so if the flush is started with the bowl level low, more tank water will be needed before the flush can even start.

Years ago I had a gimicky flapper that was adjustable. I think it could be set up to delay closing to allow more tank water to enter the bowl before the flapper closed. Absent that, the OP may find that with a lower bowl level, he should *hold* the flush lever down until the bowl water empties completely before releasing it.

John
 
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