Improved Champion 4 flush valve

[PlayaSusia]

This is a quick comparison of the old vs improved champion 4 flush valve. I have two of the old style champion 4 flush valves and both were ghost flushing. I contacted American Standard and they sent me 'improved' flush valves. They switched over to the new design sometime in 2020. I read somewhere there is a potential class action against American Standard for the ghost flushing issue so I guess this change was made to address that. Anyway...

- Overall about the same size. The old has grey plastic and the improved has a black plastic body.
- The improved top is one piece, which eliminates the need for the o-ring.
- There is a more prominent ridge on the improved bottom mating surface where the gasket contacts for a better seal.
- The gasket on the improved is totally covered by the plastic flapper as looking down from the top.

The only issue I had installing it was the pull chain was too short, so I had to transfer the old chain over. I didn't notice this until it was fully installed and the tank was back on, and the one piece design makes it more difficult to remove the top half of the flapper in the toilet to change out the gasket.

Just a few observations I noticed, time will tell if it works out better than the old design.

-Old design on the left, Improved on the right.

-Old design

-Improved design

 

[btakashi]

I have the old style flush valve, shown here, and it is leaking slowly / ghost flushing about once every 10 minutes.
In order to remove the thumbscrew to get at the flapper, is there something I have to do other than just turning it counterclockwise? It doesn't seem to unscrew easily, there are little plastic pieces that seemingly impede unscrewing.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[WJcandee]

One thing that folks with ghost flushes can do is to rip that piece of garbage flush valve out and replace with the Korky 3"/4" Flush Valve. Fits great. Works great, and when it's time, you just change the flapper like any other flapper. https://www.korky.com/products/flus...ts/large-3-4-flush-valve-tank-bowl-gasket-kit