duclad
New Member
A plummer who was replacing the wax ring on one of my toilets (I'm old and can no longer safely lift a toilet by myself) told me the overflow tube (replaced apparently by previous owner) is too tall. I do see that the top of the overflow tube is much higher than in my other toilet and is above the level of the handle, raising the possibility that if the fill valve failed to shut off when it should the water could rise to the point where it would leak out the handle before it could go down the overflow tube. I asked him if I could just cut the overflow tube to shorten it. He said I could try but he didn't think I could get at it and also said that doing that could ruin the seal at the flush valve. Did I mention he was trying to sell the old man a new flush valve and fill valve assembly even though both the fill and flush valves are currently working fine?
Anyway, what do you guys who know much more about this than me think - is it okay to shorten the overflow tube without removing it? If so, I'm thinking a dremel with a cutting wheel would be small enough to get in there, but are there better methods? Also, if I'm holding the overflow tube at the base to support it while cutting, is it still risky that the vibration or whatever will ruin the seal? Obviously, I'm no expert on this so I would really appreciate your advice and things to watch out for if I try this myself. Many thanks. Jim
Anyway, what do you guys who know much more about this than me think - is it okay to shorten the overflow tube without removing it? If so, I'm thinking a dremel with a cutting wheel would be small enough to get in there, but are there better methods? Also, if I'm holding the overflow tube at the base to support it while cutting, is it still risky that the vibration or whatever will ruin the seal? Obviously, I'm no expert on this so I would really appreciate your advice and things to watch out for if I try this myself. Many thanks. Jim