Water trickles into bowl & can't shut off water

Water has been trickling into the bowl in little streams. The whole fill valve assembly is less than a year old. I noticed the water level (see Pencil Mark in jpg) was higher than it had been and started to work on adjusting the fill valve to see if that was the problem but realized that the water kept coming out of the "neck" of the fill valve. Tightening the cap doesn't help.

See: http://tinyurl.com/3par5

I turned the stop valve competely off, but the water kept coming into the tank. I figured I had to replace a washer in (or all of) the stop valve. I went outside and turned off the water to the house at the side of the house, but it won't turn off the water all the way. I haven't tried to get to the cut off in the front yard because now I'm wondering if our water pressure regulator has failed and that there out water pressure is too high. We've been having a problem with the kitchen sink faucet leaking at the base despite replacing every part inside it. Would high pressure cause these problems?

Or are the leaky kitchen faucet, defective water shut off valves and fill valve independent problems? The house is five years old, the toilets are Cranes and the one that is leaking is on the second floor.

Refill Tube

It looks like your refill tube is too far down in the overflow tube. This causes siphonage and constant trickling. If the end of the little black hose is below the water line, lift it or cut it off. Did you replace the o rings on the kitchen sink faucet?

Can't shut off water

LonnythePlumber said:

It looks like your refill tube is too far down in the overflow tube. This causes siphonage and constant trickling. If the end of the little black hose is below the water line, lift it or cut it off. Did you replace the o rings on the kitchen sink faucet?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I flushed the tank and then I trimmed the refill tube. I opened the shut off valve, but I had to close it again because the water was just pouring out of the refill valve until it overflowed into the overflow pipe. The water you see coming out of the valve in the photos is the flow with the shut off valve CLOSED. With it opened, the water just gushes out. That's why I was wondering about the water pressure perhaps having increased.

I'm not sure about the faucet because my husband did that and he is out of town. He used as kit. Do kits necessarily contain O rings?

OK. that yellow fill valve is an American Standard which was known to be a piece of ^#%!#!@$%@%^. Get it out of there and replace with a Korky or a Fluidmaster 400A. Check the specs to see, but one or both of these should fit.


BUT, first you have to be able to turn off the water. The toilet stop is not working; the house stop is not working; so you have to start at the meter or at the street. Replace the defective valves. Measure your pressure, so that if the regulator is bad you can do that at the same time.

jimbo said:

OK. that yellow fill valve is an American Standard which was known to be a piece of ^#%!#!@$%@%^. Get it out of there and replace with a Korky or a Fluidmaster 400A. Check the specs to see, but one or both of these should fit.

BUT, first you have to be able to turn off the water. The toilet stop is not working; the house stop is not working; so you have to start at the meter or at the street. Replace the defective valves. Measure your pressure, so that if the regulator is bad you can do that at the same time.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll head for Lowes tomorrow morning and get a pressure guage, shut off valves and a new fill valve. Are both kinds of shut off valves standard? If not, what do I measure?

I was going to buy the whole Korky Universal Toilet Repair Kit and replace everything while I'm at it, but I notice that, although Lowes sells it, the Korky web site doesn't list it. I'm wondering if they discontinued their kit for some reason, and if so, should I avoid it?

Again, I appreciate the help.

I do not like "universal repair kits". The flapper is probably not the right one for your toilet. The kit probably includes other parts you do not need.


The stop valve looks like a ½" IPS inlet. Get a new one which is a quarter turn valve rather than the style you have. Also, get a new toilet supply line to match the valve. If you install the valve with the outlet at 90º instead of straight up, you won't need such a big loop in the line.

For the house stop, you will need to determine what size. If you have copper, it will be 3/4 ( actual pipe outside diameter=7/8") or 1" ( OD = 1 1/8"). A bronze ball valve (lever handle) is much preferred to the gate valve you may now have ( large blue or red wheel handle)

Success! Toilet is quiet and still

jimbo said:

I do not like "universal repair kits". The flapper is probably not the right one for your toilet. The kit probably includes other parts you do not need.

Click to expand...

Oh, well, I replaced everything already. I didn't like the way that other flapper was seated anyway. I thought that pulling the tank up and placing it back down would be hard but it was lighter and easier to handle than I thought it would be. Tightening the bolts on it to get it tight enough so that it was level and didn't rock back but not tight enough to crack the china was a little unnerving, though.

It's been several hours and so far it works very nicely and everything that should be dry is. It looks a lot better, too, or maybe I just think so because I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

jimbo said:

The stop valve looks like a ½" IPS inlet. Get a new one which is a quarter turn valve rather than the style you have. Also, get a new toilet supply line to match the valve. If you install the valve with the outlet at 90º instead of straight up, you won't need such a big loop in the line.

Click to expand...

Got the stop valve (and I did choose the 1/4 turn type) but not the supply line because the shortest they had to match the valve was 12". I didn't have enough time to do everything today anyway, so I took care of the toilet first. The valve bag says "Watts - Ball valve/Brass stems". Is that good? I'll buy a better one if it isn't.

jimbo said:

For the house stop, you will need to determine what size. If you have copper, it will be 3/4 ( actual pipe outside diameter=7/8") or 1" ( OD = 1 1/8"). A bronze ball valve (lever handle) is much preferred to the gate valve you may now have ( large blue or red wheel handle)

Click to expand...

OK, I wasn't sure what to get and decided to wait until I could find out more, I was more concerned with that running toilet since it's in the master bath and gets the most use. I do have the large wheel handle, but will replace it with a lever handle. I had to dig out the stop by the meter--the city guys had *packed* dirt almost completely around the meter. And since it had been raining all weekend I had to dig through mud to get at it. Well, at least *that* one worked.

Thanks again, Jimbo and Lonny, for your advice. I'll check out what's happening with the kitchen faucet before I go back to the hardware store.