February 16, 2009

i fear the google hits this post will generate

last week, shauna posted about googling her toilet problems, and then going right ahead and attempting to fix her toilet. i was WAY IMPRESSED, and also taken aback, because dude! my toilet is highly wonky, and it had NEVER ONCE occurred to me to try and figure out BY MYSELF what to do about it.


so today, being off for president's day, i decided to plunge in (HAR!) and see what i could learn about how toilets worked, why mine was leaking water all the effing time, and what i could do about it. after some helpful research, i went ahead and shut off the water and disassembled the whole deal. the inspection revealed that a) my ball cock was malfunctioning (BWAHAHAHAAAA), b) my water level was too high, and c) the rubber on both my flapper and the gasket leading to the water supply were literally rotting away. this highly professional assessment led me to the conclusion that i needed to buy a whole new ball cock (SNNRRRFFFPPTT), and a new flapper. and then when i was trying to unscrew the float ball from the ball cock (PFFFTTT) i snapped it right off instead... so.. hey! whole new toilet innards!


(don't i sound like i know what i'm doing, by the way? google is a magical place, i tell you.)


before today, i could not have identified a single part in a tank, nor could i have solved a single plumbing-related issue. and now! i have successfully replaced the ENTIRE guts of my tank, including needing to modify 2 of the parts because my tank is apparently non-standard. the first time i reassembled everything, i had a leak where the water line attaches, so i took it apart a second time and put it back again, but better, and now there are no leaks at all, the water level is normal, and the ball cock (SNORT) doesn't spray water out the top (AAAHAAAHAHAAaaa am twelve).

i am pretty darn proud of myself, honestly.

also: who named these toilet parts? because I MEAN SERIOUSLY.

24 comments:

  1. I's so proud of you! It's sort of deceptively simple in there, huh? :)

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  2. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA. Ball cock is what got me too.

    I am super impressed you replaced everything. That's awesome! Our toilet is wonky again, so it's definitely time to actually replace the fill valve (just futzing with the valve before "fixed" it, but now it's not working again). Off to Menards for new parts! (Thank god everything is cheap.)

    Yay for you fixing it! I still remember your drawer assembly post and your mad skills.

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  3. I LOVE The Google.

    It's how I fixed my dead iPod... Google told me to insert a business card.

    And it worked.

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  4. Google is FAB!

    Good on you for being a handy woman! That rocks my Ball Cock! HAHAH. (am also 12)

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  5. So um, if I need my toilet fixed I'll just call you. Awesome.

    Google has magic powers.

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  6. man, I wanted to say that I love the google. Because I like to put the word "the" in front of stuff like that, but Deutlich beat me.

    Ballcock...ha ha ha!!!

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  7. I wrote 1 (ONE!) post on 2000 Flushes, and a YEAR later it was still the #1 search result on my old blog.

    True story.

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  8. How did we survive before the internet?? You saved yourself like $500 bucks for not having to call a plumber. How do you like them ball cocks!

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  9. Those names are messed up, seriously.
    But GO YOU!

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  10. Woot! I MAY HAVE blushed when I had to ask the sales guy where to find a ball cock in Ace Hardware.

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  11. you are a ball cock master

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  12. Ha ha ha! I LOVE your editorial comments in parathensis. HA!

    Props to you for figuring it out. That takes a lot of courage! And on a holiday! Wow! :)

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  13. haha. i love ball humor. good stuff.

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  14. Google is very very very strong... when you want to search something.

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  15. Sorry, I can't read this. I can't get past *snort* ball cock *snort*.

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  16. You really MUST report back to us about all the fun hits you are getting for this post!
    But the names? You know who invented the ballcock, don't you? Sir Thomas Crapper. And many toilets had the Crapper seal on them: The Venerable Crapper. Bwahahahaha.
    Life is good.

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  17. I took a big poop in my toilet.

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  18. Nicely done. But, don't you rent? Shouldn't your landlord take care of that? You should deduct the costs for all those parts from your rent...

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  19. Highly impressive! I got nervous just Plunging my toilet the other day. ALMOST called the hubs to do it for me.

    (srsly? ball cock? I can barely even type it!)

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  20. This is brilliant. I am totally 12 also, so I was cracking up throughout your post.

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  21. Proud you say?!!! You are a superhero. I'm dying here. I swear to you, my toilet would still be in ten pieces today

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  22. i like it when you say ballcock.

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  23. I had the same problem - my boyfriend and figured it out after google and a lot of dunking our hands in icey-cold water. Turned out to be harder than we though to replace the parts because the previous person CRAZY GLUED them all together!

    Plus there is no room on either side of the toilet to even put your arm. So allthough our neighbour had to help with extra manpower, we still felt pretty proud we didn' call a plumber.

    Yay us! You should be very proud :)

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