Rant: My plumber partner spent 45 minutes fixing a toilet flapper I could've done myself

So my buddy Mike, who runs a plumbing service over in Decatur, stopped by last Sunday to help with my guest bathroom toilet. It was just a $15 flapper from Home Depot on Memorial Drive, but he showed me how the chain length can mess up the whole flush if it's off by even a quarter inch. He spent 45 minutes teaching me the right way to seat the rubber gasket and adjust the water level, which felt like way too much for such a simple job. Has anyone else gotten schooled on a basic fix that turned out to be more finicky than you thought?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy9295d ago

I get it but honestly 45 minutes is not bad for learning the actual right way to do it. Most folks just jam a new flapper in there and call it done but then their toilet runs forever or flushes weak. I've seen so many botched DIY flapper jobs where the chain is too loose or the gasket isn't seated right and it causes leaks that waste water for months. Your buddy was actually saving you future headaches even if it felt like overkill. That quarter inch chain adjustment thing is real and something nobody talks about in the YouTube videos. Next time a flapper acts up you'll probably knock it out in 5 minutes and thank him.

sean1195d ago

Man that's so true about the quarter inch chain thing, I had the exact same issue last year and it drove me nuts. I thought I was being smart just swapping the flapper but then it kept running every few minutes and I couldn't figure out why. My neighbor who's a plumber came over and spent like an hour messing with it and showing me all these little tricks (chain length, how the gasket has to be perfectly level, even the water level in the tank matters). I felt dumb at first but honestly it was a lifesaver because now I can spot a bad flapper job from across the room basically. Your buddy did you a solid and you'll be saving that knowledge forever.