Nearly flooded my whole basement from a $5 part failure

I was swapping out a leaky toilet fill valve in my rental property's basement bathroom last Saturday. Everything was going fine until I overtightened the supply line nut and cracked the plastic ferrule inside. Water started spraying everywhere under the tank, soaking the floor before I could even reach the shutoff. Took me 20 minutes to find the right replacement ferrule at the hardware store because I trashed the old one. By the time I got it fixed, I had soaked up about 3 gallons with towels. Has anyone else had luck with the brass compression ferrules instead of the plastic ones for toilet supply lines?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah_rivera574d agoMost Upvoted

Had a buddy lose a whole utility sink setup from that exact same plastic ferrule crack.

baker.simon4d ago

Yeah "cracked right at the ferrule" is almost always how those cheap plastic ones go. @noah_rivera57 your buddy's story is a classic example of how the smallest part can take down the whole system. It's like those plastic shut-off valves on washing machine hoses, they look fine for years then one tiny fracture and you've got a basement lake. Makes you wonder if the price of saving a few cents on a fitting is worth the headache when it eventually fails.