Push button toilet problems!

[EnFlique]

If anyone could help here I would be so grateful!

Our toilet seems to be constantly topping itself up once flushed. It will fill and stop and then every 30 seconds it will tip itself up and clunk.

It’s driving us both mad and keeping us awake at night (bedroom next to bathroom!)

Any ideas?

@pigletjohn seems to be the go to person in these situations, are you about?

Observe the pan. Is water constantly dripping or dribbling into it?

Your next task is to find out how to open the lid, and publish a photo of what's inside.

If it is hidden inside a false wall and tiled over, you'll wish it wasn't.

Fortunately the lid is easy to remove.

No water trickling in the pan, the issue just seems to be with the top bit.

It’s grimy as owt in there! Is this normal 🤣

I bet it is.

Stir some food colouring into the cistern. Wait. Does the colour appear in the pan?

Or does the water level in the cistern gradually rise? Where does it go?

It looks like you have a Torbeck or similar fill valve. They are prone to getting grit in the small moving parts.

There’s a slight trickle at the back into the pan.
The water level in the cistern doesn’t seem to change much, I guess because what is trickling out is being put back in by the constant refilling?

thought so.

It's the flush valve. I don't recognise the brand of yours, there were a lot of modern ones introduced. If you can identify the make, it's possible that swapping for a new one of the same brand would be easier than complete replacement (some of them screw in fro the top). If not, the cistern will probably have to be removed to get to the fixing nut underneath. In this case you may as well fit a new filling valve as well, the Torbeck is very good and supremely quiet, but they are prone to problems with grit, and they sometimes go wrong after 10-20 years.

Fluidmaster make very fine valves, this is a flush valve

and you can usually get them in a pack with a new filling valve

The filling valve with a brass shank is more durable than the slightly cheaper plastic one, and worth the extra. You appear to have a bottom-entry filling valve, as linked, not a side-entry.

If the flush of your WC is at all weak, get a flapper instead, which gives a powerful, unobstructed gush. It is quiet. My link is for the top-button version.

You are pretty certain have to take the cistern off. Fit a new doughnut washer, fixing plate and screws (grease the screws very well as they are prone to corrode and seize) under the cistern as it is such a pain to have to do this another time. They perish faster if you use cistern blocks.

It's quite a good time to fit a new seat as well.

Oh gosh sounds like a job and a half!
Thank you for all your advice

once you've turned the water off and got all your adjutable wrenches ready, not too tricky.

If the cistern fixing screws under the cistern are rusted solid, it's a pig. I bought some stainless screws to prevent it happening again. IIRC they are M8 x 50mm coach bolts with wing nuts. Must be greased. Brass nuts would do.

Our loo did this and it eventually turned out that a bit of rubber sealant had come loose and got stuck at the bottom of the tall round bit on the left of your photo where the water flushes out from. Cutting that out fixed it.

Ours did this. The plumber had to replace two bits to get it to stop. I don't know what, sorry that's not much help is it. The plumber said they are notorious for doing this.

Your flush valve is an armitage shanks dual flush sv model. There are a few different heights with different colour rectangles on the underside blue,red,white I believe white was a 200mH

The fill valve is definitely a torbeck

It’s this one
www.toolstation.com/torbeck-adjustable-height-fill-valve/p32033

Hi @Squirreltamer , well spotted.

It looks like there's an easy way to swap the Armitage Shanks flush valve. That right?

" just simply twist the valve in an anticlockwise direction and the whole top mechanism just lifts right out. All that is needed then is to twist clip the new valve into place (or the same valve if you're just replacing the base seal), connect the push button or flush plate and you're ready to go. "

though I couldn't see one to match the photo. There may be a replacement. www.bathroomspareparts.co.uk/armitage-shanks-flush-valves-1683-c.asp

It might at least come out to identify it, if there's a part number, or maybe see what the problem is.