Spent all day Saturday fixing a toilet that I broke myself

I was trying to swap out the fill valve on my toilet last weekend and overtightened the plastic nut under the tank. Cracked the whole base where it meets the bowl. Had to run to Home Depot at 7pm on a Saturday and spent $45 on a new Fluidmaster kit plus a new supply line. Did the whole thing over again and it works fine now but man that was a frustrating waste of a day. Anyone else wreck something simple by just trying too hard?

2 comments

2 Comments

sage_dixon1mo ago

Oh jeez, I feel that pain. Just a heads up though, those Fluidmaster kits come with a torque spec sticker on the box now. I stripped one last year because I thought "tight" meant "crank it like a lug nut" and it ended up just like yours. The trick is to hand tighten the nut then give it just a quarter turn with a wrench, no more. Hope that saves you next time, I learned the hard way too.

the_tessa1mo ago

Tight is tight, but cracked porcelain means I got my money's worth out of that torque.

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