Imagine you are all ready and set yourself up in your cozy blanket and suddenly you hear the sound of toilet flushing itself from your bathroom!! This is obviously not an appreciable thing at that time of night.
You feel concerned that now you have to get into the hassle of calling a plumber. But to your surprise, we can help you in this regard!! A toilet flushing on its own is a clear sign that you need to replace your hard plastic toilet flapper.
A toilet flapper is a type of close up button that does not let your toilet flush water on its own. There are different types of toilet flappers for different toilet models, but the main purpose remain the same. The major purpose of a toilet flapper is to seal the water tank of your toilet and stop running out of water on its own.
With the passage of time, different types of cleaning products and inside moisture can damage your toilet flapper and to replace it is the only solution. This is not a very difficult task and you can easily replace your toilet flapper yourself by following some easy steps.
5 Easy Steps to Remove a Toilet Flapper
Table of Contents
Step by step procedure to replace a toilet flapper is given below for your convenience. You can follow these steps to save yourself from the hassle of calling a plumber.
- Impede The Water Supply
- Take Off the Tank Lid
- Pour Out Water From the Tank
- Remove the Toilet Flapper
- Place the New Toilet Flapper
Turn Off the Water
This is a very common understanding that before performing any plumbing task, you have to stop the water supply first. You can either turn it off from your main water supply valve or you can also shut off only the valve of the faucet giving water supply to your toilet tank.
Take Off the Tank Lid
The next step after shutting down the water supply is to take off the top cover or lid of your toilet tank. Sometimes, to remove the cover you have to first open the flush button by moving it in anticlockwise direction. Sometimes the cover comes off only by pulling it gently. It varies with the toilet designs and models. Once you are done with safely removing the toilet tank cover, now the toilet flapper will be visible and accessible to you.
Pour Out Water From the Tank
The next step after removing the lid or top cover of toilet tank is to remove all the excess water present inside the toilet tank so that you can easily reach to the toilet flapper. The water can be easily removed by simply flushing it out by the flush button. The other option is you can remove it using a water tumbler and dry the remaining water with sponge or old towel afterwards.
Remove the Toilet Flapper
This step defines the central point of the procedure of removing your toilet flapper. To remove the toilet flapper first you have to disconnect the chain from the lever inside the toilet tank. You can do this by using pliers. Hold onto the chain with the pliers and separate the chain from the lever. Once this is done, then identify which type of toilet flapper you have got. There are two basic types which will decide how to remove the flapper.
Open loop: the open loop hard plastic flapper is removed by detaching one side first and keeping the post down; detach the other side as well.
Closed loop: the closed loop hard plastic toilet flapper is removed by moving the complete set to one side.
Place the New Toilet Flapper
Now that you have successfully removed the old toilet flapper, you are now ready to install the new one. The procedure is simple and easy but first makes sure that the new toilet flapper should be the same as the earlier one.
The change in design and model can create problems in installation and proper working. Just repeat the steps you have done earlier to remove the flapper but in reverse order! Place the new toilet flapper, attach the chain with the lever, place back the top cover of the toilet tank and finally open the water supply that you turned off earlier. When the tank becomes full, flush it to check. If there is no excess water running then it means you have replaced your old hard plastic toilet flapper successfully with a new one!!
Concluding Statement
The new toilet flapper will lessen your excess water expenditure and will positively affect your utility bills. With the advancement of technology and with new upcoming designs and models, the flappers coming with new models are more durable and easy to install. You can use the above steps as a guideline if you find an old plastic flapper needing replacement!!
