I have a toilet which was both running and leaking and I tried to fix it myself.
I replaced the fill valve, the flush valve and the main gasket, all with items from Home Depot. Home Depot had one model of everything, all cheap plastic, so there was not much to choose from.
After doing all the work, it was still running into the bowl, the tank was not filling and there was still a tank leak. So, I called a plumber who charged me $200 to fix it. He said:
- the brand new fill valve was defective
- the flapper (that came with the flush valve) was wrong
- the main gasket (that the guy in Home Depot specifically said was right) was too small
So, I asked him how could a brand new fill valve be defective. He said it was "hit or miss". The guy in Home Depot who described himself as a plumber said the fill valve was "rock solid simple" and would work "forever", which I guess was a lie because apparently it did not work at all. Also, how can a flapper be "wrong" when it CAME WITH THE FLUSH VALVE IN THE SAME PACKAGE???
So, where am I going wrong here?
Is there any place I can get high quality reliable toilet parts? Is a brass fill valve better than those cheapo Fluidmaster plastic fill valves?