All Hail the Fluidmaster!

...or the latest thing to break around here.

The toilet in the kid's bathroom started running yesterday afternoon. After we caught it (insert groan here), I determined that the fill valve was broken and would not shut off. So I just turned off the water feed, turning it back on occasionally to flush and fill.

I delayed the project to this afternoon so we could all have dinner before everyone else left for the Harry Potter movie last night. This morning I needed to get some work done.

Thankfully I found the broken fill valve was the ubiquitous Fluidmaster 400A. The web is replete with how-to videos detailed everything about it, except what you need to know. After a lunchtime trip to Home Depot and $7.50, I was ready to plumb.

Naturally not everything works out neatly. I had to replace the feed tube. Our old plumber liked to custom cut, fit and flare his feed tubes. It was a craftsman's touch in a place where no one could see it. This piece of Y2K era customization was just a bit too long for the new Fluidmaster 400A. So I checked my box of old plumbing parts and voila! there was an old flex tube. But I don't like the way it fits, so it will be back to Home Depot this weekend for a new one. In the meantime, the fluids have been mastered.