Cat's meow boo boo

[daninthesand]

Hi everyone.

Regarding the fill pro toilet valve I've talked about. I installed another one the other day and today I was doing the final touches to the storage barrel and came across what I think might be a potential problem. The new one appears to have a small leak where the two halves of the valve come together at the seam. (see picture) It is a very slow leak mind you, but I'm not sure how it will affect the operation of the valve. Later today I should be able to determine:

1) if the leak affects the valves performace
2) if the leak continues once the valve shuts itself off.

I will likely be replacing the valve anyway, but I though you should know to look for this. I also checked my old valve, which has been running for a few months now, and it appears fine.

So I'm hoping this new valve is an anomaly. :-\

Daniel

[ronrca]

Hmmmm! You mean that it 'leaks' while its filling? I thought that is normal as that happened right away with my fillpro. :-\

[daninthesand]

Ron

Sure, water flows while it is filling, but it should not do so from the "seal" I indicated in the pic above. My concern is that even after the flow stops at the level you have set, this slow leak might continue and overflow your barrel. Also, this leak might prevent the valve from operating as it should.

I just checked the leaking valve again and it appears to have stopped the flow as it is designed to do. But because it is under water, I can't tell if the slow "seam" leak is still there. I will leave it overnight and see if there is any appreciable rise in the water level. This is a very SLOW leak, so it might not be noticeable. In any case the valve functions normally.

A tiny leak might be irrelevent anyway, since the barrel will be emptied from time to time (daily) as I do water changes. If I was away for a week and left the water to the valve on (which I would not) , the slow leak might overflow the barrel. In my case this is no big deal since there is always the overflow bulkhead that goes to the sewer ;)

Daniel

[ronrca]

Yea! I guess there is always the overflow! Personally, since I have a valve inline with the fillpro, I will always turn it off after it has filled the barrel just to be sure. I would not want the ballcock to fail for some reason or another and cause mayhem (I dont have an overflow yet but hopefully very soon).

O, and talk about 'power' when filling. You must make sure the ballcock is rotated correctly otherwise you will get a shot of water out of the barrel accopamied by wetfacecussandswearing. ;D

[daninthesand]

Ok. The thing still leaks at the seam despite stopping the flow normally. So its going back to the store for exchange with a new (hopefully better) one. I don't like the idea of chlorine trickling into my water storage barrel no matter how slow the flow.

Daniel

[daninthesand]

I was able to determine that the seam leak was unimportant to the functioning of the valve. The valve does stop the flow with no leaks. I consider it absolutley safe to use. ;D