Flush Valve Troubles

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Green Meenie

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St. Catharines; On.
Trying to replace a dual button, canister style flush valve in my Pfister toilet. The issue I'm having is that the hole at the bottom of the tank is roughly 4" wide and most dual button canister style flush valves I have been able to source on the internet are only suitable for rough;y 3" openings.

My current leaking flush valve is a Geberit valve but those are British and on their website, it all industrial flushing systems they show.

I have tried to remove the seal on the current valve but it doesn't appear that it is removable. I can't get the valve apart near the base. The existing seal appears to be tucked into the plastic structure of the valve housing itself.

Any ideas on what I should try next, aside from getting a new toilet?
(Flush valve is on the right in the pic)
Toilet Valves.jpg
 
Trying to replace a dual button, canister style flush valve in my Pfister toilet. The issue I'm having is that the hole at the bottom of the tank is roughly 4" wide and most dual button canister style flush valves I have been able to source on the internet are only suitable for rough;y 3" openings.

My current leaking flush valve is a Geberit valve but those are British and on their website, it all industrial flushing systems they show.

I have tried to remove the seal on the current valve but it doesn't appear that it is removable. I can't get the valve apart near the base. The existing seal appears to be tucked into the plastic structure of the valve housing itself.

Any ideas on what I should try next, aside from getting a new toilet?
(Flush valve is on the right in the pic)
View attachment 25162

You may want to want to contact pfister tech services,also there are numbers stamped and printed in the tank that will help you get the exact replacement parts
 
Toilets with that kind of over engineered guts inside are doomed to fail, early and repeatedly.

Buy a new toilet, one that does not have that bs inside the tank, there is no need for that complex junk.
A great flushing toilet can be bought for $150.00 to $250.00.
With a fill valve you can replace for less than $10.00, and a flapper for similar price.
You can change out both parts in less than 15 mins, if you are poky and slow.

Or follow Geofd’s advice, the inside back wall of the tank has a sticker, or printing, or molded in information showing toilet model and manufacturer.

Then you will find parts info on Google from that.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I have contacted Pfister by email a couple of days ago but no response. They talk a lot about their facets but nothing on their web site about toilet replacement parts. The stamped numbers on the inside of the tank lid did not match any toilet model when I punched them into Amazon. There are also some written numbers beside those which are different but unreadable (who writes numbers on the inside of a toilet lid that will be expose to moisture using a black marker?)

I know I could just go buy a new, simpler toilet - never was a fan of the push button flush toilet anyway but, now it's become a challenge to find a new flush valve that will work in this thing. Hard for me to believe there's no solution. I'll try and call Pfister on Monday to see if I can get any info from them on this.
 
Not the tank LID, the back of the tank WALL.
That is where the info is posted.
Not on this tank. There's nothing stamped or written on the outside or inside of the tank ... or the bowl for that matter - just on the inside of the lid.
Here's the only ID numbers I can find (see pic). Also the hole at the bottom of the tank is 3.25 inches. Bigger than any flush valve bottom seal I can find.
Tank Lid.jpg

Flush Opening.jpg

In any case, yeah, I will call on Monday. I thought they would respond to my email as I received an automatic reply saying they had received my inquiry. You're right though. Live person is best!
 
Good luck!

Tech supports are usually very helpful.

3 inch flush valve is not rare, so good thing you measured that.

3.25 is nowhere near 4 inch

Actual and “nominal” sizes are different in plumbing.

I don’t think you ever actually stated what the exact problem was with your flush valve.

The symptoms, why it needed repair.

You buried the lead, as they say, I think.

It helps to be specific and give as much info as possible.

Even stuff that seems irrelevant might be a clue.
 
After flushing, I started hearing some water seeping from the fill valve then suddenly a larger rush of water from the fill valve. I though it was the fill valve that was not working properly. Replaced the fill valve. Same issue started again so I figure, gotta be the seal of the flush valve that is not seating properly? With the new fill valve installed, I took the top off the tank and flushed. Watched the water in the tank drop a couple inches within less than a minute. It's gotta be leaking through the flush valve, right?
 
Update:
Phoned Pfister and finally, after two calls, got the model # of the toilet and the flush valve. When I enter those model numbers into Amazon or the internet in general through Google ..... nothing. I just get all sorts of sites for other brands of toilets or flush valves. They told me only Lowes handles their toilets and Pfister doesn't sell toilets or parts direct to public. Must be US Lowes because I get nothing searching those model numbers at Lowes Canada.
Pfister toilet mod# VTPE321W ...... Pfister flush valve mod#9741800

So, the hunt continues I guess. It's getting close to just going the "new toilet" route!

Just discovered Pfister rep. gave me the wrong toilet model number! It was VTP-E21W, Found this online myself and this IS my toilet. Now, just gotta get the correct model number for the flush valve replacement. I must say, I'm not very impressed with the Pfiset tech people though - Geez! You got one job to do. Please get it right!
 
Last edited:
Last post on this issue because it is now solved ;)
(No thanks to Pfister though :mad:)

New Kholer toilet installed and works perfectly!
New Toilet.jpg

The last straw with Pfister customer support was when the head person there responded to me giving me instructions on how the warranty process works on my faucet!
Faucet o_O 15 separate emails from me and not once was the word faucet mentioned. Anyway, not at all impressed with Pfister's customer service support 😡 It was shocking actually.
 
Toilets with that kind of over engineered guts inside are doomed to fail, early and repeatedly.

Buy a new toilet, one that does not have that bs inside the tank, there is no need for that complex junk.
A great flushing toilet can be bought for $150.00 to $250.00.
With a fill valve you can replace for less than $10.00, and a flapper for similar price.
You can change out both parts in less than 15 mins, if you are poky and slow.

Or follow Geofd’s advice, the inside back wall of the tank has a sticker, or printing, or molded in information showing toilet model and manufacturer.

Then you will find parts info on Google from that.
Not true. This is a dual flush toilet. They make different variations of this flush style depending on the manufacturer. They are NOT all junk.
 

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