Tiny Tuesday - Syphon problem!

Last summer we had our bathroom refitted (that was a long story, partially chronicled on blip).

Well last week the loo flush broke (yes, already). There's a plastic lever linking the square-section rod on the handle itself to the operating hook, and that had worn. (I didn't think we flushed it that often!). No problem I thought, just replace the plastic lever, very cheap at the local DIY. But the replacement was slightly different so to get the lever sitting at the right angle I needed to change the double-ended operating hook (which connects the lever to the top of the syphon piston). That sounded easy as 2 different length hooks were supplied with the new lever.

The blip shows the top of the piston, which is only about 6mm in diameter, with a hook in it. Well, after removing the original hook the piston slipped out of my hand and retracted down into the tube in which it slides, before I got the new hook in. Could I get it back up again? No. I tried everything - levering with a tiny screwdriver (it broke off), refilling the cistern in the hope it would float up (no), blu-tak (no). I even stuck a tiny sticky foam pad onto it and tried to tease it up with fine pliers - the foam broke up but the sticky layer - and the piston, of course - stayed put (you can see it in the photo, still there).

No alternative but to remove the whole flush unit. That meant removing the whole of the cistern from the loo to get at the retaining nut. Happily, as it's quite new, none of the bolts or screws had seized so that was quite easy (cue DIY delight!).

Then I thought - hang on! We've always been dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the flush as it seemed too short. I realised that there was room to fit a taller syphon unit which would give a longer flush, so why not do it now? Back to the DIY - and it fitted very nicely! So we now have a decent long flush when necessary, and it even has a half-flush function when you don't need lots of water.

So a 5-minute job turned into about 90 minutes. But we're now better off. (Why didn't the fitters put one of these on in the first place? - it only cost £16!)

Well done if you got this far with the story! And many thanks to Freyjad for hosting TT.