Jvstevens
Member
Hi all,
I'm part owner of a remote family cabin in the Sierras that gets its water (indoor plumbing) via a 1.5" pipe that goes up a steep hill behind the cabin about 40 to 50 ft or so and connects to a pipe inlet at the base of a a small homemade concrete dam. We have used this setup for decades and for the most part, its worked fine for supplying cold water for a kitchen sink, bathroom sink and toilet. Though as you'd expect, the pressure is much lower than a municipal supply, and no, I don't know what the pressure is. We put in a "new" (actually an old one, circa 1958) replacement toilet last weekend as the old one was not filling reliably anymore and it looked pretty bad. The replacement toilet has one of the ubiquitous modern Fluidmaster plastic fill valves. The tank wouldn't fill up at all with this type of fill valve. By taking it apart and studying the design of it, I was able to get it to fill slowly though (about 5 minutes to fill up), by filing off some of the rubber on the top seal to make it less stiff, so it could open with the lower water pressure. It seems to be working fine so far (tested it with many flush and fill cycles), but I'm not sure of its long term reliability. On my next trip up there, I'd ideally like to replace it with a new fill valve that is better suited for low water pressure conditions. Does such a thing exist? What do you recommend? It would also be nice if the toilet tank could fill faster, though we've coped with a slow filling tank for a long, long time. Also, as you might expect, sediment builds up in the pipes in between visits and I'm concerned that the Fluidmaster valve, with its small internal ports, could be prone to plugging up. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I'm part owner of a remote family cabin in the Sierras that gets its water (indoor plumbing) via a 1.5" pipe that goes up a steep hill behind the cabin about 40 to 50 ft or so and connects to a pipe inlet at the base of a a small homemade concrete dam. We have used this setup for decades and for the most part, its worked fine for supplying cold water for a kitchen sink, bathroom sink and toilet. Though as you'd expect, the pressure is much lower than a municipal supply, and no, I don't know what the pressure is. We put in a "new" (actually an old one, circa 1958) replacement toilet last weekend as the old one was not filling reliably anymore and it looked pretty bad. The replacement toilet has one of the ubiquitous modern Fluidmaster plastic fill valves. The tank wouldn't fill up at all with this type of fill valve. By taking it apart and studying the design of it, I was able to get it to fill slowly though (about 5 minutes to fill up), by filing off some of the rubber on the top seal to make it less stiff, so it could open with the lower water pressure. It seems to be working fine so far (tested it with many flush and fill cycles), but I'm not sure of its long term reliability. On my next trip up there, I'd ideally like to replace it with a new fill valve that is better suited for low water pressure conditions. Does such a thing exist? What do you recommend? It would also be nice if the toilet tank could fill faster, though we've coped with a slow filling tank for a long, long time. Also, as you might expect, sediment builds up in the pipes in between visits and I'm concerned that the Fluidmaster valve, with its small internal ports, could be prone to plugging up. Any help would be greatly appreciated!