British plumbing

LoL Glad I'm not the only one! I felt so incompetent not being able to flush a stupid toilet and he had no problems whatsoever!

Here i go, feeling thick again    ...  i dont understand what you guys mean when you say you couldnt get the toilet to flush?  Surely you just push the handle and away it goes?   Or do you mean that you flushed it and not everything was carried away, so you had to wait ages for the cistern to fill up so you could flush again?  (that happens at my work sometimes... the cisterns fill up so slowly.)

Here are my top tips for flushing a UK toilet.

1. Wait till you don't hear any water running at all.

2.  Make sure the handle is in a completely horizontal position

3.  Jiggle the least little bit.  It should feel loose but you should have resistance underneath.

4.  Straighten it out with another tiny tiny jiggle

5.  Now push it down with a very SMOOTH very QUICK motion almost holding it out from the side of the toilet.

6.  You may have to repeat this more than once on difficult toilets. 

Here i go, feeling thick again    ...  i dont understand what you guys mean when you say you couldnt get the toilet to flush? 

Here are my top tips for flushing a UK toilet.

I must be very lucky, because I haven't yet met a UK toilet which needed flushing instructions! 

Mine is pretty straightforward. Push handle down. Toilet flushes. "Stuff" is gone.

I rarely have problems with my toilets at home. It's always toilets at pubs/restaurants or at other people's homes. Fortunately the ones at work aren't a problem either!

Mindy, love the top tips!!

I must be very lucky, because I haven't yet met a UK toilet which needed flushing instructions! 

Mine is pretty straightforward. Push handle down. Toilet flushes. "Stuff" is gone.

The ones at my office need instructions.  They have a wedge shaped "handle" sticking out of the wall and you push it back in so that it's flush with the wall.  Only, if that's all you do, it doesn't flush.  It wasn't until I was in the loo at the same time as someone else (2 stalls) and heard them banging away that I figured out the trick.  You need to pump it at least 4 times to make it flush!  I should make signs, because there are a number of people in our building who don't seem to have figured it out yet (uck). 

The problem I have with British toilets is it takes ages for the cistern to fill up, which is a problem if -

1. you have to go right after someone else in the house has used the toilet
2. you have to flush more than once

Now push it down with a very SMOOTH very QUICK motion

That's the key on a mechanism which is starting to wear a little.   You have to remember that the standard U.K. flush system is quite different from the one used in the U.S.   It consists of an up-and-over siphon arrangement, like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp;jsessionid=?cId=100996&ts=39696&id=44047

The handle operates a diaphragm which lifts the water and starts the siphoning action.  When that diaphragm starts to wear it becomes more difficult to start the flush -- A really worn-out diaphragm can reach the point where you can only start the flow by either pressing down very sharply or by pumping the handle several times in rapid succession.   (It has to be very worn out to reach that point!)

So if you start to have trouble with the flush, it's time to service the cistern.  As I mentioned above though, we have just started to see flapper valves appear on the market here in the last couple of years in place of the siphon.   These are the same arrangement as in the States.

Just to complete the picture, you might still come across a very old high-level cistern with chain pull which operates on a slightly different system again.  Some of these old high-level units had a kind of bell arrangement, and the flush starts when you release the chain, not when you pull it!    They're fairly rare nowadays, but you'll still find them in old houses occasionally.

Is there a way to do that for just the sinks?

There's no simple adjustment which would let you reduce the hot temperature for the sinks while keeping it high for the bathtub, washer outlet, etc.    You can set the boiler or immersion heater thermostat right down, but obviously that will limit the temperature at all hot outlets. 

It's possible to fit a thermostatic mixing valve to an individual bath/basin/shower.  The hot outlet from the valve can feed either a separate hot faucet or the hot side of a mixer tap, as required.   These valves are commonly used in care homes, schools, etc. these days.  You set the required maximum temperature and the valve automatically mixes in a small quantity of cold water as needed to limit the temperature.

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp;jsessionid=?cId=100121&ts=39741&id=18732

They have a wedge shaped "handle" sticking out of the wall and you push it back in so that it's flush with the wall. 

They've become common in supermarket restrooms and other similar places where the cisterns are hidden behind the wall.  I'm not sure what sort of linkage is employed, but they do seem more prone to the sort of problem you describe than more direct types.

The problem I have with British toilets is it takes ages for the cistern to fill up

It's usually more of an issue where the toilet cistern fills from the storage cistern in the attic (i.e. low pressure).   Where the cistern connects directly to the supply it tends to fill much more quickly.

I think it is just the quick motion but also pushing or pulling the handle hard enough that was the problem for me. Once I got the hang of that I've been fine and haven't had a problem since, except for at DB's parents' house.

At my boyfriend's parents' house they have toilets where the basin (?) is high up on the wall and there's a cord hanging down to flush. I just had to get over my fear of breaking it because you have to pull pretty hard.

Here i go, feeling thick again    ...  i dont understand what you guys mean when you say you couldnt get the toilet to flush?  Surely you just push the handle and away it goes?   Or do you mean that you flushed it and not everything was carried away, so you had to wait ages for the cistern to fill up so you could flush again?  (that happens at my work sometimes... the cisterns fill up so slowly.)

The B&B we stayed in had a toilet that you had to fiddle with the handle a certain way, then hold it down for a few seconds, than fiddle again and then it would flush. I just never could get the stupid thing to work. 

where the basin (?)

Cistern.   

is high up on the wall and there's a cord hanging down to flush.

High-level mounting was once very common -- In the U.S.A. too at one time!

For the benefit of those who are still having trouble visualizing the traditional vented water system used in Britain, here's a quick diagram which I hope will make things clearer:



This is the arrangement which has been considered standard for many years, is still in use in millions of homes across the country, and indeed is still being installed new today in many cases.

Note that the expansion pipe from the top of the hot cylinder is open and just loops "up & over" the storage cistern.   As the only pressure on the hot water system is that caused by the head of water in the cistern in the attic, the laws of physics mean that under normal circumstances the level of hot water in the expansion pipe always matches the level of the cold water in the cistern.   The loop is there solely so that in the event of a blockage or other problem which causes water to be expelled through the vent pipe it will be directed back into the storage cistern instead of just flooding out.

As you can see from the plumbing, the cold outlets at bath and basin are fed from the same storage cistern, and are thus at the same low-pressure as the hot supply.  Only the cold tap in the kitchen is fed directly from the supply, and is thus at a much higher pressure.

I've omitted the usual shut-off valves, drain cocks, overflow pipes etc. from the diagram for clarity.

we bought an old house with a brand new bathroom and the toliet flushed fine - it is a button in the wall behind it, I love that part, BUT and this is a big one, when I go (and I don't want to get too graphic) no 2, it leaves parts behind b/c the water is so low and has such little flush power. I have to brush and clean the toliet everyday b/c of this. It's great to have such a clean toliet, but really annoying when you're in a hurry.

we bought an old house with a brand new bathroom and the toliet flushed fine - it is a button in the wall behind it, I love that part, BUT and this is a big one, when I go (and I don't want to get too graphic) no 2, it leaves parts behind b/c the water is so low and has such little flush power. I have to brush and clean the toliet everyday b/c of this. It's great to have such a clean toliet, but really annoying when you're in a hurry.

I usually just flush again when this happens and it helps out.