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Toilet Problem


danny
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We have a toilet that is suspended which is integrated  into the wall.

A small plastic part of the flushing mechanism has broken. The plumber arrived and said we had a huge problem.

He has temporarily fixed the system and says he can do full repairs at the start of next year.

His estimate has arrived for 1,920€.

We are in shock, his explanation is the system is very old and a part can not be found so the existing toilet has to be replaced which involves destroying tiles and replacing them etc, 20 hours of work.

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Danny ........

Quite frankly, this bloke is ‘having a laugh’ ......... potentially at your expense.

The idea of charging €1920 to fix a toilet involving 20 hrs of work, beggars belief.

I’m not clear what “suspended & integrated in to the wall” exactly means, but it can’t be that complicated.  To give you a rough idea, we’ve just had our bathroom completely re-done.  I had already bought the new toilet (which included all the fill and flushing mechanisms) costing €180.   But if it had been just replacement mechanisms, the cost would have been <€50.

Our artisan’s charge for fitting the whole lot was €150 and that was probably a bit OTT, because someone who knows what they’re doing, could do that in an hour or so.

IMO, you should give this charlatan €50 for his trouble and tell him to p!ss off.

Your problem then is finding somebody who can give you a realistic quote and a realistic timescale for doing the work.  I’ve heard of some attempted ripoffs before, but this one takes the biscuit.

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Thanks for all the responses.

We have contacted two other plumbers and one of them said if we do not know the mark of the equipment then they have no solution for us. The other plumber came up with a possible solution, that was to install a normal toilet, however it will not work as it would only leave 8cm space between the toilet and the door.

We have another plumber coming this afternoon who will see if a smaller toilet with a thin cistern can be installed or if a high cistern can be installed.

We talked to the original plumber that gave us the 1920€ , about printing the part, however he said that the whole mechanism had to be replaced and did not think that it would be possible, in addition he could not stand over 3d parts in terms of a guarantee.

Frustrated.

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Wall hung toilet on a metal support frame as most are?

Unless its a Geberit then there will be alternative parts that could be used but it sounds like you have a fitter rather than a plumber. 

Worst case would be to buy a suitable replacement cistern, the flush valves all work on the same sizes of pipe, two actually so most are produced to convert.

If yours has a remote push button flush the these are also available as universal replacements for €25-35. Fitting is straight forward in most cases as they all work the same way, except Geberit.

Without photos it is tricky to see what the problem is but it certainly isnt the kind of money you are being quoted. I am back in the UK now but otherwise I would have fixed it for half what you were quoted including the long journey cost!

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  • 2 months later...

I would not hesitate to simply replace the entire toilet and cistern. Accept that you will destroy the existing tiles and general structure and choose a new system that will satisfy your needs. Plan it carefully and expect to finish up with a highly desirable, modern, working toilet. I would try to design it so I had easy access for future maintenance.

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6 hours ago, Hectorsdad said:

I would not hesitate to simply replace the entire toilet and cistern. Accept that you will destroy the existing tiles and general structure and choose a new system that will satisfy your needs. Plan it carefully and expect to finish up with a highly desirable, modern, working toilet. I would try to design it so I had easy access for future maintenance.

Wasteful and daft when its a small job, still thats the world we live in these days. 

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Not useful to Danny, but a warning to those buying a house to be very wary of any equipment - toilet cisterns, bathroom plumbing and drainage, ventilation, etc. etc. needing eventual maintenance, but built into the house structure with no access except with possibly expensive structural work.

Last month we bought a free-standing wood stove which had been installed in a fairly new house. It had been replaced with a more modern one connected to the same flue system. Plenty of access all around the stove itself, but the chimney, which had an elbow or a tee, had been built into the wall behind, making cleaning or inspecting it quite a problem.

We bought the wood stove is to solve a problem we have. Our pellet stove needs electricity to operate, so if we were to have a supply failure we would have no heating unless we bought some portable gas or oil heaters. I had considered a pellet stove not requiring electricity, but these are expensive, and I read a few reports that their fuel consumption is high, that they don't burn efficiently, and produce excessive soot and tar deposits. The old wood stove was cheap enough, and should be adequate for emergency use.

The stove will be installed with a metal flue inside an existing masonry chimney, which is currently unused. We intend to store a few compressed wood logs inside the house, which are clean and don't harbour wood borers or other nasties.

Side & Chimney.jpg

Edited by ssomon
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19 hours ago, Hectorsdad said:

I would not hesitate to simply replace the entire toilet and cistern. Accept that you will destroy the existing tiles and general structure and choose a new system that will satisfy your needs. Plan it carefully and expect to finish up with a highly desirable, modern, working toilet. I would try to design it so I had easy access for future maintenance.

I suppose one could purchase a new car when the battery failed, too?

Or, in similar vein, knock down the house and build a new one...

 

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5 hours ago, Teapot1 said:

Alternatively a pellet stove can run from a small inverter battery setup during a power outage.

Yes. I did consider that possibility. The stove needs 800VA for normal operation, but can be switched to manual mode, which does not use the igniter unit, reducing the requirement to 460VA. A suitable inverter would probably take around 40 amps from a 12 volt battery to supply this.

I bought a 600VA inverter for this purpose, but then realised that the 12V 72AH battery I intended to use wouldn't even last 2 hours with a load of 38 amps, even when new and fully charged. The house is very well insulated, and the temperature wouldn't fall low enough to be a problem in that time, so I never installed the inverter, as we have only had quite short power interruptions since we moved here.

However, we had a power failure lasting over two days in our previous house, about 5 km away. We had a wood stove there, and I kept the deep freeze plus a few lights working by connecting the house to a portable generator. I have a fear of this happening again, and stove has been shut down a couple of times when its exhaust fan motor seized up. Fortunately the weather was mild at the time and we managed with the air/air heat pumps. I now have a rebuilt spare motor, but fitting it is not a quick job, especially if it were necessary in the middle of the night.

All considered, having an independent source of heating, which my wife can also manage to switch to, seemed to be the best route.

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Makes sense, aside from the igniter I am incredibly surprised with the current draw. What is it running other than a fan, a feed mechanism for the pellets?

The problem with lead acid is whatever the stated amp rating you can only use 50% without damaging the battety. Others like lithium ion phosphate can use 90%.

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Once the igniter has turned off, the exhaust blower and feed motor continue running. Tthe air circulation blower starts once the heat exchanger has warmed up enough, plus there is a control module and a few lights. The manual says 460 VA total, but I haven't measured this.

I am aware of the limitations of lead-acid batteries and problems associated with large UPS systems. Also, I prefer low-tech solutions. I supplied and installed high-tech solutions for super yachts for several years, but I didn't have to pay for them ?

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