Why yes, I CAN “overhaul” my toilet tank — and here’s the video to prove it.

My toilet’s has been acting funky for the past 6 months or so. The main symptom was that I had to hold the flusher down for at least 3 seconds for a full flush. I got used to it. But when I returned from my trip, I found that the tank would not refill unless I opened the tank lid and poked at one of the parts so it dropped. That got old fast. I decided I needed to repair it.

I bought a Korky complete toilet repair kit which contained the complete guts of a toilet tank. They recommended that I watch a video on the installation and I did. It was helpful because although it was not narrated, it did cover all of the steps so I knew in advance what I’d be doing.

I should mention here — in case you don’t watch the narrated video below — that I knew I’d be doing this sooner or later. In an effort to reduce the accumulation of minerals inside the toilet, I’d been using bleach tablets in the tank. I was warned multiple times that it would eventually corrode the tank’s workings but I used them anyway — and will likely continue to do so. I think that the corrosion I found was a combination of those tablets putting bleach in my tank and the actual minerals in the water, which really screw up certain fixtures, like my shower head and sink sprays. The only way to resolve this issue is to install a water softener and, frankly, I don’t want to do that.

Anyway, I set to work at around 2 PM on Friday afternoon and was done by 3:30 PM. I think I spent more time fetching tools than actually doing work. I set up one of my GoPros to create a “hyperlapse” timelapse movie of the process so I could put it in this blog post. I then edited it in iMovie to make a simple, narrated video. Here it is:

The toilet works fine now and, somehow, it’s quieter — not that that really matters much to me. It’s nice to have done this on my own, considering a plumber would charge $75 just to come to my house.