Less Wobbly Toilet Seat With a Cake Pan and a Piece of Car Trim

Toilet seat with top fixings,
and take off fixing.

Over Christmas I stayed with friends who had a wobbly toilet seat. This is the type with "top fixing", a concealed hinge and "take off" seat, all of which makes it less secure.

seat fixing kit

The fixings were loose, and no amount of tightening made a difference. So I bought a seat fixing kit. The nylon plugs were more secure, and the Allen keyed bolts were easier to tighten than the Phillips-head originals.

cake pan

However, the fitting on the replacement kits was smaller than the original, and the seat would not clip on. So I used the replacement bolt and plug, with the original fitting, which worked fine. Refitting the seat, I found it more secure, but it still wobbled. So next I added silicone gaskets (cut from a cake pan).

PVC Pinchweld

The gaskets made the mounting more secure, but it still slipped. So the final step was to add 340 mm of PVC Pinchweld to the front lip of the seat. This fits around the outside of the front quarter of the toilet bowl, and locks the seat in place, stopping it moving sideways.

Go With The Flow a Waste of Water

The University of East Anglia (UEA) reported that two students started a "Go with the flow" campaign encouraging people to urinate in the shower to save water. It was claimed this would save 12 litres of water per day. However, this assumes that the person has the same length shower. If this lengthens the shower, then it may increase the amount of water used. Males in particular are said not to be able to multi-task. ;-)

UEA appears to not have put in place any effective water saving practices. The university quotes the figure of 12 litres of water used to flush a toilet, which is twice  the figure for an Australian standard dual flush toilet. Also UEA could install low or waterless urinals. In addition, low flow shower heads can halve the amount of water used. The water savings from implementing what is routine in Australia would save UEA (and the UK) far more water than publicity stunts like "Go with the flow".

Lower Cost Dual Flush Outlet Valve for Toilet

In 2006 I installed a "Fix-A-Loo" dual flush valve to convert an old toilet cistern from single to dual flush. Recently I needed another unit and noticed the "R&T Outlet Valve, Button and Base" distributed in Australia by Gemini Industries at Magnet Mart. The R&T unit was about half the price of the Fix-a-Loo and was simpler to install.

The R&T has most of the mechanics housed in a cylindrical body with two sliders near the bottom to set the water levels (for full and half flush). I thought this would be harder to adjust that the Fix-a-loo which has the adjustment near the top. But the whole cylinder of the R&T unit un-clips easily from the base. So you can remove the whole unit. You can remove the unit to make adjustments.

Also the push buttons of the R&T unit are attached to the top of the cistern, so it can be simply removed with the buttons in place. The Fix-a-loo has the buttons fixed to the outlet valve body, so you have to unscrew the buttons from the cistern lid to access the unit.

One problem with the R&T unit is that you have to cut to length the rods which connect the buttons to the valve. There is a screw thread to make fine adjustments to length, but there is still the worry you will cut the rods too short. In contrast the Fix-a-loo has clips to set the length with no cutting required.

I could not find any details of the R&T unit on-line, but it is similar in appearance to the  Robertson Universal Dual Flush Outlet Valve. There are some Toilet Dual Flush Valves on amazon.com, but it is not clear if these are suitable for Australian cisterns.

3D Printed Parts for Toilet?

One way the Internet can help the environment and the community is by providing advice on replacement parts and instructions on how to repair, rather than replace products. One example is keeping a flush toilet operating. Older cisterns use more water, but can be upgraded to a dual flush and the outlet valve can be repaired if you have instructions. Most recently the inlet valve was leaking, wasting water and making an annoying noise. A replacement toilet fill valve is around $15, but I only needed the $4 Ballcock Replacement Seal.

Apart from saving some money, replacing a seal or washer, rather than the whole unit, results in less material thrown away. However, it can be difficult to work out exacly what needs replacing, how to remove it and what to get. I found Graeme Hawkins video "How to replace a ballcock washer in a toilet cistern" very useful (complete with New Zealand accent). But for hardware stores to stock large numbers of seals and replacement parts is a problem

 Perhaps a 3D printer could be used to manufacture these parts on demand. University of Washington students are reported to have 3D printed a whole toilet.

ps: The Canberra "Make, Hack, Void" is holding a free conference to show off some of their work (including 3D printing).  MHV MakerConf 2013 is 2 February 2013 at the Australian National University in Canberra, in conjunction with LCA2013.