Toilet Cistern Fill valves - How do they work?

What is a fill valve? Well its that all important device that fills your toilet cistern back up after flushing the loo. Providing water 

Firstly there are two different types. The old style are the ones are usually brass with an arm and plastic float. The modern fill valves have a float that slides up and down its body (which can be adjusted in height depending on the volume of water) and are much more being accurate. 

Next, how do they work? When you flush the toilet the cistern empties, the float on the fill valve will drop and allows the arm to release the washer within the valve to let the water in to fill up the cistern to its previous level. 

As the cistern fills up the float will be pushed up by the water and will shut off the water coming in by pressing the rubber diaphragm washer, then hey presto the cistern is full and your toilet is ready for flushing again! 

But like everything over time these washers gradually start to fail and need replacing and as always there are different types for different valves 

You can find diaphragm washers here. Or if you fancy a new start our range of fill valves can be found here

                                       
Modern Fill Valve                                      Old style Fill Valve

                                 Liff Water Filters
Your water may look clean enough to drink but there could be thousands of impurities.


Liff water filters are designed to keep your water safe for you and your family by removing things like : 

• Bad taste & Chlorine.
• Scale
• Scum 
• Lead
• Heavy metal 
• Organic chemical

Water filters do this by trapping any contaminants in the filter. 

Most filters these days are activated charcoal. 

A charcoal water filter works by absorbing large amounts of gases, including most poisonous ones, which stick to the charcoal, while the pure water passes through to come out of the tap. 

As charcoal has such a large surface area, it can absorb a lot of impurities in the water.

All Charcoal Liff Water Filters can be found here.

Another type of filter is a reverse osmosis filter. 

This is the process of water passing through an ultra-fine semi-permeable membrane, where all the impurities are caught and diverted down the drain while the pure water passes through to a storage tank for later use.

If you have a charcoal filter then it is always highly recommended that you replace the filter cartridge at least every 6 months.

At the Plumbers Mate we offer a range of replacement water filters and cartridges. 

Replacement Water Filters and Cartridges