TOOL TIPS

Easy toilet flapper replacement, removing foreign objects from toilets, another use for garbage bags

Tool Tips: December 2014

Easy toilet flapper replacement

Here’s an idea that has saved me time and money when changing a flapper or flush valve on a water closet. Take a 3/8-in. poly supply line and insert it under the fill valve arm to stop water flow. Flush the toilet. Change the flapper or seal. Remove the supply line and test out.

Amy Shaw

Ashland, Ohio

Removing foreign objects from toilets

If you can’t unplug a toilet with a closet auger, try a shop vac — it will pull most anything out. If that doesn’t work, pull the toilet from the floor and turn it upside down. Tie a rag on a wire. Insert the wire and pull object back through the toilet.

Cliff Osborn

Cliff Osborn Plumbing & Sewer

Mantua, Ohio

Another use for garbage bags

When removing old, leaking water heaters, I slide a “contractor-sized” garbage bag on the lower half of the water heater to prevent rusty water from leaking on the finished floor. Teeter-tottering the old heater across the cart makes installing the bag easier.

Dave Brown

Dave’s Heating & Cooling

Grundy Center, Iowa

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