I have a toilet with an issue I am not familiar with. The toilet flushes and the flapper seals fine. However, after the float comes up the valve only partially shuts off. It doesn't make much noise, so little that you can't hear it. Eventually, this leads to the tank overfilling, and eventually water starts dripping down the side of the toilet out of the hole in the side of the tank where the flush handle comes in.

Seems like the fill valve is leaking - easy enough fix. But isn't the open top pipe sticking up behind the flapper supposed to be an overfill protection? Waking up in the middle of the night to water all over the floor is no fun.

Do I need to cut down the height of the overflow pipe or is there some other fix? I'm afraid I may not understand the geometry/mechanism of it as well as I thought I did because I didn't think this should be possible. If I do need to cut it down, is there a rule for the height it should be or as long as it's below the flush handle opening it's fine?

This pic isn't my toilet but it looks very similar to my toilet. The pipe I'm asking about cutting is circled in yellow.

It is your fluid master have you replaced it

If not and when you do get the brass bottom also change the flapper

maddiedou said:

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It is your fluid master have you replaced it

If not and when you do get the brass bottom also change the flapper

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I'm not worried about replacing it. I'm worried that the overflow tube is too high to actually protect me from flooding my house when I'm out of town if the valve has an issue again in the future. I'm sure I can figure it out when I get into replacing the valve.

All my overflows and I have 80 of them are the same height and when I have a problem that your describing it is the fluid master but yes if you want to cut the overflow down then cut it but I dont think its gonna help you with the problem

I had a similar problem. I forgot what brand I had installed but the fill valve was adjustable, to control how much water in the tank was considered "full". Somehow, that fill valve head got raised so that the fill line of the tank was essentially at the same height as the flush handle's hole.

So, I lowered the fill valve head (the adjustable part) by about 3/4 inch and that fixed the problem. I don't recall the height of the drain tube but I know that I didn't cut it.

This is also correct. The fluid master has different heights on it so you can adjust it.

if the top of the overflow is actually higher than the height of the handle then yes, you should cut that down.

sts7049 said:

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if the top of the overflow is actually higher than the height of the handle then yes, you should cut that down.

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Thank you. Everyone else is missing the point. I know the valve needs to be replaced! I know the float is adjustable! The point is that when the valve breaks the water level should not be able to rise to the point of draining out the side of the toilet before it his the top of the overflow, this preventing the giant mess.

Sweet Kitten Feet said:

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But if the float isn't adjusted it will continue to try to fill to the same level even if you cut down the pipe. I really think the key is the float. Set it to the right level so that the tank doesn't fill up as much. If you can't get it to turn off by manipulating the float then it needs to be replaced, and then adjusted.

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sure, but if the float doesn't work with the overflow also set incorrectly it runs into the bowl. not the floor.

chap said:

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GarlandAg2012 said:

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sts7049 said:

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if the top of the overflow is actually higher than the height of the handle then yes, you should cut that down.

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Thank you. Everyone else is missing the point. I know the valve needs to be replaced! I know the float is adjustable! The point is that when the valve breaks the water level should not be able to rise to the point of draining out the side of the toilet before it his the top of the overflow, this preventing the giant mess.

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Do you even TexAgs? This is where you come to get answers to questions you didn't ask or to be told you're asking the wrong questions.

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Well to be fair it does seem he came to TexAgs to ask a question he already knew the answer to. Which I guess is SOP for TexAgs. So carry on all

I was more wanting to know if there are standards for how far apart things should be - like how far above the intended water level the overflow tube should be cut.

Sweet Kitten Feet said:

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But if the float isn't adjusted it will continue to try to fill to the same level even if you cut down the pipe. I really think the key is the float. Set it to the right level so that the tank doesn't fill up as much. If you can't get it to turn off by manipulating the float then it needs to be replaced, and then adjusted.

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The toilet has worked properly for years. The float is set perfectly fine. The problem is that the valve does not fully close when the float rises, which continues to slowly fill the tank. Normally, that can't flood your house because there is an overflow tube. However, if the overflow tube goes above the hole for the flush handle (as it does in my case), you get water in the floor instead of water out of the overflow and into the bowl.

All I wanted to know is how to know how low to cut the overflow tube, and if cutting it is the right answer or if there is a reason I might need to replace it instead. I'll cut the tube about 1/2" above the fill level that flushes the toilet properly and call it good.

Just to make it more clear, here is a diagram of the current situation.

cut it to midway between desired high water mark and bottom of flush handle hole.

Yep, good to go now.