plumbingtoilet
The inside of my toilet tank was just replaced. For some reason after I flush, the tank refills much slower than before. It looks like the person who installed it put the overfill pipe in a different direction than the picture shows.
Can this make a difference? Should the refill hose be inside the refill pipe?
It seems as if you have an obstruction that may be floating around in the pipe or valve. Sometimes it obstructs sometimes it flows clear. I would start with changing the water valve. If this is the old style "gate" valve there are several things that can clog the line. I would replace it with a 1/4 turn ball valve. That will give you much better flow than a gate valve. You will need to shut down the water probably at the main. The old valve is probably soldered, but you could cut it off and use a compression type valve instead. "Sharkbite" is one such supplier. Although I have never used their compression valve, I have used their end caps and found them to work well.
If you can have someone hold a bucket under the pipe once you cut off the valve and then a second person turns on the water main to fill the bucket to purge the line of any debris. With cast iron pipes it is common to get clogs from rust build up. The rust may not pass the small opening in the old gate valve when you first purged the line.. Although you did not mention what type of pipes you have, if it's copper than you won't normally find rust obstructions..
That's a fairly popular fill valve. To open it:
The cap will then lift off and you can inspect and clean any parts. Before reinstalling the cap, move any small parts to a safe location, get a small cup to place over the top of the valve, and turn on the water supply. This will jet water straight up from the top of the valve and clear out any debris.
Reinstalling the cap is the reverse of the above procedure. Put the parts back, position the cap back on top, lift the float, press down on the cap, and twist.
Note that if cleaning it doesn't work, it's fairly simple to replace this fill valve.
Best Answer
With a new fill valve, the slower filling could be a result of either:
New styles may fill slower to reduce the effect of large pressure swings when flushing the toilet (no more screaming from the shower after every flush). If this is your problem, then it's "working as designed."
When operating any cutoff valve, there's always the possibility that it will fail, particularly with the old gate valves. Many have been moving to the quarter turn ball valves for the shutoffs within the home due to their increased reliability.
The most likely cause of a slow fill is not completely purging the fill valve during installation. After all the internals have been connected, there is usually a step to open the top of the fill valve with the water turned off. On one of the more common fill valve styles, this requires the float to the lifted up while pressing down on the top of the fill valve and then give it a quarter turn like you would a medicine bottle. With the cap off, you clean and set aside any small parts, put a cup over top of the fill valve, and turn on the water supply for 15 seconds. The cup is to keep the geyser from shooting all over the bathroom and stay inside the toilet. You then reassemble the valve with the above procedure in reverse.
For the overfill pipe, the only position inside the toilet that matters for this is the height. It needs to be below any openings inside the toilet tank (e.g. a gap in the back or an opening for the flush handle), and then you adjust the float to stop below the overflow. I tend to give myself between 1/2" to a 1" margin of safety for each of these heights. Then the refill hose goes into the overflow tube. The fill valve sends water two directions, most out of it's base into the tank, and the rest out the refill tube to refill the toilet bowl itself. If you remove this refill hose, the bowl will not refill and you'd get sewer gasses coming out the toilet when the water level drops the slightest bit.