I am trying to resolve what appears to be a resonance issue associated with one of our toilets. I replaced a Fluidmaster valve that was making a high pitched noise with one of the better Fluidmaster valves with adjustment controls for toilet and tank fill level. Immediately after installing that valve we started having a loud vibration and jackhammer noise while the toilet is filling. Tweaking the adjustments on that valve did not resolve the issue. I replaced that valve with a Korky valve and have the same noise. Next, replaced the hose and added a water hammer arrestor at the toilet valve connection. The house water pressure is 63 psi. If other water is running in the house the noise does not occur. I have also turned water off and opened all faucets for 20 minutes to try to restore airspace in any existing water hammer arrestors. Water valve is opened fully. Hot water heater has an expansion tank. The single story house was built in 1963 and this is the first time this issue has occurred in the many years we've lived here. Any ideas?
Very loud noise with toilet flush
- Thread starter Jim666
- Start date
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Try slowing the valve down since you changed it a couple times. Close the shut off valve a little bit at a time
and see if that makes any difference.
and see if that makes any difference.
I tried different flow rates on the inlet valve but that didn't seem to make a difference. Surprising how violent that vibration is. During one test I had my hand on the inlet valve and opening full seemed to stop it, but I think that might have been due to the pressure change disrupting the resonance.
You might have a loose washer inside the shut off valve. Take it apart or maybe replace the shut off valve.
Thanks Tom. I bought a rebuild kit for my Brassmaster shutoff valve, but found that the stem is pretty stuck in the valve. I seemed to have freed something up in the process of trying to loosen it, will have to see. Anyone know a trick for removing a stuck stem? I tried removing it with it turned to various positions.
Continually turning counterclockwise until the stem comes out of the valve body.
Just to close this out, the problem was with the shutoff valve. I was able to partially disassemble the valve but for some reason the stem couldn't be removed without risking damage to the valve housing, so I'll wait until we R&R the toilet. In the process of trying to remove the stem I seemed to have freed things up so that there was a wider range of movement and that seems to have resolved the issue. Thank you @TomFOhio and @Twowaxhack for your suggestions.
arctic bill
Well-Known Member
What is your water pressure, if it is over 65 psi that could be the cause .
I wanted to revisit this to provide a little update. Where we left things, the shutoff valve innards could not be replaced without risk damaging the pipe in the process but I was able to open the valve further and that stopped my water hammer issue. Today we had a new issue, the shutoff valve was leaking. I was not looking forward to soldering a new valve in that confined space and was looking at using compression fittings. In the process of researching that I discovered shark bite fittings and a replacement valve complete with a shark bite connector and attached hose along with a quarter turn valve. Took about 10 minutes all in from cutting the old valve off and cleaning up the copper pipe to installing the new valve and connecting the water supply hose.
