Update: 2/16/2014:
Over a period of time, the flush buttons became annoying and
occasionally required tightening, so I upgraded my unit by purchasing 2
items:
- flush handle
that looks more like a traditional handle with two levers for light and
heavy and replaces the disc/button like device that comes with the
original dual flush listed in the original story below.
- Once that lever
arrived, it appeared that it would only work with the green cable
connector, so I ended up purchasing with the...Dual-Flush Toilet Converter.
Overall, I'm really happy with the upgrade. The lever is easier for guests to understand and looks aesthetically more pleasing.
Original Publication Date: 10/23/2011:
I suppose my mild obsession with plumbing projects started at an early age watching my father fix minor toilet problems. As I recall one time, the toilet would not flush, so I patiently watched my dad remove the porcelain top, invert it and place it on the toilet seat. He next inspected the lever to find out if it was in fact pulling the chain, which it did. He manually grabbed the chain and gently lifted to see if the flapper, deep in the well, would lift. It did. After a few minutes of what appeared to be minor adjustments, the testing began. This is the part I remember most vividly. Dad would flush the toilet. And then he would just wait, watching the water completely recede, until that moment, in an instant, the flapper would drop like a hammer, and boom, the water would start filling up again. He would do this at least 4-5 times, each time, carefully watching all of the mechanisms that made the toilet work within the toilet engine, if you will. It's as if this was our mini-automobile, but with a lot less parts, and no chance of blowing things up. Worst case scenario, some water might drip onto the floor, but the odds of a pipe exploding were nearly zero.
Fast forward 30 years and I was running into COSTCO for a quick item (nearly impossible to do in COSTCO), when I decided to walk towards the left to pass the less frequently visited isles. Towards the back I noticed a plumbing product. It was called the
HydroFlush DUAL-FLUSH and offered to save over $100 each year... something I could easily sell to my wife. So I read further and after seeing that I could completely eliminate the lever, chain and flapper, I decided to make the purchase, considering my toilet was currently using a rubber band to keep the chain at a perfect distance from the flapper. In addition, the mechanism worked by using two types of flushes, a heavy flush and a light one. Seems
ingenious, but will it work?
Several weeks later, I had some free time to tackle this project, so I made my way to the bathroom and began the same ritual of removing the
porcelain top. After reading the instructions on the DUAL-FLUSH, I quickly disassembled all of the necessary parts, gladly removed the lever, chain with accompanying rubber band and $3 flapper which I had purchased a year prior, and promptly proceed to install the mechanism. What I soon realized was that the floating balloon needed to remain in to tell the inflow when to stop. This was a problem because the rusty screw dowel was resting right on top of the intake valve.
I had to bend the dowel with two wrenches to make this process work, which it did, but something was wrong. The water would barely flush using the “light flush” mode, and leave residual water in the bowl. Mind you, I watched several YOUTUBE videos on installing this DUAL-FLUSH before tackling the project, and it seems easy, but no one had mentioned anything about this type of problem.
I went back on YOUTUBE and found another video about a guy who had a toilet tank similar to mine in shape and size and was experiencing the same issue. To solve the problem, he adapted a vinyl tube, similar to the ones used in high school for funneling beer, cut off a several inch piece and using a hair dryer, attached the tube to the top of the intake valve so that the water could reach a higher level in the toilet. Apparently a full 2” of water was required ABOVE the blue gauge on the DUAL-FLUSH mechanism.
At this point I realized that I was not going to be able to finish the project on that day. Fast forward another couple weeks. I stopped at Lowe’s and purchase a
Fluidmaster 
to get rid of the ballcock contraption which was leaving rusted bits on the floor of my tank. I also purchased the tubing.
A week or two later, the time had come to finish this project once and for all. I used the same hair drying method to melt the vinyl, which worked like a charm. I also used a zip tie to be extra sure the seal was tight since I was not using any glue, assuming the melted vinyl would suffice, which it did. After installing the the necessary parts, everything seemed to work. I left the tank cover off for a few days, just to watch the water ebb and flow.
So now it seems to be working, but I wanted to know for sure if this is actually working. I measured the amount of cubic volume of water being used on my other toilet which houses the older mechanism and compared it with the DUAL-FLUSH. On “light” flushes, I use 50% less water and on heavy flushes, about 4% less.
Pretty cool!
