Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes the cheapest and simplest part of a system is the one that fails and you may have to buy half a dozen of them to find one that works.

I had a bad experience repairing that large appliance in the bathroom. Did you know that you can crawl under a toilet? You can, and it is as bad as it sounds.

After four or five hours of work (I removed the water tank from the toilet bowl, replaced the connecting parts, and attached it again) the problem I was trying to fix still existed. More research on the Internet, that bastion of knowledge known as YouTube, indicated that the problem was with the flapper.

The toilet flapper is that small rubbery-like object that sits atop a large hole. Its function in life is to stop water from flowing out of the tank. It is also the cheapest and simplest part in the system.

What are the odds of having four flappers that don’t seal the hole? The odds are small, but, as they say, greater than zero. Well, I had four flappers that didn’t seal the hole. Water leaked around the seal.

The fifth flapper I had—don’t ask how many trips to Home Depot were required—worked.

Lessons Learned:

Sometimes it is the cheapest and simplest part in the system that breaks.

When you go to the logistics depot, a.k.a., Home Depot in this case, obtain extra parts.

Don’t assume that “brand new” parts work, especially if they only cost $3 at the end of the retail chain (10 cents to make).

Crawl under a toilet at your own peril.