I have been having a problem with my toilet for quite a few weeks now (and I cannot believe I haven´t mentioned it yet). Having reread the first sentence, maybe I should rephrase it.
At the start of the year, I discovered a large crack down the from of the toilet cistern in my bathroom. I actually woke up in the night, visualising it breaking apart and wondering where all the water torrents of water would go to (ok, slight hyperbole).
I decided the best thing to do was drain it, but of course that requires stopping the refilling process - so all the usual hassle with head between knees and as I tried to adjust the stop-tap hidden under the back of the unit.
Managed that and drained it, so slept slightly better for a couple of nights, but then the replacement started to haunt me (and actually still does). The following is the response from the makers :
"El modelo Sydney está descatalogado y no hay disponibilidad del tanque . No hay otro tanque compatible con el modelo".
and actually says the model is out of production and no other cistern is compatible. Great. Thanks for that. I only have 5* of them in the house - oh, and by the way, beige colour is no longer produced in anything at all either, but they do have "pergamon". Bit of a bugger when the whole house has beige roca fittings everywhere.
I was actually not unaware of this issue, as another cistern broke in a similar way about 3 or 4 years ago (obviously a design flaw) whereupon my late-lamented plumber Antonio disappeared into the bowels of some sanitary suppliers and produced a cistern which managed to make the basement loo funtional again. White, but you honestly would not notice.
Digression - spent some time on the Roca website trying to identify the model, but it seems the numbers stamped inside have nothing to do with the model - in fact the makers asked me to send a couple of ´photos so they could identify it (as being out of production!). Eventually they decided it was their late 90´s model "Sydney" - something my builder established in 10 seconds by looking at the name under the seat lid. Oh bugger - the whole kit and caboodle is part of an outdated system (therefore replacement bog seats and lids are pretty unlikely as they are unique too).
I tried to establish which model it was that Antonio had installed (before his untimely demise, so no question of asking him) and Roca proved equally useless in identifying that - just reverting with their standard"no hay otra" (there is no other).
I am no almost an expert in Roca fittings - and have established that the real key features are the location of the main hole, the distance between the two mounting holes, and, critically, the depth (front to back) of the unit as it needs to be slim. One other factor is the location of the water feed hole, as dependent upon the model of the potential replacement, I may need to have a side "feed" as per Antionio´s installation.
A friend-of-a-friend is a plumber and mentioned he had a couple of cisterns in his workshop - and after a few weeks wait, he brought me one - one which, unfortunately fitted all the specs except for the depth. He then sent one he found in the Roca agency, but had ignored my request to check the space between the mounting holes as there weren´t any as it was a bloody wall mounted model.
Now my local builder´s merchants have two or three demo models in their showroom and I think that one (or maybe two) will actually fit. I even took the tops off and checked the spec inside, which caused some consternación. Next I need to try to talk them into letting me bring one home to test (the problem will be in separating it from the bowl in the shop), but permission is the first step. Today I shall check the specs on the website for the identified models, then next week make the request.
Nuclear option is to replace the whole system in the basement with a new white one, then put the "Antionio" cistern in the guest bathroom (where it is well hidden in a corner), then put the guest one in my bathroom.
Why are toilets such a pain in the .....
+ Well - over the weekend I built spreadsheet (who me?) of potential slim models and how the fittings worked. It came down to two potential models, one of which was in the display area at San Anton, albeit with a side water entry I did my arab stuff and spent two or 2 minutes bonding about trivia, then asked (new best mate) Antonio if a) they would sell the cistern separately and b) whether I could try it before buying. He said OK and no need to disassemble that one as he had one boxed in the store - and he even carried it to the car for me. Told him I´d be 20 minutes and went home and took it upstairs to test mountings, and, bloody hell, they are perfect and it even has a water feed in the bottom of this one.
Thought I´d better install it to ensure it was OK, so with plumber´s mate G assisting, I got it installed muy rapido. Minor problemette with the feed tube which ended up being removed and reversed to make fitting easier (full removal allowed me to put the tank-end on first). Flushed with glee (and bog flushing too) I went back to pay, and in a fit of pure benevolence ´phoned my builder to ask him if he would like it against his account so he could get the VAT. He very happy with that, so asked Antonio to bill it to Ernesto but allow me to pay cash. No problem, says he, and that will get you his discount too!!
I couldn´t quite work out how I had ended up with such a perfect model when nothing seemed to fit the specs online, as had found the specs on the website showed it as having wider bolt mounts - whereas reality was that they turned out to be the regular size.
AND I even got all the internals as part of the deal - which was a blessing as the water release mechanism was marginally different.
Well - bastardising / paraphrasing the old La Bamba lyrics - "yo soy fontanero, no capitan". Tra-La.
Happy bogger blogger
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