How Toilets are Put Together

It can be confusing when you’re doing a little DIY plumbing, so we put together some information for you to understand the basics of your toilet. What are all the pieces and parts? If someone says, “your flapper may not be sealed”, do you even know what a flapper is?

A toilet has two main parts, the tank and the bowl. The tank holds all the “plumbing” so to speak. It has all the bits that make the toilet flush. This includes the fill valve, the flush valve, the flapper, and the float. And of course the bowl is the part you sit on. 

Toilet tank components

• Toilet/flush handle: The lever on the side of the tank that you push or pull to flush. A dual-flush toilet will have buttons on the tank lid. (There is a dual flush tank that has two buttons on top that can release different amounts of water.)
• Trip lever:  Connected to the toilet handle on the outside of the tank and connected to the flapper by a chain. When you push down on the toilet handle, it will pull the chain, breaking the seal and allowing water to “flush” the bowl. 
• Chain: Connects the flush handle to the flapper.
• Float ball: Looks like a ball that floats on the water's surface to signal the fill valve to stop the flow of water once it reaches the correct level.
• Fill valve/ Ballcock:  This controls the flow of water into the tank and refills it after the toilet is flushed.
• Flush valve/gasket: A large opening at the bottom of the tank that is sealed by the flapper valve.
• Flapper Valve: Seals the flush valve, so the tank can fill with water. It’s like a plug.  When the toilet is flushed, it lifts up to let water rush into the bowl.
• Overflow tube: A vertical tube that prevents the tank from overfilling and therefore overflowing out of the toilet.
• Supply line: A flexible hose that connects the toilet to the water supply line on the wall. 
• Stop valve/Shut off valve: Attached to the water supply line on the wall,  this valve can turn the water off and stop the flow into the toilet tank.

Toilet bowl components

• Seat and lid
• Rim: The top edge of the bowl that has small holes underneath to allow water to flow in and rinse the bowl.
• Trapway: The S-shaped pipe at the bottom of the bowl that carries waste into the drain.
• Siphon jet: A jet of water that clears the trapway.
• Closet flange: A fitting that connects the toilet and seals to the waste pipe. 

Use this as a guide to understand how a toilet works. Hopefully this understanding will help you maintain your toilet when necessary. And when things are beyond your own skills, give us a call at Tony’s Plumbing and Heating and we can get your toilet flushing again in no time.