Flushometer Toilets and Urinals That Won't Flush or Keep Running

You walk into the restroom and hear it before you see it: a flushometer hissing after the flush, or a urinal that runs for a full minute. Or the opposite. You push the handle and the toilet barely moves water, and the bowl doesn't clear. Either way the fixture is out of service in staff's eyes, and a running flush valve can waste a lot of water over a weekend.

Flushometers are the commercial valves that flush toilets and urinals directly from the supply line, with no tank. They're built for heavy use, and they fail in a few predictable ways.

We open the valve and look. That's the most reliable diagnosis, because the symptom narrows it down but doesn't settle it.

A valve that keeps running usually has a worn or torn diaphragm, or debris stuck under it, so it never fully seats. A valve that flushes weakly or short is often a restricted supply: the control stop on the wall is partly closed, the inlet screen is clogged with scale, or the valve kit is worn. A sensor flushometer that doesn't respond adds a battery and a sensor to the list. If the fixture flushes fine but drains slowly, the flush valve isn't the problem. The line behind it is, and we treat that as a drain call.

We work on Sloan flushometers and the other common brands. After repair, we run the fixture several times to confirm the flush and the shutoff.

Most flushometer calls end with a new part, not a new valve. Replacing the diaphragm or valve kit, cleaning the inlet screen and adjusting the control stop will fix the large majority of the problems above. A battery swap fixes many sensor valves.

When the valve body is damaged, or it's a discontinued model and parts are hard to find, we say so and propose a replacement valve. That's written up for your approval before we do it, and it's worth doing once rather than chasing the same fixture every few months. Where the valve and the fixture are both worn, we'll compare repair against replacing the whole fixture.

Tell dispatch whether it's a toilet or urinal, whether it runs, flushes weakly or won't flush, and whether it's a handle or a sensor model. If you know the brand and model, even from the plate on the valve, that helps us bring the right kit.

Many commercial sites ask techs to check in and out, use a vendor PIN, or send invoices through a facility platform. Give us those details when you book and we'll work inside your process. If a valve is running now, closing the control stop on the wall will stop the waste until we arrive.

A tank toilet has a different mechanism, but the symptoms feel the same: running, weak flush, slow refill. If you have a flushometer toilet in a home, which is rare, the same valve repairs apply.