Yes Bunnings is only $85 at our local one. We decided to cancel the plumber and will go to Bunnings and buy a cistern there and try to install it ourselves as it could mean a saving of $160+. Although I'm a little worried it will fit as they said they only have 6 litre ones these days for water saving etc but our one is 11 litres but the water level stops at 6 litres so it might work, fingers crossed! The man at Bunnings said if it stops at 6 litres then it probably will be ok but he said he was not 100% sure. He said the other thing that we might need is a flexible hose ($10) in case the chrome one on there does not fit in the same spot. I guess it will be a matter of trying it, not sure if we should buy the hose as it would mean a trip back to the city to buy it if it needs one?
Also How hard is it to get the big pipe part off? it seems to have a large round nut, do we need a special tool for this? Is there any other thing we need like glue or anything? So just turning the water tap off on the toilet is all we need to do before or do we need to turn the mains water off outside?
I guess if we get stuck we can ring a plumber to install it although I hope we can still have the toilet working until they can come, maybe just using a bucket of water to flush it
Ok this is what you need to do to install the new cistern.
1: Turn the water off at the wall next to the toilet
2: Flush the toilet and empty it as much as possible with the flush
3: Undo the water connection, whether it be copper pipe or flexi hose.
4: Undo the big nut beneath the cistern
5: There should be a rubber on that flush pipe connecting it to the toilet. Take that off.
6: Remove the pipe, water may come out of it.
7: Now your ready to remove the cistern, undo the screws on the wall and pull the whole unit off. Carry it outside carefully, there will probably still be some water in it.
8: Now your ready to mark out your new cistern. Pull the cistern out of the box, now you have an "Inlet Valve" on the cistern that allows the water to go in. This is what the flexi-hose will have to connect to. It's usually located on the right side of the cistern, if your water point is on the right side of the toilet (when facing the wall) then you will have to undo the nut underneath and move it over to the left side. (Older buildings usually have the water point on the left)
9: Once thats ready, put the old flush pipe onto the cistern with the old seal and nut. Do it up but not too tight as you need to move the pipe around. Now you are ready to get the placement of your cistern.
10: You will now need a little level + a pen/pencil. Put the cistern onto the wall roughly in place of the old cistern. Now line up the old flush pipe that is connected to the inlet of the toilet bowl. Make sure its centre. If you are happy with that height, put the level on the cistern (there is usually a spot that allows the level to sit nicely) and make sure it's perfectly level while making sure that flush pipe is still going straight into the centre of the toilet inlet.
11: If you are happy with this placement, mark a line across the top of the cistern. This is so you can get it level when screwing it into place and also mark where the screws go have to go. Normally cisterns go into place and slide down onto the screws so check that your marking it in the right position.
Note that if the wall is tiled or brick, then you will need to drill into the wall and put in some green plugs. I forget what size drillbit they take so you will need to check that out. If it's just plasterboard, then continue on.
12: Now get your new flush pipe that came with the cistern and cut that to the same size as the old one (aslong as the old one fitted perfectly with the new cistern!) Make sure you use a fine blade on these and clean the ends of debris.
13: Now put the rubber for the flush pipe to toilet on the pipe. Usually they look like this (http://images.productserve.com/preview/1563/15754588.jpg) make sure you have the right size on. Once it's on all the way, pull the edges on the outside back over itself.
14: Sit the flush pipe into the toilet and now pull the edges back to the way it's meant to go so it latches onto the toilet. Now put the nut and rubber on the other end to go into the cistern.
15: Now you might need 2 people here. Get one person to sit the cistern into place, as you put it into place make sure you feed the flush pipe into the cistern.
16: Now you should have it basically in place with the flush pipe connected. The 2nd person should now screw the cistern into place while the 1st holds it into position making sure it's level with the line drawn previously.
17: Now it should be screwed into place and sturdy. Now make sure the nut that goes from the flush pipe to the cistern is done up tight. Be careful not to cross thread it!
18: Get your flexi hose and connect it up to the cistern and water point. Now these have rubbers in them so all you need to do is do them pretty hand tight, then get a spanner or multi's and nip it up about half a turn. It shouldn't leak.
Note that sometimes the inlet valve will have a plastic plug to stop crap getting into the valve so make sure it's taken out if there is one.
19: Turn the water on and test her out. Check for leaks. If it leaks, either tighten it up or undo it, check its sitting right and clean then re-tighten.
I hope this helps, it's only a quick guide to how we do it at work. It's not that hard, it's just a bit fiddly. Take your time, double check and triple check everything! Especially when you are cutting or drilling.
Enjoy!
Andrew.
