Low- and high-level toilet cisterns

[Maris]

Hello, here's a quick plumbing-related question:
When we bought the loo for our house a few months ago, it was on the basis that it had to fit into a low-ceilinged bit of the bathroom and so we bought a low-level pan & cistern set.. we've now discovered a better spot, where the ceiling is higher. Can we just add a bit of pipe between the pan and the cistern to make the loo an attractive high level job with pull-chain etc, or is there some important difference between the two designs which means that we absolutely must not do this?

thanks

Maris

 

[Lime]

It depends on the type of low level toilet.
Some are connected with a small section of pipe and these can easily be extended to become high level.

However "close-coupled" toilets are connected directly by a thick rubber ring with bolts (usually) and the connection to the pan is different from high level types with a pipe.
I am not aware of a suitable pipe connection to convert this type to a high level unit.

 

[Nemesis]

A high level cistern is usually flushed with a pull chain and a lever mechanism which fits into the side. A low level one, even if not close coupled, has a hole in the front of the cistern and a handle to flush.

This is by no means an ad as I have no experience at all of this firm's products - but all types of cistern are pictured here if you click on the links and enlarge the pics, when all should become clear:

http://www.nextag.co.uk/cistern-toilet/zzukzB1z0--search-html

 

[Moo]

The majority seem to be sold by Screwfix. Is there no end to what this amazing firm sells?

 

[Penners]

A high level cistern is usually flushed with a pull chain and a lever mechanism which fits into the side. A low level one, even if not close coupled, has a hole in the front of the cistern and a handle to flush.

But it would be easy to modify the front-mounted handle to be actuated from below by a chain.

Bit more difficult with one of those push-button-in-the-top jobs, though.

 

[Penners]

Maris - Lime has explained the technical reason why a close-coupled toilet would be difficult to modify as you wish, but there is also an aesthetic reason. The underside face of a close-coupled cistern is not usually glazed, so would look unpleasant when viewed from below.

As a matter of interest, why do you want to do this? Is it just to make the setup look more "old-fashioned"?

 

[Nemesis]

I suspect a chain attached to the front of a cistern, via a hole presumably in the lever, and with a pull handle on the end, may well assault anyone sitting on the lav though. At least those at the side are tucked away.

It would always look a spot Heath Robinson I think.

 

[Penners]

Well, I was thinking of something a little more "engineered" than that!

 

[Lime]

I suspect a chain attached to the front of a cistern, via a hole presumably in the lever, and with a pull handle on the end, may well assault anyone sitting on the lav though. At least those at the side are tucked away.

It would always look a spot Heath Robinson I think.

The chain connected to a lever/handle was used quite often at the time of transition from old style public toilets to more modern plumbing.
The pan of high-level toilets was usually positioned further forward than modern low-level versions so being hit on the head didn't happen.
However because many of the plastic cisterns were not very well attached to the wall and much more flimsy (unlike the old cast iron) it was common for the chain to be used to pull the cistern off the wall.
They didn't last long.


Maris have you thought of taking the loo back and exchanging it?

 

[Maris]

Hello again, and thanks for the replies

it was indeed purely for aesthetic reasons that I wanted a high level cistern.. I had forgotten that the chain is in a different place and it would probably look a bit odd. I could exchange it, but it was incredibly cheap (about £50 in a sale!) and high-level ones are all more expensive for some reason.
There was a nice high-level one and a matching sink, apparently. They were in concrete block lean-to, probably put up in the 1930s, but were all broken up by the time we took the place on. There was also a corrugated iron lean-to privey with a wooden bench with a hole in it, and the old boy that lived there before us just used a bucket. So I guess it really isn't too important what our new loo looks like.