What's in your toilet? Well, there's a flapper, a flush valve, a float, a fill valve, a tank lever assembly and an overflow.


  +------------------------------------------------+
  |  valves           _____                        |
  |   ___            /     \ float                 |
  |  |   |-----------      |                       |
  |  |   |           \_____/ _                     |
  |  |   |                  | |                    |
  |   | |                   | | overflow           |
  |   | |                   | |   tube             |
  |   | |                   | |                    |
  |   | |              \    | |                    |
  |   | |       flapper \   | |                    |
  |   | |                \  | |                    |
  |   | |          _______\ | |                    |
  |   | |         / drain  \| |                    |
  +------------------------------------------------+
     valve            to
     tube            bowl

Flushing your toilet involves pushing a lever which lifts the flapper. The water drains out and goes to the bowl. The fill valve starts immediately and directs water into the bowl and the tank. The flapper is weighted such that when the water level is slightly above the drain, the flapper closes and plugs the drain hole. The water begins to fill the tank (with an additional small tap that directs a stream of water to the bowl to refill it). As the water rises, it causes the float to rise with the water level. The float can be a ball on the end of an arm or a plastic float that rides up and down the valve tube. When the water is at a point just below the top of the overflow tube, the float closes the fill valve. You can adjust the shut off point by bending the float arm so the float is lower or by adjusting the height of the plastic float on the valve tube.

There are plenty of other nodes that tell you what can be found in the bowl section.

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