Flexi pipe leaking mid way

[dave_104]

Hi,
There's a flexi pipe fitted to the flush of my toilet and after about 5-6 years it's sprung a leak half way. It's NOT at the joints as you can see it clearly spurting out a jet when the loo is flushed. Pipe hasn't been disturbed and there appears to be no damage so I wondered if it's usual for these kind of pipes to leak or fail??
The pipe being bent downward forms an unintentional trap which always contains water and I wondered if the acidity or something like that with water being permanently in the pipe helped cause the problem? Maybe also with the loo being pushed back to the wall it's making an overtight bend too?

Reason for the flexi pipe is the cistern is not central vertically due to limited space to box it in. Ideally I'd like to fit solid pipe but am not sure how I can get enough room to swing around a couple of 90deg bends or what kind of pipe (solvent/compression) would reliably fit to the Geberit outlet pipe as I thought they used weird sizes? The rubber bung to the back of the loo is also missing (although despite the great wadge of silicone it does not leak from that point).

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Deleted member 267285]

It seems to be too tight a bend and has possibly failed due to that fact. Would be better in rigid, but seems out of level with the flush outlet and pan inlet?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

That's going to be a treat to sort out. Best way might be to acquire rubber bung for the back of the loo (so the flush becomes pushfit rather than wodged in with silicon) and then have a play with a length of 38mm plastic, fill it with sand, put fittings on each end (so the ends stay as a circle) then warm it up a bit (hairdryer warm not paint stripper gun hot) and try and form the offsets.

 

[just pumps]

Bending a pipe with sand and a hairdryer.

 

[Madrab]

Oh dear, there's bodges and then there's bodges and that's a beauty!!

I guess it was done to deal with the offset between the pan and cistern but that was always going to fail. When that pan's pushed back that flexi's under a fair amount of pressure, over time the plastic gets harder, and it's then more liable to crack. Surprised the silicone/adhesive/wetgrab/nomorenails/mait/toiletroll/UHU/gaffa/etc held for so long

That really needs done properly though.

 

[dave_104]

Oh blimey, maybe I should have put a radiator on that wall and the bog somewhere else!
Thanks very much for all your replies guys. Seems maybe I could swing that outlet by 90deg and maybe then have some room inside the boxing to deal with getting rigid bends or a heated bent pipe to get the pipe out at the right place. Just weighing up the options as the isolating valve is still letting a bit of water pass and so I don't want to strip it all apart until I'm clear what I'm going to do and have everything to hand.... I'm praying for a miraculous solution!
Does anyone know how I should connect to the Geberit down-pipe, and if it's possible to chop it as it comes down before it's bend outwards? (I think some pipes vary in diameter). Like would that be best a solvent weld or compression?

 

[Madrab]

I think you need to check out pipe sizes here - sometimes you can get away with 40mm waste pipe, if so you may be able to use normal plumbing fittings and come out left and then a bend and then a piece of straight pipe into a proper flush cone - that's the proper rubber adapter to connect the flush pipe into the pan.

You will need to clean off all the sealer and then see if the outlet connection on the cistern is still complete and has the proper seals.

Do you still have the proper gerbit flush pipe etc?