Efficient Living Forum - HydroClean 660 Toilet Valve Review

The valve in one of the toilets in my house broke right at the neck that connects to the bottom of the toilet tank. It was a clean break that we luckily caught on the way to work one morning. I suspect the break was caused due to a couple of reasons, 1. excessive water pressure; I recently replaced a flapper in the toilet and when turning the water back on, I may have turned the valve back on into the full position delivering maximum water pressure. Also the toilet is located on the lower floor of the house where the water pressure is the strongest. 2. the use of a drop in toilet bowl cleaner; as mentioned in our article about drop in toilet bowl cleaners, I strongly suspect that the use of these cleaners over time may have weakened the structure of the valve.

While standing in the plumbing repair aisle at the local hardware store looking for a cheap replacement toilet valve, I noticed a product by HydroClean - The HydroClean 660 Toilet Valve. The product was on display with a list price of $12.00, only $2.00 more than the generic valve next to it, plus it offered "eco options" so naturally I figured I would give it a try.

The HydroClean 660 offers the following benefits;

Quick and easy installation
Up to 30% water conservation
Detects toilet leaks
Eliminates water hammer
Cleans the toilet tank

The product is nicely packaged. It comes in a strong box, which prevents any damage to the valve. Included in the box are the valve assembly, a J-Tube (for the tank cleaning and water hammer elimination), and an instruction leaflet.

Installing the toilet valve was easier than I expected. The instructions are quite explicit and HydroClean even has an instructional video on their website and Youtube

Once the toilet valve was installed, I followed the instruction leaflet's steps to calibrate the valve so as to attain the stated 30% efficiency. This step was a bit more consuming. It involved pouring water into the bowl and measuring and adjusting water levels to ensure that the water tank does stops filling when the water in the bowl has reached an optimal level. Water is typically wasted in toilets when the bowl is refilled with each flush and it overflows past its optimal level before settling. The HydroClean has a mini valve attached to its stem, which can control the amount of water filling the bowl. It does so without losing any toilet flushing power.

The HydroClean 660 also has a Float Lock built into the valve mechanism. When engaged, this lock prevents the toilet tank from filling up even with the water inlet valve open. Toilet leaks can be detected as follows; mark the water level in the full water tank; engage the Floater Lock, after about an hour, check on the water level in the tank. If the water level has dropped, the flapper is leaking. Note that this test can also be performed by shutting off the water inlet valve. Since the toilet water tank will not be filling up, flapper leaks will be detected by a drop in the tank's water level.

The cleaning and water hammer elimination are both performed by the J-Tube, a plastic tubing that sits at the bottom of the tank. The J-Tube connects to the water inlet that fills the tank. The inlet is located at the base of the valve. It takes the incoming water and using a series of holes along its length, distributes water jets out that fill the tank. These water jets also clean out debris and sediments from the toilet water tank. The length and shape of the tube allow for the jets to spray on a large surface area of the water tank base. The product packaging has some drastic before and after pictures. I will give it time to see how well this feature works. The water jet mechanism also reduces the effect of water hammer by managing water pressure as the toilet valves open and close.

So far I am very satisfied with the product. I will go ahead and replace the valves in all the toilets in the house with this HydroClean 660 product. Hopefully this means no more flapper replacements in addition to the water savings. HydroClean's website also has a calculator that shows how much money you could be saving with their products.