How to Fix a Pan Connector

What You'll Need
New toilet pan connector
Towels and/or mop
Crescent wrench
What You'll Need
New toilet pan connector
Towels and/or mop
Crescent wrench

When dealing with wall-mounted toilets, you may at some point encounter a situation where your toilet pan connector needs to be repaired. Although this can be a relatively simple job, there are several steps that need to be taken to ensure that you do not make an excessive mess or damage your toilet system.

If you do find that your pan connector is cracked or leaking, it will be best to simply replace the piece completely, rather than trying to patch it as a quick fix. Pan connectors are relatively inexpensive and the replacement will be a more long-term solution in the end.

Step 1: Turn off Main Water

When you are undertaking any project dealing directly with plumbing or water supply, turning off the water will almost always be your first step. Aside from creating a gigantic mess that you will need to clean up, leaking water can cause flooding that can severely damage your home, requiring more money spent to fix this new problem.

Additionally, due to high water pressure contained in many water pipes, failure to turn off your water could cause injuries if a pipe bursts or sprays. To avoid all of these issues, be sure to turn off water before continuing onto the next step.

Step 2: Flush Toilet

After turning off the main water line into your house, flush the toilet to remove the vast majority of the water. After doing this, place a few towels (perhaps ones that you don’t care too much about) into the toilet bowl to soak up as much remaining water as possible.

You will almost certainly leave some water in the toilet somewhere, but it is best to remove as much as possible before proceeding.

Step 4: Remove Old Pan Connector

Looking at the back of the toilet, where the wall meets the piping, you will find the pan connector. This piece fits between the bowl (pan) of your toilet and the wall. Your next step will be to completely remove this connector, which can typically be done by hand in simply unscrewing the connector pieces.

One thing to note about this step is that there will almost certainly be some amount of water in the pan connector when you disconnect it. Be aware of this fact and take some precaution to avoid getting water all over your floor. A bucket or a handful of towels will usually work well for this purpose.

Step 5: Install New Pan Connector

After purchasing a new pan connector of the same type or a compatible model from a hardware or plumbing supply store, install the new connector in the space where the old connector used to be connected. Again, you should be able to screw this part on my hand.

Step 7: Reconnect Water Supply and Test

After reseating the toilet, you will want to secure the housing to the floor with the bolts you previously removed. After doing so, turn on the water and test the system to make sure everything is working well.