The cistern is filling up OK but when it's flushed nuffin happens?

What to do?!!

call a plumber

take the top off and look when flushing to see whats come undone
they are fairly simple inside
i take you mean no water is coming out when you flush

could be the syphon, if there's nothing loose.

cheap enough & easy to fix

Yeah when you flush it no water comes out. . . i'm going to have to google 'anatomy of a toilet flusher' :-S

if you can't get a plumber in today & can't fix it yourself, fill a bucket with water & use that from a great height to flush

Probably the diaphragm in the cistern. What kind of toilet is it?

erm type of toilet?

Er . . A white ceramic one.. . That's about all I know! i'm thinking surely it must be home-fixable?

Wickes do spare bog parts I think . . Just got to figure out what bit to get?! where's the diaphram live then?! ta

Change the Syphon

no good without pics

Read this. Wickes and/or B&Q should stock a replacement diaphragm/syphon; otherwise a proper plumber's merchant will. They're cheap – as in around a tenner – and easy to replace.

as above – the part you need is most likely the "Syphon" – it looks something like this:

Ideally, you would take the old one out & take it with you, but that would leave the whole house without water until you get back & finish the job

You did turn the water off and drain the cistern, didn't you?

Last time I replaced a syphon it took me about half an hour.

it looks something like this:

I'll mention this because of your username. The toilet at the studio I run has that type of syphon fitted. Rather than replace the whole unit when the diaphragm splits, I use a perfectly sized piece of twin-ply drum head. I suppose that any similar type plastic could be used instead to affect a much cheaper repair.

It is sometimes possible to repair the syphon if it is the plastic membrane that has cracked (sits above the grill with the black square in it in the pic above). You just need a sheet of thick polythene that you can cut to the same shape as the one that's failed.

Having said that it probably isn't worth the hassle – provided you can find a syphon that fits your cistern – I couldn't 😕

EDIT As usual – must type faster.

RRR, your cistern does it have a push down handle or is it the type with the double button on the top.

If its the first its a syphon, if its the second theres a few different types out there.

Whatever you do turn off the water at the mains before you start work.

Also with the lever cistern, there should be a piece of bent wire to connect the handle to the plunger in the cistern, sometimes this goes missing.

For cheap plumbing bits, i use
http://www.Hamishplumbing.com

There may well be a local isolation valve under the cistern.

If your toilet is modern it may have a fancy pnuematic flush actuator. These may break as well in a similar fashion to the plunger.

Check the linkage hasn't broken.

My bog did this and it was the membrane in the syphon that had cracked, I took it apart and cut a new membrane from a thick plastic bag, simple fix to do.

Yep if it is the syphon type plastic membrane inside the large funnel bit pack from plumbcentre about £4.00.
I took mine out and used duct tapee for a couple of weeks to repair the rip in the membrane.
Turn water of at stop tap and strip it down in the cistern water will run into bog as you do this quick fix and put back together the worst you can do is break it, if so get a new one from the local Bl-ody Queue shop

ooh cheers guys, i had no idea we had so much bog knowledge on stw!

Tis just an old bog with a normal lever as opposed to fancy buttons etc!

I shall have to take a closer look tomorrow . . . Seems a typical thing to do on a bank holiday!

Three_Fish – good call if you happen to have a spare, bust, drumhead lying around.
But as a new pinstripe head will set you back about £20, it's cheaper to buy a whole new syphon…