Is your toilet running? Strange gurgling noise arising from your toilet bowl? From water leakage to unusual noises, toilets can do all sorts of bizarre things.
Fortunately, with a little troubleshooting, there are lots of toilet dilemmas you can solve on your own. Here, the experts at County Line Mechanical LLC will go over some of the most prevalent toilet problems, what they mean and whether it’s a situation you can fix yourself—or, if it is better to call in an expert.
1. Why Won't My Toilet Stop Running?
If your toilet keeps running all the time, it is something you should fix because it's in all likelihood also costing you money on your water bill.
A frequent cause of a running toilet is something wrong with the overflow tube. Located in the tank in the back of your toilet, an overflow tube allows extra water to drain from the tank into your toilet bowl so the water level in your tank doesn't get too high and spill over the top of the tank. At times, the problem is that the plastic tube connecting your fill valve to your overflow tube got detached. If that’s the situation, you most likely can just reach into the tank and reattach them. It also may be your toilet is running simply because the overflow tube is too short for the water level and needs to be replaced by one that is the correct height.
Another factor causing a toilet to run could be the flapper--which functions as a plug in the bottom of your tank—is malfunctioning and no longer forms the tight seal necessary to hold water in the tank. This causes water to flow out the bottom of your tank into your toilet bowl.
Sometimes a running toilet is caused by something awry with your toilet float, which is a floating device that determines the water level in your tank. It accomplishes this by shutting off your fill valve when the water level raises the float to a predetermined height. If your float is set too high, this will allow the water level to rise too high, and the extra water will spill into your overflow tube and down into your toilet bowl.
2. Why Does My Toilet Keep Gurgling?
A gurgling toilet is often caused by a partial obstruction in your toilet, drain lines, mainline or something blocking your sewage vent. If the problem is a clog in your toilet, you can try fixing this by using a plunger or drain snake to release the clog. If this doesn’t work, you can examine where your sewage vent exits your home to ensure it is not blocked by debris that would restrict air flow.
If you've done these two trouble shooting tasks and the toilet is still gurgling or bubbling, it would be a good idea to call a professional such an expert from County Line Mechanical LLC to evaluate the problem. As the go-to plumber in Reinholds, County Line Mechanical LLC will find out if the issue was caused by a blockage in one of the drain lines directing toilet water out of your home or the mainline that carries waste water away from your home to the municipal water system.
4. Why Is It Hard to Flush My Toilet?
If you can’t flush your toilet, there’s a good chance the problem can be found in the chain, flapper or the handle. That’s because there’s a chain inside a toilet tank that is attached to the back side of the handle. The other end of the chain is attached to the flapper, which functions as a plug in the bottom of your toilet tank.
The quickest way to find out why your toilet is hard to flush is to lift up the lid, peer inside the tank and investigate.
Here’s how the process should work when you flush a toilet: you push down the handle, which pulls up the chain, then the chain pulls the flapper up and that allows the water to drain out of your tank and into your toilet bowl.
Sometimes a toilet doesn't flush because the chain is stuck on something in the tank, which stops the chain from pulling up the flapper to let out the water. Or, the chain is too long or gets disconnected from either the handle or the flapper. If this happens, free the caught chain or reach in and change it to the appropriate length.
At times flappers can get stuck as they get older or become worn out. Or, there might be something awry with the handle.
5. Why Is There a Leak in My Toilet?
A dripping toilet can be a costly situation, potentially leading to water damage in and around your bathroom. Often, a leaky toilet is caused by a cracked supply line or a crack in the toilet tank. If your toilet tank is overflowing, it could be a failure in the toilet float.
Cracked gaskets around the connections on the underside of the tank also can let water to leak out of the toilet, as can a damaged toilet flange or wax ring at the base of the toilet where it connects to the floor. The majority of these issues are best fixed by an expert plumber.
6. Why Is There No Water in My Toilet?
A toilet not filling with water often traces back to a problem with the fill valve, which fills the tank in the back of your toilet with water. If the tube is damaged or is clogged by rust, sediment or mineral buildup, it might not be allowing water into the tank.
Another likely cause for your toilet not filling with water is something amiss with the float, which is a device that signals the fill valve to stop bringing water into the tank when the water has reached the correct level. The fill valve gives the signal to stop when the water level lifts the float to a predetermined height. It may be that the float/float assembly needs adjustment so that the water is allowed to reach the correct level. Or, correcting a toilet not filling with water might require adjusting or replacing the fill valve.