Is your toilet running? Weird gurgling noise coming from your toilet bowl? From water leakages to odd noises, toilets can do all sorts of frustrating things.
Thankfully, with a little troubleshooting, there are numerous toilet dilemmas you can solve yourself. Here, the professionals at County Line Mechanical LLC will go over some of the most frequent toilet problems, what they mean and whether it’s a plumbing issue you can fix yourself—or, if it is better to call in an expert.
1. Why Does My Toilet Always Run?
If your toilet is constantly running, it is an issue you should repair because it's in all likelihood also costing you money on your water bill.
A frequent culprit that causes a running toilet is something incorrect with the overflow tube. Found in the tank in the back of your toilet, an overflow tube directs excess water from the tank into your toilet bowl so the water level in your tank won't get too high and spill over the top of the tank. Sometimes, the trouble is that the plastic tube connecting your fill valve to your overflow tube has become detached. If that’s the scenario, you should be able to reach into the tank and reattach them. It also could be your toilet is running because the overflow tube is too short for the water level and needs to be replaced by one that is taller height.
Another thing that could cause a toilet to run could be the flapper--which acts as a plug in the bottom of your tank—is damaged and no longer forms the tight seal required to hold water in the tank. Not having a good seal allows water to leak out the bottom of your tank into your toilet bowl.
Occasionally a running toilet is caused by something wrong with your toilet float, which is a floating device that maintains the water level in your tank. It achieves this by shutting off your fill valve when the water level raises the float to a preset height. If your float is set too high, this permits the water level to rise too high, and the excess water will flow into your overflow tube and down into your toilet bowl.
2. Why Does My Toilet Make a Gurgling Sound?
A gurgling toilet is usually caused by a partial clog in your toilet, drain lines, mainline or a blockage in your sewage vent. If the reason for the noise is a clog in your toilet, you can try to fix this by using a plunger or drain snake to loosen the clog. If this doesn’t work, you can look at where your sewage vent exits your home to confirm it is not blocked by debris that would prevent air flow.
If these efforts don’t fix your gurgling toilet, you should phone a professional such an expert from County Line Mechanical LLC to evaluate the problem. As the trusted 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 My Toilet Hard to Flush?
If your toilet is hard to flush, it's probable that the problem is with the chain, flapper or the handle. That’s because there’s a chain inside a toilet tank that is affixed to the back side of the handle. The other end of the chain is connected to the flapper, which acts as a plug in the bottom of your toilet tank.
The easiest way to figure out why your toilet is difficult to flush is to lift up the lid, peer inside the tank and investigate.
Here’s how the process ought to work anytime you flush a toilet: you push down the handle, which pulls up the chain, then the chain pulls the flapper up and that permits the water to whoosh out of your tank and into your toilet bowl.
Sometimes a toilet won’t flush because the chain is stuck on something within the tank, which keeps the chain from lifting 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, release the caught chain or reach in and change it to the appropriate length.
Sometimes flappers can get stuck when they get old or become worn out. It's also possible there might be something amiss with the handle.
5. Why Is There a Leak in My Toilet?
A leaking toilet can be a costly situation, potentially producing water damage in and around your bathroom. Often, a leaky toilet is the result of a cracked supply line or a crack in the toilet tank. If your toilet tank is overflowing, it could be something wrong with the toilet float.
Cracked gaskets around the connections on the underside of the tank also can allow water to leak out of the toilet, as can a damaged toilet flange or wax ring at the base of the toilet where it attaches to the floor. The majority of these issues are best fixed by a certified plumber.
6. Why Is There No Water in My Toilet?
A toilet that won't fill with water in many cases indicates a problem with the fill valve, which is what fills your toilet tank with water. If the tube is broken or is plugged by rust, sediment or mineral buildup, it potentially could not be allowing water into the tank.
Another common cause for your toilet not filling with water is something faulty with the float, which is a device that signals the fill valve to stop bringing water into the tank when the water has gotten to the correct level. The fill valve performs this function when the water level lifts the float to a preset height. It could be that the float/float assembly needs adjustment so that the water can attain the proper level. Or, correcting a toilet not filling with water may require adjusting or exchanging the fill valve.