Plumbing Tips How to Fix a Leaky Toilet So there’s an unexplained hiss in your pipes that you simply attribute to high water pressure, only to find that your water bill has shot up to so much higher than your normal rate. You check every leak-prone part of your plumbing system and everything’s dry, yet the hiss continues on. Soon enough, you find that it’s coming from the toilet tank. A running toilet can cost you hundreds of dollars in wasted water. This is why immediate toilet repair is in order once you’ve diagnosed the problem. You don’t need a complete toilet supply line to do a successful toilet repair. Toilet systems rarely experience total failure and repairs only typically require minor fix-ups of a particular tank component. Minor toilet repair is also not hard to learn, and it pays knowing how to tinker with toilet parts if you want to save on professional repair costs in the future. Finding the root of the problem The key to proper toilet repair is knowing the exact cause of the problem. This requires knowing the basics of how a toilet works. When a toilet handle is pushed, you are actually moving an attached rod upwards. This lifts what is known as the toilet flapper, which works to prevent tank water from continuously draining into the toilet. An air pocket keeps the flapper up in the tank water and it drops with the water level as the water drains into the tank after each flush. This causes the flapper to fall back into its place, sealing the hole and allowing the tank to fill up anew for the next flush. A component known as the floater controls the water level inside a toilet tank. This floater is attached to a rod and it moves up and down with the tank’s water level, opening or closing a valve when water levels are low or when there’s enough supply inside the tank. · Water is directed into the toilet bowl through an overflow tube. When the water level is above this tube, water will constantly drain into the bowl and the floater is never going to rise high enough to shut the valve off. A screw should likewise be there where water flows into the tank. This can be turned to adjust the floater, while the rod can likewise be bent to lower the floater. · Another major cause of a running toilet is a malfunctioning flapper. A good way to test if the flapper is what’s causing your problem is by putting food coloring into your tank and checking if colored water leaks into your toilet bowl. If you do find color in your toilet water, then the flapper isn’t sealing your drain hole properly. Go to a toilet supply line store and purchase a new flapper to replace the faulty part. · A kinked chain can also cause your toilet to run. If this is the case, you only have to make sure that the toilet chain has enough slack to completely seat the flapper into the drain hole. Toilet repair is easy enough when you have the right tools for repair and know how to diagnose your toilet’s problem by inspecting the insides of the tank.
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