Does your toilet keep running? Strange gurgling noise emitting from your toilet bowl? From water leaks to odd noises, toilets can do all sorts of strange things.
Thankfully, with a little troubleshooting, there are many toilet dilemmas you can solve yourself. Here, the experts at Everest Heating & Cooling 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 won't stop running, it is something you should correct because it's in all likelihood also costing you money on your water bill.
A typical culprit that causes a running toilet is something amiss with the overflow tube. Found in the tank in the back of your toilet, an overflow tube removes extra 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. Occasionally, the trouble is that the plastic tube connecting your fill valve to your overflow tube got detached. If that’s the situation, you can reach into the tank and reattach them. It also could be your toilet is running because the overflow tube is isn't tall enough for the water level and needs to be replaced by one that is the appropriate 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—has malfunctioned and no longer forms the tight seal required to hold water in the tank. This enables water to seep through or around the damaged flapper and escape 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 does 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 lets the water level to rise too high, and the extra water will go in your overflow tube and down into your toilet bowl.
2. Why Is My Toilet Bubbling?
A gurgling toilet is usually caused by a partial obstruction in your toilet, drain lines, mainline or an obstruction in 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 confirm it is not blocked by debris that would prevent air flow.
If you've confirmed the problem isn't a clog in the toilet or a vent obstruction, you will probably want to call a professional such an expert from Everest Heating & Cooling to evaluate the problem. As the trusted plumber in Kansas City, MO and Lansing, KS , Everest Heating & Cooling will find out if the issue was caused by a blockage in one of the drain lines transporting 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 you can’t flush your toilet, it's likely the problem can be found in the chain, flapper or the handle. That’s because there’s a chain inside your toilet tank that is attached to the back side of the handle. The other end of the chain is linked to the flapper, which serves as a plug in the bottom of your toilet tank.
The quickest way to get to the bottom of why your toilet is difficult to flush is to lift up the lid, look inside the tank and investigate.
Here’s how the process ought to 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 will never flush because the chain is snagged 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 becomes detached from either the handle or the flapper. If this happens, release the caught chain or reach in and shorten it to the appropriate length.
Occasionally flappers can get stuck when they get old or become worn out. There also could be something wrong with the handle.
5. Why Is My Toilet Leaking?
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 is often because there is something wrong with the toilet float.
Cracked gaskets around the connections on the underside of the tank also can permit water to leak out of the toilet, as can a broken toilet flange or wax ring at the base of the toilet where it sits on the floor. The majority of these issues are best fixed by a professional plumber.
6. Why Is There No Water in My Toilet?
A toilet not filling with water frequently suggests a problem with the fill valve, which is the valve that lets water into your toilet tank. If the tube has failed or is blocked 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 wrong with the float, which is a device that signals the fill valve to stop allowing water into the tank when the water has reached the correct level. The fill valve performs this function when the water level lifts the float to a preset height. It may be that the float/float assembly needs adjustment so that the water is allowed to reach the correct level. Or, solving the problem of a toilet not filling with water could require adjusting or changing the fill valve.
