The Easiest Way to Fix a Toilet
Ah, the toilet. The invention is so perfect that we have not made any significant updates to it in the five centuries or so since its inception. The flush toilet you use today is essentially the same design that Sir John Harrington introduced in the 16th century: it relies on water and gravity, and uses a surprisingly simple mechanism to make your waste magically disappear. in a septic tank or sewer. system. However, like everything else, it can turn against us.
At one end of the distress scale, it can become clogged and overflowing, turning an ordinary day into a waking nightmare. At the other end of that scale, he might start working all the time. Your toilet that fills endlessly with water may seem like a minor problem, but a constantly running toilet costs you money – that water supplied to your home is not free.
Luckily, fixing a running toilet is actually quite simple and usually doesn’t require calling a plumber – here are some easy ways to stop a running toilet yourself.
How the toilet works
First, let’s take a crash course on how a toilet works. Look at the wall behind the toilet – you should see a faucet with a hose going to the toilet cistern. This is your water supply. You can turn off the water in the toilet if you think you need to replace something, but while you are in diagnostic mode, it is better to leave the water on because you may need to fill the tank several times.
There are many different designs of toilets, but the basic components of a functioning toilet are the same: a filling valve and tube, a float and a damper. The fill valve lets water into the tank until the float reaches a certain level, and then turns off and the flap rises when you use the handle or button on the toilet, releasing that water into the flush bowl and starting the whole process again. once more.
Now that we have a general idea of what we’re looking at, there are four common reasons why your toilet won’t stop working, and all of them are pretty easy to fix.
Check valve and circuit
Probably the most common reason why a toilet leaks and leaks is the damper. This is a rubber or plastic part that fits over the drain valve and prevents water from flowing into the bowl. If the flapper is not properly placed on the valve, a small amount of water will continuously seep into the bowl, resulting in an endless cycle of filling the tank. If the classic “handle wiggle” technique does work for you sometimes, that’s probably your problem, because that wiggle essentially replants the shutter.
Take a stick and gently press on the valve. Toilet suddenly stops working? Then you have a culprit. There are two ways to fix this:
- Replace damper. Look at the shutter itself. Is it warped and discolored? If it becomes deformed, it will never fit properly on the flush valve again, so it must be replaced. They are cheap and you can buy universal dampers that will fit almost any toilet.
- Record the length of the chain. The flap lifts with a chain when you use the toilet handle and then slowly returns to its place as the tank fills up. If the chain is too short, it can prevent the flapper from fully lowering to create a seal over the flush valve. If it is too long, it can get under the edge of the damper with the same result. Cutting a long chain with pliers or replacing the chain with a longer one often solves your problem.
Check the float
If the damper looks good and is not your problem, check the float. A float is a large plastic cylinder or sphere that literally floats on the water in an aquarium. As the water goes down, the float moves with it, opening the fill valve so more water can enter the tank. As soon as it returns to its original position, the valve closes and the water stops.
If the float is set too high, the tank overflows and water overflows into the overflow tube (which prevents the tank from overflowing). As the water continues to pour into the overflow pipe, the float never rises high enough to cut off the inflow, and a terrible cycle of endlessly flowing water begins.
The float is adjustable – there is usually a simple screw that can be turned to change the height of the float. Look at the inside of your tank – it probably has an engraved mark showing the fill level, where you want the water level to be after a fill cycle. Then look at the filling valve in the tank – it will be marked “critical level”. The water level should be about an inch below this mark, regardless of what is engraved on the tank (because different toilet kits install differently). Adjust the float until the water level reaches this point and see if that solves your problem.
Check fill tube
Finally, pay attention to the filling valve, which is a tube coming from the water inlet and connected to the float. There will be a short plastic tube extending from the fill valve to just above the overflow tube. When you flush the toilet, the water flows through this tube into the overflow, filling the bowl. If it is not positioned correctly, not enough water will flow into the bowl, which can lead to a constant flow of the toilet.
If it has completely fallen off, reattach it and make sure it is secure. Also make sure the end of the tubing is positioned above (or sometimes directly into) the overflow pipe. Flush the toilet and make sure that all the water from the fill tube goes into the overflow. This should solve any problems associated with this wonderful toilet technology.
If none of these fixes work, the next step is to replace the inside of your toilet (if you’re not sure what’s inside, you can buy generic repair kits) or call a plumber.