Does your toilet refuse to stop running? Weird gurgling noise arising from your toilet bowl? From water leakages to peculiar noises, toilets can do all sorts of strange things.
Fortunately, with a little troubleshooting, there are lots of toilet issues you can correct on your own. Here, the specialists at LTS Plumbing & Heating Inc. 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 Is My Toilet Running?
If your toilet keeps running all the time, it is something you should repair because it's most likely also costing you money on your water bill.
A typical cause of a running toilet is something incorrect 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 doesn't get too high and leak all over your floor. Occasionally, the problem is that the plastic tube connecting your fill valve to your overflow tube got 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 due to the fact the overflow tube is too short for the water level and needs to be replaced by one that is the appropriate height.
Another reason for a toilet to run could be the flapper--which serves as a plug in the bottom of your tank—is malfunctioning and no longer forms the tight seal needed 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.
Sometimes a running toilet is caused by something amiss 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 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 Is My Toilet Bubbling?
A gurgling toilet is commonly 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 attempt to correct this by using a plunger or drain snake to remove the clog. If this does not have any effect, you can check where your sewage vent exits your home to confirm it is not blocked by debris that would block 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 phone a professional such an expert from LTS Plumbing & Heating Inc. to evaluate the problem. As the go-to plumber in Shamokin and Sunbury, LTS Plumbing & Heating Inc. 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 It Hard to Flush My Toilet?
If it's difficult to flush your toilet, there’s a good chance the problem lies the chain, flapper or the handle. That’s because there’s a chain inside a toilet tank that is hooked to the back side of the handle. The other end of the chain is linked to the flapper, which acts as a plug in the bottom of your toilet tank.
The quickest way to figure out why your toilet is hard to flush is to remove the lid, peer inside the tank and investigate.
Here’s how the process ought to work whenever you flush a toilet: you push down the handle, which pulls up the chain, then the chain pulls the flapper up and that enables the water to whoosh out of your tank and into your toilet bowl.
Sometimes a toilet doesn't flush because the chain is caught on something in the tank, which stops the chain from lifting 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, unhook 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. There also could be something wrong with the handle.
5. Why Is My Toilet Leaking?
A dripping toilet can be a costly problem, potentially causing water damage in and around your bathroom. Many times, a leaky toilet is due to 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 attaches to the floor. The majority of these issues are best fixed by a certified plumber.
6. Why Is My Toilet Not Filling with Water?
A toilet that isn't filling with water in many cases indicates a problem with the fill valve, which fills the tank in the back of your toilet with water. If the tube has failed or is plugged by rust, sediment or mineral buildup, it may 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 gives the signal to stop when the water level lifts the float to a set height. It might be that the float/float assembly needs adjustment so that the water rises to the appropriate level. Or, solving the problem of a toilet not filling with water could require adjusting or exchanging the fill valve.