Does your toilet refuse to stop running? Weird gurgling noise emitting from your toilet bowl? From water leakage to odd noises, toilets can do all sorts of frustrating things.
Thankfully, with a little troubleshooting, there are lots of toilet problems you can correct by yourself. Here, the experts at Home Furniture, Plumbing & Heating will go over some of the most frequent 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 Does My Toilet Always Run?
If your toilet won't stop running, it is something you should fix because it's in all likelihood also costing you money on your water bill.
A common reason for a running toilet is something incorrect with the overflow tube. Positioned 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 does not 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 scenario, you should be able to reach into the tank and reattach them. It also might be your toilet is running simply 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 reason for 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 necessary to hold water in the tank. This enables water to seep through or around the damaged flapper and flow out the bottom of your tank into your toilet bowl.
At times, a running toilet is caused by something awry with your toilet float, which is a floating device that controls the water level in your tank. It achieves this by shutting off your fill valve when the water level raises the float to the appropriate height. If your float is set too high, this will allow the water level to rise too high, and the extra water will flow into your overflow tube and down into your toilet bowl.
2. Why Does My Toilet Keep Gurgling?
A gurgling toilet is commonly caused by a partial blockage 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 to fix this by using a plunger or drain snake to loosen the clog. If this rectify the issue, you can examine where your sewage vent exits your home to ensure it is not blocked by debris that would prevent air flow.
If these efforts don’t fix your gurgling toilet, you should contact a professional such an expert from Home Furniture, Plumbing & Heating to evaluate the problem. As the go-to plumber in Kankakee, Home Furniture, Plumbing & Heating will check to see if the sound is due to a blockage in one of the drain lines transporting toilet water out of your home or the mainline that takes waste water away from your home to the municipal water system.
4. Why Is It Hard to Flush My Toilet?
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 within your toilet tank that is attached to the back side of the handle. The other end of the chain is attached to the flapper, which functions as a plug in the bottom of your toilet tank.
The best way to figure out why your toilet is hard 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 enables the water to flow 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 yanking 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.
Sometimes flappers can get stuck as they get older or become worn out. There also may be something awry with the handle.
5. What Is Causing My Toilet To Leak?
A leaky toilet can be a costly scenario, potentially leading to 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 is often because there is a failure in 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 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 an expert plumber.
6. Why Won't My Toilet Fill With Water?
A toilet not filling with water often indicates a problem with the fill valve, which fills the tank in the back of your toilet 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 wrong with the float, which is a device that prompts the fill valve to stop allowing water into the tank when the water has risen to 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 rises to the correct level. Or, fixing a toilet not filling with water could require adjusting or changing the fill valve.