Does your toilet keep running? Weird gurgling noise emitting from your toilet bowl? From water leaks to odd noises, toilets can do all sorts of strange things.
Fortunately, with a little troubleshooting, there are lots of toilet problems you can correct on your own. Here, the specialists at Home Furniture, Plumbing & Heating will go over some of the most common 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 keeps running all the time, it is a situation you should fix because it's in all probability also costing you money on your water bill.
A frequent culprit that causes a running toilet is something wrong with the overflow tube. Positioned in the tank in the back of your toilet, an overflow tube allows extra water to drain from the tank into your toilet bowl so the water level in your tank won't get too high and leak all over your floor. At times, the problem is that the plastic tube connecting your fill valve to your overflow tube is detached. If that’s the scenario, you can 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 taller height.
Another reason for a toilet to run could be the flapper--which acts as a plug in the bottom of your tank—is damaged and no longer forms the tight seal necessary to hold water in the tank. This causes water to leak out the bottom of your tank into your toilet bowl.
Occasionally a running toilet is caused by something wrong with your toilet float, which is a floating device that maintains the water level in your tank. It achieves 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 permits 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 Does My Toilet Make a Gurgling Sound?
A gurgling toilet is usually caused by a partial clog in your toilet, drain lines, mainline or something blocking your sewage vent. If the cause of the issue is a clog in your toilet, you can try fixing this by using a plunger or drain snake to release the clog. If this rectify the issue, you can examine where your sewage vent exits your home to make sure it is not blocked by debris that would restrict air flow.
If you've done these two trouble shooting tasks and the toilet is still gurgling or bubbling, you should call a professional such an expert from Home Furniture, Plumbing & Heating to evaluate the problem. As the trusted 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 directing toilet water out of your home or the mainline that removes waste water away from your home to the municipal water system.
4. Why Is My Toilet Hard to Flush?
If it's difficult to flush your toilet, it's likely the problem is with the chain, flapper or the handle. That’s because there’s a chain inside the 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 hard to flush is to remove the lid, peek inside the tank and investigate.
Here’s how the process ought to work anytime you flush a toilet: you push down the handle, which pulls up the chain, then the chain pulls the flapper up and that permits the water to drain out of your tank and into your toilet bowl.
Sometimes a toilet won’t flush because the chain is stuck on something inside 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, free the caught chain or reach in and shorten it to the appropriate length.
Sometimes flappers can get stuck when they get old or become worn out. Or, there might be something amiss with the handle.
5. Why Is There a Leak in My Toilet?
A leaking toilet can be a costly scenario, potentially causing 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 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 weakened 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 professional plumber.
6. Why Won't My Toilet Fill With Water?
A toilet not filling with water in many cases traces back to a problem with the fill valve, which is what fills your toilet tank with water. If the tube is damaged 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 faulty with the float, which is a device that signals the fill valve to stop letting water into the tank when the water has gotten to the correct level. The fill valve does this when the water level lifts the float to a set height. It may be that the float/float assembly needs adjustment so that the water can attain the correct level. Or, correcting a toilet not filling with water may require adjusting or changing the fill valve.