Does your toilet keep running? Strange gurgling noise emitting from your toilet bowl? From water leakages to unusual noises, toilets can do all sorts of strange things.
Thankfully, with a little troubleshooting, there are numerous toilet dilemmas you can fix yourself. Here, the specialists at Cytech Heating & Cooling L.C. will go over some of the most prevalent toilet problems, what they mean and whether it’s something you can fix yourself—or, if it is better to call in an expert.
1. Why Won’t My Toilet Stop Running?
If your toilet is constantly running, it is an issue you should fix because it’s in all likelihood also costing you money on your water bill.
A frequent reason for a running toilet is something wrong with the overflow tube. Located 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. At times, the trouble is that the plastic tube connecting your fill valve to your overflow tube is detached. If that’s the situation, you should be able to reach into the tank and reattach them. It also may be your toilet is running simply because the overflow tube is too short for the water level and needs to be replaced by one that is the correct height.
Another thing that could cause a toilet to run could be the flapper–which functions as a plug in the bottom of your tank—is damaged and no longer forms the tight seal needed to hold water in the tank. This causes water to escape out the bottom of your tank into your toilet bowl.
Occasionally 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 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 lets the water level to rise too high, and the unwanted 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 remove the clog. If this does not have any effect, you can examine where your sewage vent exits your home to make sure it is not blocked by debris that would block air flow.
If you’ve confirmed the problem isn’t a clog in the toilet or a vent obstruction, you should call a professional such an expert from Cytech Heating & Cooling L.C. to evaluate the problem. As the experienced plumber in McAllen, Cytech Heating & Cooling L.C. will investigate whether the noise is caused by a blockage in one of the drain lines carrying toilet water out of your home or the mainline that takes waste water away from your home to the municipal water system.
4. Why Won’t My Toilet 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 within the toilet tank that is hooked to the back side of the handle. The other end of the chain is attached to the flapper, which acts as a plug in the bottom of your toilet tank.
The best way to find 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 is supposed 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 permits the water to flow 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 keeps the chain from yanking up the flapper to let out the water. Or, the chain is too long or gets disconnected from either the handle or the flapper. If this happens, release the caught chain or reach in and change it to the appropriate length.
At times flappers can get stuck when they get old or become worn out. There also might be something amiss with the handle.
5. What Is Causing My Toilet To Leak?
A leaking toilet can be a costly scenario, potentially leading to water damage in and around your bathroom. Usually, 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 malfunction in 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 weakened toilet flange or wax ring at the base of the toilet where it sits on the floor. Most of these issues are best fixed by an expert plumber.
6. Why Is There No Water in My Toilet?
A toilet that isn’t filling with water in many cases suggests a problem with the fill valve, which is the valve that lets water into your toilet tank. 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 likely cause for your toilet not filling with water is something faulty with the float, which is a device that prompts the fill valve to stop letting water into the tank when the water has risen to the correct level. The fill valve gives the signal to stop when the water level lifts the float to a predetermined 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 may require adjusting or exchanging the fill valve.