Does your toilet keep running? Weird gurgling noise emitting from your toilet bowl? From water leakage to peculiar noises, toilets can do all sorts of bizarre things.
Thankfully, with a little troubleshooting, there are numerous toilet dilemmas you can solve yourself. Here, the specialists at AZ Air Conditioning and Heating will go over some of the most frequent toilet problems, what they mean and whether it’s a plumbing issue you can fix yourself—or, if it is better to call in an expert.
1. Why Is My Toilet Running?
If your toilet won't stop running, it is an issue you should repair because it's in all probability also costing you money on your water bill.
A typical culprit that causes a running toilet is something amiss with the overflow tube. Located 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 doesn't get too high and overflow the top of the tank. At times, the trouble is that the plastic tube connecting your fill valve to your overflow tube got detached. If that’s the scenario, you can reach into the tank and reattach them. It also could be your toilet is running because 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 functions 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 enables water to seep through or around the damaged flapper and 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 controls the water level in your tank. It accomplishes 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 excess 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 blockage in your toilet, drain lines, mainline or an obstruction in your sewage vent. If the cause of the issue is a clog in your toilet, you can try to fix this by using a plunger or drain snake to remove the clog. If this doesn’t work, you can look at 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, it would be a good idea to contact a professional such an expert from AZ Air Conditioning and Heating to evaluate the problem. As the trusted plumber in Los Angeles, AZ Air Conditioning and 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 Won't My Toilet Flush?
If it's difficult to flush your toilet, it's probable that the problem lies the chain, flapper or the handle. That’s because there’s a chain inside your toilet tank that is hooked to the back side of the handle. The other end of the chain is linked to the flapper, which functions as a plug in the bottom of your toilet tank.
The easiest way to figure out why your toilet is hard to flush is to take off the lid, peer 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 allows the water to flow out of your tank and into your toilet bowl.
Sometimes a toilet won’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 gets disconnected from either the handle or the flapper. If this happens, unhook the caught chain or reach in and change it to the appropriate length.
Occasionally flappers can get stuck when they get old or become worn out. It's also possible there might be something awry with the handle.
5. What Is Causing My Toilet To Leak?
A leaky toilet can be a costly situation, potentially producing water damage in and around your bathroom. Often, a leaky toilet is due to a cracked supply line or a crack in the toilet tank. If your toilet tank is overflowing, it may be a malfunction 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 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 won't fill with water in many cases suggests a problem with the fill valve, which fills the tank in the back of your toilet with water. If the tube is damaged or is clogged 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 amiss with the float, which is a device that triggers the fill valve to stop allowing water into the tank when the water has risen to the correct level. The fill valve does this when the water level lifts the float to a predetermined height. It may be that the float/float assembly needs adjustment so that the water rises to the proper level. Or, solving the problem of a toilet not filling with water could require adjusting or changing the fill valve.