How to Fix a Running Toilet

You use the toilet, it flushes just fine and you walk away right? An hour later you hear water running and you wonder where it could be coming from. It’s the toilet, it is running and you can’t figure out why. This is a real nuisance in the middle of the night. The good news is it’s not really hard to fix a running toilet and it’s not too hard to figure out how a toilet works. The best thing to do is watch how the parts function after flushing a few times. It doesn’t take long to figure out what part does what. These are the basic names of the parts in your toilet; you have the valve and float, the fill tube, an overflow tube and obviously the handle, lever and chain.

When you flush the toilet the chain lifts the flapper which lets the water drain from the tank into the bottom, when the water is gone the flapper closes and lets the water fill the tank back up. The plastic float drops as the water drains and then rises with the water level. When the water level reaches high enough the float should click off the water. I would say the flapper is the culprit for a running toilet 75% of the time. Take a look around and see what is causing this to happen, maybe the flapper is off line, or maybe it is caught on something else inside the toilet. Sometimes the flapper gets old and cracked; you may need to replace the whole thing.

The next problem could be the float; this can cause a lot of running toilets as well. Usually you just have to adjust the float so when it reaches a certain point the water shuts off. There is some sort of connection that connects the valve to the float and it is usually fairly easy to adjust. It may take a few times to figure out the right position but it is an easy fix. The best way to get in and work on this is to shut off the water valve right under the toilet and then flush, all the water should be gone from the tank so you’re not splashing around in water.

Really, a toilet is the easiest of the bathroom fixtures to fix; it’s pretty easy to figure out and in the case you do have to replace something it is usually pretty inexpensive. The water in the tank is clean and has not been through the tank yet so if you prefer to splash around in the water it is perfectly safe, however I would recommend washing your hands after doing this.

So, the two main causes for a running toilet are the flapper and the valve with float. If you have done everything to fix these to culprits and it is still running you need to check all the seals and gaskets in and around the toilet. Like I said earlier, this is usually a real easy fix but it can be a real irritating situation. Of course the law of inconveniences comes into play here; the toilet will probably run at night and be fine during the day making it real difficult to solve the problem. The best thing to do in this case is to just shut off the water valve under the toilet and wait until morning to fix it. It’s an easy problem to fix and an easy problem to diagnose (most of the time). Hope this helps….