Leaky Toilet Tips

At one point or another, every home owner has experienced a leaky toilet in their home. Leaky toilets are a super common plumbing problem that every one deals with. Not only is the sound of a leaky toilet annoying, but the added cost on your water bill is annoying, as well! Not all toilet leaks have the accompanying obnoxious leaking sound, though. In fact, most toilet leaks can go unnoticed for months because they aren’t quite large enough to produce the tell tale leaking sound. We’ve got good news for you, though! Follow our leaky toilet tips, and you won’t have any of those costly, unnoticed toilet leaks!

Did you know that for all you DIYers out there that there’s a test you can do yourself to find out if your toilet is leaking? Remember, if you can hear the water in your toilet constantly running, then there’s no need to run this test- you DO have a leaky toilet!

If you want to test your toilet to find out if its leaking, find some food coloring. Red or blue work best because they’re the most saturated and easiest to see. Before you go to bed, put several drops of food coloring in the water tank- not the bowl- of your toilet. In the morning, check the bowl of your toilet. If there’s any food coloring in the bowl, then you have a leaky flapper.

What if you’ve got a leaky toilet?

Fortunately, you can fix most leaky toilets yourself without spending a ton of money!

The two most common leaky toilet culprits are the flapper or floating ballcock. The floating ballcock is the floating ball in the water tank of the toilet. The purpose of the ballcock is to indicate when the water supply should shut off. If the ballcock is set too high, the water will simply keep running. By adjusting the float downwards, you can get the water to shut off before it reaches the overflow tube.

The flapper is the main cause of leaky toilets. Over time with normal use, the flapper warps and doesn’t seal as well as it did when it was brand new. Water pressure from the tank then creates a leak in any of the small gaps. You can find a replacement flapper at any home improvement store for just a few dollars that you can install yourself.

For major leaks or other toilet problems, give us a call at Masterflo 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at (678) 822-7095!