It Is Becoming Impossible To Ignore

That my toilet has some kind of slow leak.  It now periodically turns itself on and fills up with just a little water, many times during the day and night.  That water must be slipping out somewhere, although it's not obvious where or how the leak is.  I've been doing a great job pretending not to notice, but it's getting harder.  Ack.

Comments

Probably leaking where the flap or ball covers the hole at the bottom of the tank. Simple to fix. Or (I've had this one too) the float on the arm that's connected to the flush handle or the arm itself may be out of adjustment. If it lets too much water in, it flows into the overflow pipe and the level drops down just enough to make it go on again. But I'd replace the flapper first. All of this is assuming an old standard toilet of course and not some fancy low water pressure one -- about which I know less than nothing. Norm

[DM]

I second Norm. Replace the flapper first, and then get a new fill valve, and if you really care, a fill valve with an anti-leak clamp. I've had a toilet run constantly for a month before (unbeknownst to me, in a part of the house I seldom went), and the water bill was outrageous. I replace my flaps and fill valves once every three years just to avoid this. A fill valve and flap is usually only 8-9 bucks. My water bill was $200. Good luck.

[Dan]

The other thing that can cause this is a bad float. The flapper valve is the more common problem. You also might want check to see if there are any mineral deposits on the valve seat, as they can cause the leakage as well, and if it is due to mineral deposits, the new valve won't help much.

[turboglacier]

Turn off the water to the toilet altogether. Open the trap drain underneath your sink and put a big bucket under it. Then use the gray water from the sink to flush the toilet. Momma and PoppaGlacier use this system (sometimes). But then again, they're kooky.

[DaveL]

Second the comments above. Replacing the flapper and/or the float is one of those jobs that turns out to be so easy that you kick yourself for waiting so long to do it.

[MPM]

Turb: Whatchootalkinbout?

[Katrina]

Alas, I can't offer any good advice but I see you have that above...but I do sympathise.

I had something like this happen when my ladlady got married. Being East-Indian she had a huge engagement party, so we arranged to open up my apartment washroom for guests to use. Picture 100 people milling around and the toilet doing weird things! :P