When things go wrong with your toilet, it can affect everyone in your house. The toilet is used several times each day. If it’s not working properly, it needs to be fixed quickly. The key to resolving most of the problems in your toilet begins with understanding how it works. Most people push the handle, watch the water circle and figure everything is working. But, to get to the root of your toilet problem, you should have a grasp of the underlying plumbing.
Understanding How Your Toilet Works
There are only a few major components of your toilet. The plumbing behind it isn’t complicated. Every toilet has a bowl, handle, stopper, trip lever, tank and flush-valve system. When you press the handle, the trip lever pulls the chain inside the tank. The chain is attached to the stopper. Once the stopper is raised, the water within the tank is evacuated through the flush-valve system. At the same time, the water in the toilet bowl is vacuumed out into the drainpipes. The tank’s water empties, the stopper drops and the tank refills.
Finding The Cause Of The Running Toilet
Most of the problems that people have with their toilet is that it continues to run after having been flushed. The problem could actually be from a variety of catalysts. But, 9 times out of 10, the float arm is the culprit. Typically, a running toilet is caused by a float arm that isn’t rising properly. This can cause water to escape slowly through the stopper. Try to bend the arm slightly downward to fix the problem.
If you tweak the float arm and discover that your toilet still runs, open the tank again and take a closer look at the stopper. It’s possible that water is trickling out of the flush-valve system because the stopper isn’t fitting the opening properly. Often, stoppers can weaken or deteriorate over time. If you don’t see any signs of deterioration on the stopper, look at the seat of the flush-valve to check for corrosion. If bending the float arm doesn’t work, replacing the stopper or the seat of the flush-valve should fix your running toilet.
Remember, most of the plumbing problems throughout your home (including your toilets) are simple. They may not always be easy to fix, but they’re rarely complicated to understand. If you can get a grasp for how the plumbing behind the problems works, you can often fix the issue by yourself, avoiding the need to hire a professional. At least, you can stop your toilet from running.
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