Tips for Troubleshooting Common Toilet Issues

You definitely need the help of a professional plumber when serious problems crop up, like uncontrolled water leaks or raw sewage backups. But there are some plumbing fixes you can tackle yourself, such as troubleshooting toilet issues.

How to Troubleshoot Common Toilet Issues

• Multiple flushing – Repeat flushing tells you the tank’s water level is too high, which is not only irritating, but it wastes water too. To fix it, you’ll need to fiddle with the float on the fill valve until you have enough of a drop in water level to achieve a single flush.
• Ghostly moaning – If your toilet makes strange sounds at night and you’re on a municipal water supply, it’s likely due to a combination of a worn toilet ball cock and the normal nightly rise in water pressure from decreased usage. The added pressure makes the ball cock vibrate slightly. That moaning sound is a sign it needs replacement.
• Constant running  –  When the flapper valve stays even slightly open, the toilet will keep running. A chain that’s too short can cause this, so try lengthening it one link at a time. Another possibility is scale buildup around the valve seating; you need to scrape away.
• Mysterious flushing – If the toilet flushes when no one’s in the room, you have a worn flapper valve that’s allowing tank water to seep out into the bowl. Replacing the valve is fairly easy, as long as you buy an exact match at the hardware store.
• Noisy refills – A wide open shut-off valve can cause excessively noisy tank refills. An easy solution is to slow down the water rush by gradually closing the valve until the noise level drops to a reasonable level.
• Scalding shower shocks – Toilet flushes that cause cold water draws when you’re showering are anything but pleasant, but there’s a way to make the temperature change less noticeable by slowing down the flush rate. Just turn the shut off valve all the way off on each toilet, then open it back up about half a turn.

For professional help with troubleshooting toilet issues in your Orlando home, contact Rinaldi’s Energy Solutions today.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about toilet issues and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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