Maybe your toilet flushes just fine. But, within a few minutes, you hear that familiar sound. Instead of stopping, it keeps running and running and running. You might shake the handle a few times and then it stops, but within a few minutes there is goes again. Running and running and refusing to stop. Not only dose a toilet that runs waste water, it can be very irritating. Many plumbing problems require a professional, but fixing a leaky or running toilet is something most people can do. The place to start is with the inside of the tank. Take the lid off and look inside. Be careful while doing this, because the lid is often heavy. This is where all the working parts are and if there is a problem, it is probably here. Do the guts of the toilet look old and discolored or have they been recently replaced? It will be easy to tell.
Pull up on the chain inside the tank. It should be attached to a drain. When it is in the up position, the water will drain. Don’t worry this is clean water so don’t be afraid to stick your hand in the tank. Sometimes the stopper attached to this chain will wear out and needs to be replaced. It is an easy fix. If this is the problem, the water will probably slowly drain out and when it hits the bottom, clean water will run back in. Thus the running sound.
Now it is time to actually fix the toilet. The water will need to be shut off and that value can be found in the back of the toilet. If you can’t find this valve, the water will need to be shut off at the main that controls all the water coming in the house.
Once the water is off, grab the chain and the stopper. The water should drain and there won’t be any new water to fill the tank. Take the chain and the stopper to the nearest hardware store and find the replacement part. The new part should snap right back in. It really is as simple as that.
Need to have a toilet in your home repaired or newly installed? Contact Shamrock Plumbing, your experienced, Orlando, FL plumbing specialist today for immediate assistance at 407-292-8881.
