I can hear water trickling within the toilet, presumably within the tank. I cannot see any obvious signs of a leak, and it is not leaking on the floor. I just replaced the rubber flapper thingy (which needed replacing anyhow), and I really don’t feel like replacing all other internal parts (for a conventional, gravity-flow) toilet. Any ideas how to find the culprit before going to extremes? - Jinx
Did you turn off the water when you replaced the flapper?
Sometimes doing that will release a bit of crud inside the water pipe that’ll prevent the flush valve from sealing completely. Sometimes you can fix that by rapidly toggling the tank valve. Push down and release the float, or whatever, 10 or 20 times, and see if your trouble goes away.
There’s only two places a toilet can leak like this:
The flapper valve, and the fill tube. If the flapper valve is sealing, then check the level in the tank, and make sure it’s not too high, which will cause water to spill into the fill tube. The bottom of the fill tube may have a bad seal also. You can use a bottle of dye to try to find water currents caused by the leak.
Push down on the flapper and see if the noise stops. If it does, it’s the flapper.
Is it leaking out of the overflow? If so, you need to adjust the ball that controls the water feed. If you can’t do it, you’ll need to replace the whole assembly, which is about 5 mins work after turning of the water at the stopcock.
You need to be sure the flapper is seated, and that there is no pitting on the rim it seals to. Often the rim gets pitted and the new flapper still can’t seal. An improper chain length or the wrong style flapper will not allow the flapper to seal either. An improperly adjusted ballcock can keep the water filling too.
BTW, how big a deal is it to replace a flapper?
It’s usually easy-peasy. Many are just clip ons. You detach the chain at the top, unclip the flapper from the overflow stem, clip on the new one, and reattach the chain.
If you don’t mind getting your hands a little damp, you don’t even have to turn off the water.
You’ll want to take a look at the old flapper before buying a new one, so as to get the right shape and size.
You might check where the flapper seals, make sure there’s nothing under it. E.g. if you use a blue bowl cleaner and there’s a little piece of it under there, or maybe some mineralized deposits to keep it from sealing tightly, that would make it run.
You should be able to see if the overflow has water running down it. Just remove the lid and look.
Do you hear water dripping, or water running? You might not have a leak, but the shutoff valve might not be shutting off. Do you have a rubber float ball, or some other gizmo? If a float, gently pull it up to see if it stops the noise. Other than that, I dunno.
My rubber flapper seems to be disintegrating. Every time I press down on it to get it to seal, I get black goop on my fingertips. I guess it’s time to replace it, right? Or are they always like that?
No, they're not. You possibly have acidic water which hastens the breakdown, or it could be iron reducing bacteria. No big deal, replace.All old ones are like that (at least in my experience).
Still, they’re cheap - just replace it.
Speaking strictly of Fluidmaster components, one can purchase a flap valve, a flap valve for hard water, and a flap valve with an internal weight which can be adjusted to provide proper flush volume. The last is a replacement for the timing cup models which sometimes interfered with the overflow tube. As noted, the seat can become worn, in which case a kit consisting of flap valve, seat, and seal ring of instant stick goo is the repair choice.
Although rare, I have encountered a cracked overflow tube, which allowed water to leak from the tank. To repair that problem, you’ll need a new Douglas valve, a tank to bowl gasket (assuming close coupled two piece toilet) and a tank to bowl bolt set.
If you’ve replaced the flapper, and it still leaks after doing the tests people have already recommended, it is the shut-off valve. If the water is very high, you might be able to fix it by moving the float down a bit so it shuts off before reaching the overflow pipe.Otherwise the valve is defective and you’ll have to replace it. It’ll take more than five minutes the first time you do it, but it isn’t hard, and it is a good thing to learn how to do. As mentioned, look at it (take a picture with your cellphone) before going to the hardware store so you can get the right replacement. The directions on the Fluidmaster one are pretty good.
Sometimes it is just easier to replace everything inside the tank. Since it seems to me that the replacements fail more quickly than the original equipment, get used to it.
This may be a long shot… If the fill tube is pushed too far into the overflow tube, it can cause syphoning. Eventually enough water goes down the overflow tube that the toilet “runs” briefly. Make sure the end of the fill tube is above the water line.
A handy reference photo:
http://www.rd.com/images/tfhimport/2005/20050701_Toilet_fixes_page002img001_size2.jpg
PC