# What is my toilet up to at night? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099 "2015-02-08T05:10:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/21 "2015-02-08T22:15:17Z")
Toilets. Same shit, different day. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/22 "2015-02-09T01:41:36Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Is your toilet running? > > Better go catch it! Better still, elect it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/23 "2015-02-09T03:38:31Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Alternative answer, (just because the OP was not explicit about the housing, not because I disagree with the answers given). > > Is this in a condo or apartment? Do you share the building with another occupant, either below you or sharing a wall with the bathroom? If so, you could be hearing the sound of another toilet that shares the stack vent. For that matter, depending on the house design, water running through other pipes that are connected to the toilet stack vent can produce a similar sound. (E.g., washing machine or dish washer discharging.) I get that in my house when different utilities are being used. There is a clear, brief sound of water rushing through a pipe, (as opposed to the steady higher-pitched stream of the toilet tank refilling), when water is being drained in sinks that share the drain pipe with the toilet. > > I do have a minor nitpick with the answers provided: if the flapper is not sealing, I would expect the tank to be re-filling off and on throughout the day and night, not just limited to one period in the late evening. Of course, that could simply be the time when all the other distracting noises in the house have quieted, leaving that sound more obvious. Thanks for this and similar answers. I am assuming that it could be doing it regularly and I am just in other areas of the house the rest of the time. It’s a single-family house. It is not a high-pitched sound and doesn’t ----------- It happened as I was typing so I ran over there! It’s definitely the toilet so I overcame my phobia of the inside of toilet tanks and looked inside. It’s a bigger flapper thingie than I am used to, and it’s white and not black. But the important part seems to be the black foamy stuff around the bottom part\* [OK, it’s probably formally known as a gasket?] is breaking up and pieces came off when I poked at it. I looked in another toilet tank and that black ring was narrow and neat, not all raggedy like in mine. So, I think I need to replace that?? Black ring like these: [![](https://removeandreplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/remove-toilet-flapper.jpg) ](https://removeandreplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/remove-toilet-flapper.jpg) [![](http://cdn50.networx.com/media/552x370/photo3flapper.jpg_27461054e4f13a75652a55b69c5c54d6.jpg) ](http://cdn50.networx.com/media/552x370/photo3flapper.jpg_27461054e4f13a75652a55b69c5c54d6.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/24 "2015-02-09T04:01:03Z")
And a follow-up question – I sometimes use the bleach drop-ins; could this be responsible for the damage? ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/25 "2015-02-09T06:40:29Z")
Yes simple to replace. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/26 "2015-02-09T12:04:41Z")
Do you have a water softener? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/27 "2015-02-09T12:37:10Z")
**gigi** : Yes, that’s the part that needs to be replaced. You need to find the correct replacement part; they’re not one-type-fits-all. A good technique is to take the old part off & bring it with you to the store. If it’s black, it’ll make a stainy mess of everything it touches even when dry, so wrap it in something like paper towels you can throw away when you’re done. Folks get squeamish about the insides of toilets. Nothing put pure clean tap water ever sits in that tank. No sewage or used water is ever in there. The insides of that tank are exactly as clean as the insides of the rest of the cold-water feed plumbing in your house. That may or may not be a comforting thought emotionally, but factually it ought to make you feel better about mucking around in there up to your elbows. Yes, those drop-ins probably aged that part. But they only last 15 years or so anyhow, and if you shortened the life to, say, 10 years that may well be a good trade-off. If you have another bathroom, now’s a good time to look in those toilet(s) too. They may or may not have the same guts in the tank depending on how old the house is. The porcelain can last many decades, the innards 20-ish years at best. So especially in older houses they’re likely to have been replaced at least once. If the innards are the same, they can serve as examples to help you remember how to re-assemble this one correctly. Same guts or different, if one unit is old & leaky, the other(s) may also be on their last legs. Once you’re doing the work it might be more convenient to just change out all of them at once; save on trips to the hardware store & re-learning the task. Not to mention the aggravation when two weeks from now the next one starts doing the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/28 "2015-02-09T14:26:16Z")
Thanks for the advice! My father is going to keep an ear out at other times of the day and rush over to see what exactly it is doing. He may or may not be comfortable with us trying to fix it. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099/29 "2015-02-10T18:38:56Z")
The easiest test for the flapper leaking is to put food coloring into the tank and you will see the coloring in the bowl after a while. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-my-toilet-up-to-at-night/712099.md?page=1)