Stop a running toilet before you call anybody
A running toilet is almost always a flapper, a chain or a float. LaLa walks you through all three in plain English, and tells you when it stops being your problem.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Cost
- $8 to $15
- 01
Don't panic. Take the lid off.
Set it somewhere flat. That lid is porcelain and it will break your foot and your mood.
- 02
Watch the water.
If water is trickling into the overflow tube, your float is set too high. If the tank empties slowly on its own, your flapper is not sealing.
- 03
Check the chain.
Too tight and the flapper never seats. Too loose and it gets caught underneath. You want about half an inch of slack.
- 04
Replace the flapper.
Shut off the valve behind the toilet, flush to empty the tank, unclip the old flapper and clip the new one on. Take the old one to the store with you.
- 05
Test it twice.
Flush, let it fill, then listen. Silence means you did it. Come back in an hour and listen again.
If water is coming from the base of the toilet rather than inside the tank, stop. That is a wax ring or worse, and it is a floor problem now. Call somebody.
Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and don't flush. If color shows up in the bowl in ten minutes, your flapper is leaking. That's the whole test.