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If you have a toilet in your home that runs constantly, it could be costing you hundreds of dollars every month on your water bill. Your toilet should fill up with water again after each flush. But until someone flushes the toilet another time, you should not hear the sound of running water.
If you do, that means your toilet is using water more frequently than it should. You may be wondering what causes a toilet to run, and our team is here to help answer your questions.
What Causes a Toilet to Run?
There are a few different factors that can make your toilet run when it is not in use. The three components that you want to check include:
Overflow tube – Either the tube is too short, or the water level is too high.
Flush valve – It’s possible that the chain is too short, and the flush valve is not closing completely to block water from flushing.
Fill valve – The fill valve may be continuing to dump more water into the tank even though it is full.
These are all parts that you can pick up from your local hardware store and replace if your toilet is running.
Steps for Troubleshooting a Running Toilet
First, you want to check the overflow tube. It should be above the water line in your toilet. If it is too short, you can replace the entire flush valve assembly that includes a taller overflow tube. But, if the overflow tube in your toilet tank is above the water line, you need to keep searching for the source of the problem.
It is equally possible that the water level in your tank is too high, and that the overflow tube is fine. When this happens, you can adjust the float attached to the fill valve. Each toilet tank has a different type of floater. It may be a float cup, a float ball, or a float rod. They all work in a similar fashion by closing the fill valve once the water reaches a certain height. Ideally, you want the water to be about an inch below the overflow tube for optimal performance and to prevent your toilet from running.
If neither of these parts is contributing to the issue, you can open your toilet tank and flush the water to see if the flush valve closes completely once the tank fills back up. If it doesn’t, this is where water may be continuing to run into your toilet.
Give Our Team a Call
If you’ve checked each of these items in your toilet tank and your toilet is still running, you can give our team a call. You are also more than welcome to call us first and not even attempt a DIY repair. We see problems like running toilets all the time, and we are happy to help troubleshoot and get your toilet back to working normally again.