When you prevent slow water leaks from your toilet, you can potentially save hundreds of gallons of water a day. A leak between the tank and bowl that keeps a toilet running continuously wastes about two gallons of water a minute. However, even silent toilet leaks are big wasters. While a leak may be caused by a hairline crack in your tank—generally, this means a new toilet is in your immediate future—in the overwhelming majority of cases, the problem is a defective fill valve or a worn tank flapper. Contact a professional plumber and let him know what kind of problems you're experiencing. After ruling out a cracked tank, here’s how he’ll replace tank valves to prevent slow water leaks from your toilet:
After the water supply is shut off, your plumber will flush the toilet to empty your tank. He’ll then use a sponge to soak up residual water from the tank.
Underneath the tank, your plumber will disconnect the water supply line from the fill valve, and then remove the jamb nut securing the valve. Pulling the water supply line downward out of the fill valve, he can then remove the valve from the tank.
With the replacement fill valve correctly positioned inside the tank, your plumber will install a new gasket at the bottom of the valve before hand-tightening the jamb nut to secure it in place. Your plumber will then reconnect your water supply line.
The rubber flapper valve inside the tank is operated by a chain extending from the flush lever. Your plumber will remove the valve from its mounting tab on the overflow tube, and then unhook the chain from the flush lever. Afterwards, he'll install the new flapper valve on the mounting tabs before attaching the chain to the flush lever.
After water is restored at the shut-off valve, your plumber will observe the tank refilling and check for leaks. He’ll then test the flushing action and adjust the new fill valve, if necessary, to ensure that your tank fills to the proper level.
You can schedule professional service to prevent slow water leaks from your toilet by contacting Air Assurance in the Tulsa metropolitan area today.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Africa-Studio/Shutterstock”