How to Fix an Inefficient Toilet

Although most people don't know this, some toilets can leak water even when you're not doing anything. If you've inspected your toilet before in order to see if it was wasting any water, only to notice that no water was wasted, this article might have the solution for your water wasting problems: your toilet may be inefficient - and even leaking - while you sleep! If you want to make your toilet more efficient and stop wasting water through either a leak or through simple inefficiency, this article is for you.

The first thing you can do to detect a leak is to place a drop of food coloring in your toilet bowl. If water is leaking anywhere, you'll instantly detect it because of the changed color, so be sure to drop in plenty. Check the toilet tank to see if anything has leaked from the bowl - if there has, you're looking at a very hard-to-detect toilet leak that you've only seen because you've taken the time to look it up.

In order to fix this leak, you'll have to check in a number of places. Check common areas like the flapper. If there are any problems, you may have to replace an individual part of your toilet. In order to do this, try and find the most appropriate part - the same part, if possible - and buy it online or at your local hardware store.

What about a toilet that doesn't leak, but has simply started to become inefficient? If ecology is a major issue in your toilet flushing needs, you can always replace the unit itself in order to have a consistently low flush. But if you simply want to upgrade your current toilet so that you're losing less water each time you flush, you can simply replace the flush valve! You don't always need to get a new toilet in order to flush less each time.

If you're tight on money, you can simply replace the flush valve in order to make your toilet more efficient and lest wasteful. You can also fix the toilet by replacing an individual part if there is a leak and one part is causing the error. Remember to keep mental pictures of all of the repairs and upgrades you make in case you ever have to treat another toilet that has become inefficient. Next time, you'll be ready, and you'll know exactly what to do!

Photo credits: pokpok313

This post involves:

flapper, food coloring, hardware store, inefficiency, leak water, money, sleep, toilet bowl, toilet flushing, toilet leak, toilet tank, toilets, wasting water

... and focuses on:

Bathroom, Handyman, How to Fix, toilet

Posted by Fix Handyman on December 17, 2009 in Bathroom, Handyman, How to Fix, toilet. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.