Any plumbers on OzBargain?
It appears my toilet is leaking from the tank somewhere near the top of the tank.
I have noticed it only does this if you full flush.
Is there any way I can fix this myself before calling in a licensed plumber?
Leaking Toilet Need Advice
justaverage on 06/08/2015 - 19:20
Comments
I have only been half flushing since I noticed haha
turn the tap down so it fills slower and see if that helps, it may be splashing up when filling fast.
Thanks I will give that a go when I get home.
its worth a try, similar thing happened with our old washing machine years ago.
take the lid off and look at it in action
I have limited knowledge about how a toilet actually works so don't know if this will help but I will try
post a photo to imgur
better, upload a video somewhereyoutube is great for this. serach for how to fix leaking toilet and it will give you the basics of how it all works.
This is an x-ray diagram showing how a cistern works
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toilet-cistern-01.pn…
and the explanation
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:How_Things_Work/Flu…
take the top off and flush it, see what is happening.
Sounds like the filler valve is just spraying water everywhere, which is splashing under the lip. You'll know if that's the case when you take the top off.
wee in the sink !
Even better if you wee in someone elses ;-)
its funny coz it just happen at my house too…
do you live in perth cbd?
I live about 10km from cbd
Youtube is certainly your friend… Had no idea how to take a toilet to bits until a few weeks back, now replaced all the working myself and saved a small fortune. Only hassle I had was they had physically glued the tank to the wall, had to use a long thin blade to cut through the glue.
If it's leaking from the top perhaps it's filling up above the mounting screw holes.. As mentioned take the lid off and see… Unless it's cracked there are not many places it can leak from.
Cheap shovel from bunnings
Why not replace a new one. its cheap than repair.
Because I'm renting and don't feel like bothering the landlord
If you are renting get the landlord to fix it, in case you make it worse.
Get the landlord to fix it. It should be free. If you damage it by trying to 'fix' it you are liable for the repair.
Op, this should be very easy to fix. At the bottom of the water tank (cistern), where the pipe connect to, there is a ring you can tighten, just with hand. Inside the ring there is a rubber seal. When you squeeze the ring the seal will slip in between the pipe and the cistern outlet. I believe your fastening that ring likely fix the problem.
"It appears my toilet is leaking from the tank somewhere near the top of the tank."
That means it's overflowing. So it has nothing to do with the rubber seal at the bottom which does leak when it's worn out. When the cistern overflows it means the water inlet is not closing properly.
Try adjusting the water float lower so it will close the inlet earlier and thus push harder when the cistern is getting full. If this doesn't work try the reverse and adjust the float higher.
If adjusting the float doesn't work the inlet should be slightly faulty that doesn't close properly depending on the usage.
So just to check, the water is overflowing out of the top of the cistern/tank? Like spilling out where the lid of the cistern connects with the cistern body? It's not coming from the bottom of the cistern or the sides?
If so, this is extremely unusual. Inside the cistern there is an overflow pipe that ensures this can never happen. The overflow pipe is connected to the main valve that goes into the bowl. So even if you had problems with the inlet mechanism not shutting off when the float was high enough, the overflow would just go straight down into the bowl (wasting water, but not spilling out of the top of the cistern and all over the floor).
I'd say first check if the overflow pipe is somehow blocked (very unusual). It will be sticking straight up slightly off centre and be open at the top. It will be around 2 or 3 inches from the top height of the cistern. Turn off the inlet tap. Flush the toilet so it's empty. Then pour water down the overflow pipe. See if the water goes into the bowl, or if it just overflows within the overflow pipe. If it overflows, try and work out what is blocking it. Or dont empty it, leave the tap on, and just push down on the float (keep it underwater) so the water keeps filling and watch once water gets to the height of the overflow pipe if it goes down into it or not or if it just keeps filling.
Another possibility. In these cold winter months, if it's an older toilet and a ceramic cistern, you can sometimes get a hairline crack in the cistern wall and water can leak out. But that would happen if you did a half flush or a full flush as the water still fills up to the same height. That would of course need a plumber and a lot of money.
Find out which bit is leaking. If it is right at the top, try changing the water level in the tank.
If it's actually at the pipe between the cistern and the bowel, you can get a replacement rubber bit from BunningHad a quick look this morning as I was running late and it appears that water is spraying out the top of the cylinder thing.
Don't know its technical name think it might be the fill valve.
Is this something I can fix myself?Just take a photo so we know what we're dealing with. One with the lid off as it's filling up, and one when it's full and stopped filling.
Yes, toilets are easy to fix. Once you've worked out what needs replacing, you can buy whole kits from bunnings/mitre 10 for <$30, or you can find and replace the actual part.
There really aren't many ways you can be injured with a toilet. Except drown.
do not go toilet. lol
Stop flushing.