Common Toilet Repairs

August 2nd, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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Is there anything more frustrating than a toilet that does not work right?  Considering how often they are used and the fact that we do very little maintenance on our toilets until something goes wrong, it’s a wonder that they work as well as they do and break down so infrequently.

The vast majority of toilets in the U.S. are standard flush toilets that rely on gravity and water pressure to get the job done.  When you turn the flush lever, it opens a flapper valve at the bottom of the toilet tank that lets the water in the tank flow into the bowl and flush the waste down the drain.

Releasing the handle allows the flapper valve to close so the tank can refill with water.  A tank fill valve handles the job of refilling the tank with water.  The fill valve is operated by either a ball float at the end of a wire rod or a cylindrical float on the fill valve.  As the tank gets full, the float rises and activates a shutoff valve that stops the water from flowing into the tank.  At this point the toilet is ready for another flushing.

Most of the parts that make a toilet work are inside the toilet tank.  Carefully remove the lid and watch what happens inside the tank when you flush the toilet.  If the flush handle turns easily but nothing happens, the chain connecting the handle and the flapper valve has either broken or detached.  Re-connecting the chain will fix this problem.

If the toilet “runs” constantly or has “ghost flushes” you could have a leaky flapper valve, a bad fill valve, a leaking float, or the fill valve could be adjusted improperly.  If you are unable to tell which one of these is causing the problem, call your local plumber.  Your plumber will be able to easily identify the cause of the problem and quickly repair your toilet.

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The Many Advantages of Low Flow Toilets

July 20th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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If you still have older, pre-1995 toilets installed in your home, you are missing out on the many advantages of low flow toilets.  You may be one of the millions of Americans who are hanging on to their old water hungry toilets because they have heard so much bad information about how poorly low flow toilets work.

It’s true that when low flow toilets were first introduced in the mid 1990s, the performance in most of them was seriously lacking.  “Double flushing” and clogged toilets were common.  However, manufactures have since stepped up to the plate and designed water efficient toilets that work just as well or better than the old water wasting models. The time has come to retire those old toilets and join your friends and neighbors who are enjoying the many advantages of low flow toilets.

Toilets account for about 25% of the indoor water usage in the average U.S. home.  A family of four uses over 25,000 gallons of water per year for toilet flushing. Older model toilets use between 3.5 and 7 gallons per flush. Compare that with 1.3 to 1.6 gallons per flush for modern low flow toilets.

You can cut your water usage for toilets by as much as two thirds by switching to new low flow toilets without any loss in performance.  You will save money on your water bill and it’s good for the environment too!  In addition, if your home is on a septic system, low flow toilets reduce the amount of water that flows into the system and can help your system last longer.  Talk to a reputable plumber about installing low flow toilets in your home.

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Toilet Tips To Save Water And Money

July 17th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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The estimates vary, but the average daily indoor water use per person in the United States is somewhere between 70 and 100 gallons a day.  Many people are surprised to find out the single largest use of water in the home is for flushing the toilet. The toilet accounts for more than 25% of our average daily water usage.  If that’s not bad enough, toilet leaks can easily cause your water usage to double or more. According to EPA estimates, a leaky toilet can waste as much as 200 gallons a day!

Minimizing toilet water usage means installing modern low flow toilets and fixing any toilet leaks.  If you have an older pre-1995 toilet, you are flushing money down the sewer.  Older toilets use anywhere from 3.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush while modern WaterSense toilets use 1.3 gallons per flush without sacrificing performance.

You can save hundreds of dollars per year on your water bill by installing a water efficient toilet.  The savings on your water bill will pay for the cost of a toilet and professional toilet installation by a good plumber in just a few years.

If you already have low flow toilets, then your priority is to fix any toilet leaks.  You can check for leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank and seeing if the water in the bowl changes color.  If so you have a leak that needs to be fixed.  First, flush all of that dye out of the tank and bowl to avoid staining the porcelain.  Then call a plumber and have the leaks repaired.  Fortunately, fixing a leaky toilet is usually an inexpensive plumbing job that will pay for itself quickly.

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Efficient Low Flow Toilets Save Water and Money

July 17th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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If you have been reluctant to replace your old toilet because you were concerned about the performance of the new “low flow” toilets, you will be happy to know that modern low flow toilets have been greatly improved since they were first introduced in the mid 1990s.  Prior to 1995, toilets in the United States used between 3.5 and 7 gallons of water per flush.

While all that water did a great job of flushing the waste down the drain, it was a huge waste of water.  As much as one third of all household water usage in those days was attributed to flushing toilets.  To help conserve water, government regulations took effect in 1995 that limited all new toilets sold in the U.S. to using 1.6 gallons of water.

Most toilet manufacturers were unprepared for the changeover to the new lower standards and simply decreased the amount of water used per flush in their existing toilet designs.  The result was that most of these low flow toilets performed poorly.  Consumers complained about toilet clogs and resorted to “double flushing” to get the performance needed which defeated the purpose of low flow toilets.

Manufacturers have since responded by redesigning their toilets and introducing new models that use less water per flush while delivering excellent performance.  In fact, most toilet makers offer standard single flush toilets that work great while only using 1.3 gallons of water per flush.

Other innovations include dual flush toilets that offer a choice of using .8 gallon of water for liquid waste and 1.6 gallons of water for solid waste and pressure assist toilets that use air pressure to help remove waste.  The bottom line is that there is no reason to put off buying a modern, water saving toilet for your home.

 

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How to Prevent a Sweating Toilet

June 28th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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If your home is located in a humid climate, you may be familiar with “sweating” toilets.  Toilets sweat when humid air condenses on the outside of a toilet tank filled with cold water.  This condensate drips onto the floor and unless the problem is corrected, it can lead to mold and mildew growth.  Even worse, over time the condensate will find its way to the subfloor which will eventually rot away.

If you are having problems with sweating toilets, talk to your plumber about your alternatives.  Plumbers are experts in toilet repairs and may suggest one or more options for correcting a sweating toilet.

One such option is called an anti-sweat valve.  This valve is installed in the water supply line that leads to the toilet and mixes warm water with the cold water that fills your toilet tank.  Filling the toilet tank with warmer water will prevent the toilet from sweating.

If installation of an anti-sweat valve is impractical, you can try installing a foam liner on the inside of the toilet tank.  The foam liner is permanently glued to the inside of the tank to insulate the porcelain tank from the cold tank water.

A more effective solution is to install a low flow toilet or pressure assist toilet.  Pressure assist toilets have a second inner tank that holds the flush water.  This water never reached the outer porcelain so sweating is eliminated.  In some cases, just installing a low flow toilet will solve the problem.  A low flow toilet does not empty the tank with every flush.  Cold incoming water is diluted with the leftover warm water in the tank and sometimes this is sufficient to stop condensation formation.  The benefit will be lost if you routinely “double flush” your low flow toilet.

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Fixing Leaky Toilets

May 16th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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Leaky toilets are one of the most common sources of water leaks in the home.  A toilet with a small leak can waste more than 20,000 gallons of water per year and according to EPA estimates, a toilet that leaks so much that it runs constantly can waste as much at 200 gallons per day – that’s 73,000 gallons of water per year right down the drain!

A leaky faucet or shower head is easy to identify since you can see the water dripping, but how can you tell if your toilet is leaking? The most obvious sign of a leaking toilet is the sound of the toilet running. If your toilet runs constantly, you definitely have a leak. If your toilet runs after flushing it and you have to jiggle the handle to make it stop, that’s another sign of a leak.

“Ghost flushing”, or a toilet that runs briefly even when nobody flushed it is a sign of a slow leak.  To be confirm a leaky toilet, carefully remove the lid from the tank and put a few drops of food coloring in the tank.  If the water in the bowl changes color, you know you have a leak.

Toilet  leaks are usually due to a leaky flapper valve or a bad fill valve.    The flapper valve is the big rubber stopper in the bottom of the tank.  When you move the handle, the flapper valve opens and the toilet flushes.  Replacement flapper valves are available at your local home improvement store and are not difficult to install.

A defective fill valve can also cause a toilet leak.  A fill valve that does not shut off properly will allow water to constantly fill the tank and trickle into the commode through the overflow pipe.  A fill valve is a little more complicated to install than a flapper valve, but still within the capability of many homeowners.

If you are not comfortable handling your own bathroom repairs, your local plumber will be able to fix your toilet leaks.

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WaterSense Toilets

March 28th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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If you are shopping for a new toilet, you will likely find that many of the residential toilets on the market today are WaterSense labeled high efficiency toilets.  These differ from standard low flow toilets because they use at least 20% less water per flush.  Standard low flow toilets were introduced in the early 1990’s to meet federal standards and use a maximum of 1.6 gallons of water per flush.

WaterSense high efficiency toilets rely on recent advances in toilet design to use a maximum of 1.28 gallons per flush.  WaterSense is a program run by the Environmental Protection Agency to help consumers conserve water by selecting water efficient products that do not sacrifice performance.  In order to earn the WaterSense label, a product must be certified by an independent testing agency to use 20 percent less water while performing as well as or better than standard products.

When it comes to toilets, many consumers have unpleasant memories of the 1.6 gallon per flush low flow toilets that were introduced in the 1990s to meet federal mandates.  Most of those toilets suffered from poor flushing performance and often needed clogged toilet repairs.  Consumers are understandably hesitant to choose a high efficiency toilet that uses even less water per flush than the federal mandate.

The WaterSense program was designed to help with these concerns by requiring independent testing to certify that toilets and other products that qualify for the WaterSense label use less water without any decrease in performance.  WaterSense toilets have been designed to have excellent flushing performance while using less water.  Replacing existing toilets with WaterSense toilets can save a typical family about 2,000 gallons of water per year.  When you need a new toilet, talk to your plumber about installing a new WaterSense toilet.

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Dual Flush Toilets

March 28th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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Many consumers shopping for new toilets are looking for ways to save money on their water bills.  Since the early 1990s, toilets sold in the United States have been required to meet federal standards for using no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush but consumers seeking to save even more water have several options.

One option is to use a WaterSense certified high efficiency toilet.  These use 20% less water than a standard low flow toilet without sacrificing efficiency.  Manufacturers designed these toilets to have high flushing performance with low water usage.

Another approach is to use a dual flush toilet.  These toilets conserve water by offering two flushing options: a full flush that uses 1.6 gallons or less and a partial flush that typically uses about half of a full flush.  The idea is that flushing liquid waste only needs a water-saving partial flush while a full flush is available to flush solid wastes and avoid expensive clogged toilet repairs.

Many dual flush toilets are WaterSense certified and when used properly average less than 1.28 gallons per flush.  This can save a typical family of four about 2,000 gallons of water per year compared to a standard 1.6 gallon per flush toilet.

The flushing mechanism inside a dual flush toilet is slightly more complicated than a standard toilet and the toilet may cost a little more but some consumers prefer the availability of a full 1.6 gallon flush over a 1.28 gallon per flush toilet.  In addition, the toilet must be used properly to achieve water savings.  Always using the full flush will result in the same water usage as a standard low flow toilet.

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Pressure Assisted Toilets

March 28th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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If you would like to replace your existing toilet with a high efficiency model but are concerned about the flushing power of a standard gravity flow toilet, consider going with a pressure assisted toilet.  A standard gravity flow toilet uses gravity to flush the tank full of water through the bowl with every flush.  This system works great if you have plenty of water.  Prior to the early 1990s toilets used 3 to 5 gallons of water per flush and did a great job of clearing the bowl and flushing the waste through the drain lines to the sewer line.

However, toilets sold in the United States since 1992 are required to comply with federal regulations limiting the amount of water per flush to a maximum of 1.6 gallons.  Most manufacturers simply modified existing toilets to use less water per flush with predictably poor results.  Things have improved in recent years as toilets have been designed to work better with only 1.6 gallons or less, but there are practical limits on what can be accomplished with only 1.6 gallons of water.

Pressure assisted toilets use compressed air to improve the flushing ability of the toilet.  They use a special plastic or nylon tank installed inside the toilet tank.  As the water fills this tank, the water compresses the air in the tank.  When the toilet is flushed, the compressed air helps flush away the waste.

Pressure assisted toilets work great and use less water than standard low flow toilets – about a gallon in most cases.  This can result in saving thousands of gallons of water per year.  However, pressure assist toilets are noisier than standard toilets and cost more than gravity flow toilets.  Also, parts are not usually readily available at your local hardware store.

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Low Flow Toilets

March 16th, 2012 Posted in Toilets
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According to EPA estimates, toilets account for about 30% of the water usage in the average home.  In an attempt to help water conservation efforts, federal regulations went into effect in the early 1990’s that limited the amount of water a toilet could use per flush to 1.6 gallons which was less than half of what a typical toilet previously used.  Unless they have been replaced, if your home was built before 1994 it probably has older style toilets.

Unfortunately, toilet manufacturers were not ready to make the switch.  Most simply modified existing toilet designs to use less water per flush.  As a result, most toilets sold in the US after 1994 met the federal requirements but did not do a very good job of flushing waste.  These toilets were designed to use 3.5 to 4 gallons of water per flush and 1.6 gallons of water simply didn’t do the job.

Consumers quickly got the word and tried hard to avoid the new toilets if at all possible.  Homeowners with older style toilets repaired them rather than replace them with new low flow toilets and some desperate consumers went so far as to illegally sneak new toilets across the border from Canada.

The good news is that consumers no longer have to engage in toilet smuggling in order to get an affordable, good flushing toilet.  In recent years toilet manufacturers finally started designing toilets to work well while using only 1.6 gallons per flush.  Most low flow toilets on the market today boast flushing performance equal to or better than their water wasting pre-1994 cousins.

If you have been waiting to replace your older style toilets, now is the time to talk to your plumber about installing modern low flow toilets in your home.  They work great and save the average household about 9,000 gallons of water per year.

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