Why Does My Toilet Keep Running (And How Can I Stop it!)?

You flush the toilet and it makes that sound — you know the one. But it’s late and you’ve got things to do, so you walk out of the bathroom and forget about it. When you pass the bathroom again half an hour later, it’s still making that noise. Do you ignore it some more or call a plumber? If you said “call a plumber,” you got it right!

Why is My Toilet Running?

You can think of a running toilet as a water leak inside the tank. Just like you wouldn’t leave a dripping sink alone, you shouldn’t ignore this problem. A few reasons why your toilet may be running are:

Your tank has a valve seal (or flapper) that’s sealing water in the tank.

Your toilet handle is connected to a lift arm inside your tank. When you flush a toilet, you raise the lift arm in your tank and pull on the chain that’s attached to the toilet flapper. This raises the flapper and allows water to flow into the toilet bowl. Once the bowl is full, the flapper shuts and doesn’t allow any more water through.

But if there’s a crack in your flapper or it’s not shutting all the way, you’ll hear water continuously (and unnecessarily) flowing into the bowl.

How to fix it: Unhook the flapper and replace it with a new one from your local hardware store.

Your tank float ball and float arm are broken.

The plastic balloon in your tank is called a float ball and it’s connected to the float arm. Your toilet knows when to stop filling with water once the float ball rises to a certain point.

If the float ball is rubbing against the side of your tank, it may not be high enough to stop water from running.

How to fix it: Simply move the float ball away from the tank wall. If that still doesn’t work, your float ball may have a crack in it. Just like with the flapper, you’re going to want to replace it with a new one.

Call Mr. Rooter of Southeast WI today!