Most common toilet repairs.
Excluding stoppages the majority of repairs made on toilets involve the fill valve or flush valve. The functions of the two parts are simple. The fill valve refills the tank after each flush and the flush valve lets the water out of the tank to create the flushing action. Comments that I hear most often are; " My toilet flushes by itself." or " My toilet is always running, it never shuts off." Each of these statements help in the troubleshooting process. When I hear " My toilet flushes itself." I know to usually look at the flapper on the flush valve first for signs of warping or deterioration. This usually results in the worn flapper letting a small amout of water into the bowl. This lowers the water level in the bowl allowing the float to drop in the tank untill the fill valve opens up to replenish the lost water. This happens rather slowly giving the illusion of the toilet flushing itself or "ghost flushing." Flapper replacement typically will remedy this issue.
The other statement about my toilet always running can involve the flush valve and also the fill valve. Worn fill valves will not shut off at the set level causing the water to overflow into the overflow tube of the flush valve. Sometimes you can reset the water level on the fill valve but it is good plumbing practice to replace the fill valve. Badly worn flappers on the flush valve may not hold any water back at all allowing the toilet to continue to run and never reach the shut-off point of the fill valve. An easy troubleshooting method for flappers would be to drop a dye tab into the tank to see if it shows color in the bowl. Dye tabs are usually available for free at your local hardware store in the plumbing section.
