| A running toilet can be an annoying (and | | | | misalignment of the floats arm. This allows the level |
| unnecessary) problem. Not only is it wasteful it can | | | | of water to rise too high and to therefore trickle |
| also be noisy - particularly in the evenings. | | | | over into an overflow pipe and into the toilet bowl. |
| The constant trickling seemingly amplified during the | | | | As the float is misaligned water continues to fill the |
| dead of the night. | | | | tank to replace the water that is lost spilling into the |
| The interesting thing is that this is a common issue | | | | overflow pipe producing a constant trickle of water |
| and surprisingly easy to solve as long as you | | | | into the toilet bowl. |
| understand the basics of how a toilet works. | | | | Fixing this misalignment issue is simple. |
| The whole mechanics of most toilet tanks are | | | | First we need to remove the toilet lid (be careful - |
| incredibly simple and have barely changed over the | | | | ceramic toilet lids CAN be heavy and costly to |
| last 50 years or so. | | | | replace). |
| In fact we can break the whole system down into | | | | Once the lid is removed we can use a simple |
| three main parts - the tank itself which holds the | | | | adjustable spanner to adjust the angle of the floats |
| water, a float attached to a pivoting arm and a stop | | | | arm. |
| valve. | | | | In order to save water (and money) it is suggested |
| Upon flushing the toilet the water contained within | | | | that we position the float so that it closes the valve |
| the tank is released into the toilet bowl causing the | | | | that refills the tank once the tank is little over half full |
| float to drop. | | | | (but this is your choice). |
| This in turn opens the valve allowing water to slowly | | | | The important thing is to ensure the float shuts off |
| begin to refill the tank. | | | | the supply of water before the water reaches the |
| Once reaching a certain height the float closes the | | | | level of the overflow pipe. If you do this - you stop |
| valve once more stopping the flow of water and | | | | your running toilet. It really is that simple. |
| leaving us with a full tank of water until we next | | | | If no tools are at hand sometimes simply bending the |
| flush and the process is repeated. | | | | arm that holds the float (they are usually quite thin |
| So that is how the system works - but why does a | | | | and easy to bend and manipulate) can solve the |
| toilet sometimes constantly run? | | | | problem - but be careful not to injury yourself or |
| The most common issue here is simply the | | | | damage the float mechanism itself. |