Hi, It seems like my toilet is taking a lot longer time to fill up after I flush it then it did when it was new. It does eventually stop after a couple of minutes, but I am worried that I may be wasting money money or energy. Can you help me with this problem? Thanks, cute1
cute1, there could be a few things that can cause this problem. First of all I want to assure you that if you take the lid off the tank and watch the toilet fill up after a flush and you can watch the float rise and then the filling stops without any leaking or any more sound, the toilet it probably working alright. However, there could be some parts that may be worn or even some blockage in the system. But, in a case like the one you have, there is usually a couple simple fixes that you can do yourself.
Of course we are all energy minded now days and if you had a water leaking problem, you would still be able to here water running after the flushing is complete. Since you do not seem to have that problem here are a few things you can do that might help.
First you could set the float level lower so that it won't take as much water to fill up the tank. In an older toilet you may notice a water line on the inside of the tank that will give you a guide as to where to set the water level when you adjust the float. If not, you can always mark the water line yourself with a magic marker or piece of duct tape. To do this, you will need to flush the toilet put your finger up against the tank to mark the water level, then quickly dry off the spot and mark it with your marker.
There are two types of floats, one has a float ball used in a Plunger system and the other has a cylinder float used in a Float-Cup system. The float ball has a long arm with the ball at the end and can be adjusted by bending the arm down a bit which will cause the water level inside the tank to be lower when the float rises and stops.
With the Float-Cup system, the float rises on the cylinder and you can adjust it by squeezing the toilet level adjustment clip, as shown in the following photo, and lowering it by pushing it down. This then will cause the water level to be lower inside the tank.
In either case, this will lower the water level inside the tank and reduce the amount of time it takes to fill up the tank.
A couple other things you can do is check for any visible obstructions or sediment in the toilet to make sure that nothing is getting into the plumbing pipes or equipment. This may be more difficult for a homeowner to do and may require a professional plumber to do the work.
One other simple thing you can do is open the water line valve up more to allow the water to flow more strongly. The increased water flow along with adjusting the float water level will most likely speed up the time it takes to fill the tank and reduce the amount of time you hear this happening.
I hope this helps. Rick
Rick Maselli is Founder and Editor of Showroom411.com and Ask Rick