flushing one toilet or using bathroom sink draws water from other toilet tank?

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magicis

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hi there, every now and then it just sounded like our main bath toilet was leaking, and then it would stop, then later in the day, i would hear the drip drip drip. i tightened a little screw, added a brick to the water, thinking to raise the level in the tank, but, still every now and then, drip drip drip.....then i realized if someone in the other bathroom flushed the other 1/2 bath toilet, the main bath toilet would sort of aspirate and then the drip drip drip, as if toilet #2 had taken water out of toilet #1's tank and now they both were filling....then i washed my hands in the main bath sink and that sound again from the toilet, drip drip drip......so i turned off all the water in the house and began to check the meter outside...after an hour i could see a significant leak, like one whole point, from the 9 back up to the 0, of cubic feet in a pretty short amount of time. nope did not turn off the valve to the house to see if i still had a leak registering on the meter...thought i'd check this inside one first.....any help would be appreciated!
 

WJcandee

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It's not the fill valve, most likely. It's most likely the flapper. That is, the flapper is degrading and allowing a very small amount of water to pass by it into the bowl below. When enough flows out, verrrrrry slowwwwwly, the fill valve operates to replace the little water that has dripped out. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It is possible that he sink or other toilet would affect the water in the BOWL, but not likely the TANK. More likely, just change the flapper (or other kind of seal on the flush valve). You can check this by turning off the water to the tank and marking the tank water level with a pencil when you turn off the water, then leaving it overnight. If the water level falls, you have a little water leaving the tank, most likely by the flapper. If changing the flapper doesn't fix it, then come back to us, because there are a couple of other leak possibilities, but they are 1-in-50 whereas the flapper is probably 45-in-50.

Take the brick out. It isn't "raising the water level", because the fill valve shuts off when the water reaches a certain level. Put in a brick, it just reaches that level sooner.

Of course, all this depends upon you having a typical toilet. If you want to post a photo of the inside of the tank, we can often see something.

But do the leak test first.

PS It is very, very common for people to focus on the fill valve as the source of the problem -- after all, that's what's making the noise -- but in fact it usually is working fine and doing its job to replace the water that leaves the tank. If the fill valve were faulty, it would eventually cause the water to go over the top of the flush valve and down the overflow riser. If it isn't doing that, then it isn't the problem. If the fill valve is faulty, the water it lets in the tank has to go somewhere, so if it isn't causing an overflow, then the problem is elsewhere.
 

magicis

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Hello again, yes, the water came down about two inches overnight. if it was the flapper why didn't the tank leak dry?

okay mission today, is replace the flapper! one thang at a time..thanks again! will let you know...
 

magicis

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magicis

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and then i turned off the water to the tank again, and sure enough, it is still leaking, even with the new flapper....like a quarter inch in 5 or 10 minutes, but i am assuming that it will only leak a couple of inches and then stop again, leaving a lot of water in the tank...
 

WJcandee

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Your refill hose is stuck down the overflow riser. Sometimes, if you do that, it will cause a siphon of the water from the tank through the fill valve and down the overflow riser. Does the water level in the tank after turning off the water approximate the location of the end of the hose that is stuck in the riser? If so, that's the problem. It should be mounted above the top of the overflow riser. Usually, there's a little clip to do this with, or you can pick up a new clip and refill hose (Fluidmaster makes a hose and clip for a couple of bucks), or fashion one out of something in the house.



One other possibility is that the chain on the flapper is a little too tight, you want just a smidge of slack when the flush handle is at rest, but, although it's a little hard to see, it looks like you have a little slack.

Finally, inspect the overflow riser near where the water stopped draining. Sometimes, there is a vertical or horizontal crack there. Pinch the riser to see if a crack reveals itself. This is a low-probability event, but I have had three posters in 3 years come back to me and say that that was their issue.

But I'm guessing siphon through the hose down the overflow riser.
 
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