leaking toilet

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Bookseeb

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I believe I have a mansfield toilet (thats what it says on the flush handle anyway), that is leaking, so I replaced the flush valve, filled it and stills leaks. Drained again and removed the valve and saw no water going through, but I still hear leaking. I did noticed a hairline fracture in the bottom of the bowl and believe that it might be the culprit, but I want to know for sure and see what people think before I have to replace the toilet.

Thanks, Brad
 

Jadnashua

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A hairline crack in the bowl, if it is in the 'right' place, may not leak onto the floor, but will flow down the drain. Shut the water off, and if the bowl drains, replace the toilet.
 

Bookseeb

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A hairline crack in the bowl, if it is in the 'right' place, may not leak onto the floor, but will flow down the drain. Shut the water off, and if the bowl drains, replace the toilet.

yup, thats it. Thanks Jadnashua, I'm getting a new toilet.
 

Gary Swart

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Might want to consider a Toto. If you are anywhere close to Seattle, you can deal directly with Terry. Great toilets at good prices and supportive of this forum.
 

WJcandee

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Shut the water off, and if the bowl drains, replace the toilet.

Not sure I follow this diagnostic methodology. What does turning off the water have to do with anything? If there's a leak in the bowl but not around the flapper, the bowl will drain out independently of the (closed, sealed) flapper and it will be obvious because the bowl will be empty and the tank will be full. This would be the case just if the tank isn't flushed for say 24 hours. So he should have seen it by now just by not flushing the toilet.

If you turn off the water and the running stops, it would seem to speak more to a tank leak (and presumably the tank will have drained down but the bowl will still be full).

In short, if he didn't notice an empty bowl before, I have serious doubts that it's a bowl leak.

I of course could be missing something and would appreciate being corrected if appropriate...
 

Reach4

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Did anybody make sense of his second sentence?
 

Reach4

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I did. You mean second paragraph I assume. What don''t you get?

For one thing, he removed the valve. I presume this is the flush valve AKA flapper valve, since he was just talking about the flush valve in the first sentence. He saw no water coming through. Now if the valve is removed, and no water went through, I would presume the tank was empty. So if no water coming/going through would not seem surprising. Yet he hears leaking. Not sees leaking, but hears it. What is your interpretation?
 

Jadnashua

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IF the toilet is used often enough, or it was leaking from the flapper or the valve, the tank and the bowl could remain full. He may have had multiple problems, but when you shut off the water, the only way it will drain from the bowl is if the bowl is defective. If the tank emptied as well, he'd still have multiple problems, but with a bad bowl, it's kind of irrelevant.
 

WJcandee

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My interpretation is he's being a little sloppy with his wording.

If he has a full bowl and no water going from the tank to bowl (the tank being the only water source for the bowl), and he "hears leaking" but the water level in the bowl doesn't drop, then he isn't hearing a toilet leak. He's hearing something else. Is there a heel inlet to his closet bend that is connecting water from the shower or sink drain? Is there water dripping in the stack which is located 3 feet down his closet bend? Is there cheapo piping in the area through which he is hearing "running" water from another part of the house? I don't know. What I do know is that if there's no water going into the bowl, and the bowl level doesn't drop, then there's no leak from the bowl.

More often than not, what the guy would have is a slow leak from the tank to the bowl that he isn't perceiving, maybe because it's entering the bowl through the siphon jet, and that slow leak of water into the bowl is causing a little water to dribble over the weir. This of course would be accompanied by an occasional activation of the fill valve to refill the tank. He says he fixed the possibility of this by replacing the flush valve and flapper. Fine. I take his word for it.

The other thing it could be is simply the bowl water level settling. Most older toilets overfill after a flush and then settle slowly. Water drips over the weir for a little while. Maybe the floor gives a little when he walks into the room and a little water flows over the weir.

In short, I don't know what he's hearing. If there is no loss of water height in the bowl with no water going into it, however, what he is not experiencing is a leak through a crack in the bowl. (Now if the bowl fills to its normal level and then drifts down a smidge to the level of the crack, well, then...YEAH. But otherwise no.)
 
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