water draining out of toilet

[rberney1@comcast.net]

Bought a Toto Drake toilet after all the good advice on this excellent site. Water surface fills to approx. 8 x 10 inches but then loses about 30 fl. ounces or so of water within a just a couple of minutes after filling to a final surface of approx 6 x 9. Was thinking poor vent or blocked vent was causing a vacuum. But I filled the Toto by hand hours later with no other water usage or drainage going on in the rest of the house. The Toto still drained to the 6 x 9 surface within a couple of minutes. Would poor venting cause a vacuum that would cause this to happen hours after flushing? Also thought about the rare possibility of some crack in the toilet. Would I always see some sort of water evidence on the floor of the bathroom or on the ceiling of the room beneath? Is it possible some internal crack might just drain without any evidence? Sorry to be so wordy but I thought I should give as complete a picture as possible. Thanks for any advise to this puzzle.

 

[Terry]

Sounds like a bad bowl.
Could be a crack somewhere in the trapway.
Anytime you ship a toilet, as in "mail order", there is the risk.
If someone drops the bowl on the way to your house, there is a big risk of cracking the bowl.
I hand deliver in the Seattle and LA area.
I quit shipping out of state years ago.
I sold 624 Toto toilets in the last twelve months.
No bowl leaks.

I have had some tank bolt leaks in the two piece toilets a few times.
That can pretty much be eliminated by giving the inside of the tank a quick sand with emory cloth where the bolts drop through.

Is the floor level front to back?
That's the only other thing I could think of.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[rberney1@comcast.net]

Thanks for quick reply. Floor is level. Toilet set well over newly tiled floor. No installation problems. Toto says cracks are rare and that I should see water on the floor. Would this always be the case?

 

[Terry]

Well, Toto is right.
Except there still is a possiblity that a leak could make it down the drain.
If you were to pull the toilet and set it on some wood spacing, you could try the water test again.

It has been very rare. Of the hundreds I've sold, I haven't seen it.
I'm not going to say I never could though.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

food coloring

put some red or blue food coloring in the bowl.

let it sit for a a good little while, then flush it all away...


then take up the toilet , turn it over and see if the food coloring has seeped through any cracks in the bowl...

look up in the bottom orfice of the toilet to see if a hair line crack is evident there too..


sounds like fun, dont it?

 

[hj]

toilet

Why bother with food dyes, taking the toilet out and checking for cracks, etc. The water level is dropping. Take the toilet out and return it as defective.

 

[Terry]

hj is right.

Just return the bowl.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

morbid cuorisity

just for fun I guess.


something to do on a sunny spring day.

 

[Terry]

Mark is right too.

If it's a sunny day, it could be fun to bring it outside and see where the water went.
I get curious too.

 

[hj]

water

It will "went" out the bottom of the bowl. You just may not be able to see how it happens if the problem is internal to the bowl. I guess I just can't get excited about wrestling a toilet onto the front yard and ouring water into it. Especially if I had just finished assembling it, and then had to take it all apart, and THEN return it to the store, finally bring it back and do the whole thing over again. I guess that is why I don't buy stuff like this from Home Depot, and why I have to go to a customer's house Monday and remove a faucet and then install its replacement because the customer did buy from there.

 

[Terry]

Yeah, well you're getting kind of picky now. Of course no plumber buys from Home Depot. (that bowl wasn't bought at HD) Nor does he like growing flowers in the pot out in the yard even if it is sunny out. In Seattle it's never sunny, and you can quote me on that.
But when it is sunny, (pretend I didn't say that) you could take it outside.

But the thing I like about hj is this.........
The bowl is leaking, so just replace it.

Bowls should not leak out the water.
Nor should it went the water what ever that meant. Did I really say that?

 

[rberney1@comcast.net]

Well I guess my weeping water got the discussion going.. Going to test for leaks just because I have to pull the bowl anyway.. Going to be a real trick returning this mail-order bowl.. There go the savings off the web.. And Toto just doesn't seem to believe in leaks.. Thank you all for all of the advice.. Really really appreciated.. Will post what develops just in case ant of you are interested..

 

[mrjetskey]

If you buy something with a credit card and it is faulty the person or buisness selling it has to make it right.the credit card companys don't advertise this,but since I had a buisness and I have actually read through all the reasons you as a buisness can be charged back ,#1 is you have to deliver what you sold,and if you sold a working toilet and it doesnt work and the company wont refund or replace it then you are not liable to pay the charged amount on your credit card.once you write a written complaint to visa they will credit your acct. and remove the money from the merchants acct. if you have to go that far.Just when requesting that they replace the faulty toilet and if they don't you are going to file a complaint with the card company it will get taken care of.Actually I think you have a 90 day window by law.So if you buyon line use a credit card !!! and make the seller play by the rules just like you do!