Here is another problem that occured which I thought was interesting....

[Pmaru77]

I had a leak a few years back, it was soaking the kitchen hallway ceiling, and there was a lot of plumbing above,
including 2 back to back bathrooms. The drywall was soaked pretty bad, so I punched a hole in it assuming that I would have to replace it anyways. Water was dripping down fairly steadily and was like clockwork, but faster than tick tock. I called a plumber and he nailed it right off the bat. It was a toilet wax ring that was passing water, and not only that, the water valve that feeds the toilet reservoir was not shutting off all the way, as it was slowly feeding water into the toilet. If you put your ear to the valve (with the toilet cover off) you could barely hear water running. So the combination of a leaky valve and a bad wax ring seal caused big wet spot on the drywall ceiling. To this day, I'm kind of pissed that I punched the drywall out to see what was going on. As the problem was not there, but in the upstairs toilet. The fix was to just install a new toilet. Turns out that the toilet flange was crap, and the job ended up remodeling the whole bathroom (it needed it). If I had called a plumber first instead of ripping a hole in the drywall, you think he would have figured it out without popping a hole in the drywall? In my wildest dreams, I would have never thought that a leaking valve and a bad wax seal would happen at the same time. So much for my knowledge.

 

[hj]

1. A leaking wax seal does NOT require a new toilet
2. Because of the interface, water leaking INTO the toilet from a bad valve would NOT leak out of a bad wax seal. It would only leak when the toilet was flushed.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Pmaru77]

1. A leaking wax seal does NOT require a new toilet
2. Because of the interface, water leaking INTO the toilet from a bad valve would NOT leak out of a bad wax seal. It would only leak when the toilet was flushed.

Of course it doesn't need a new toilet, but with the rebates for water wise toilets covered 70% of the toilet cost. Gezzz, read what I said. There was a constant fast drip coming from the toilet flange area. A constant fast drip to me does not sound like a toilet flush leak. And seeing that the toilet was not flushed recently. And how come when we turned off the valve feeding the toilet, the dripping stopped.

 

[Terry]

I would have never thought that a leaking valve and a bad wax seal would happen at the same time. So much for my knowledge.

The leaking valve could have happened at any time. It was the leaking wax seal that allowed the problem to be exposed.

 

[Flapper]

Wouldn't you have to replace the damaged drywall anyway? Don't worry about punching a hole in the ceiling. Drywall repair is easy.
Are you sure it was a leaking fill valve? A leaking flapper could cause the same result.

 

[Pmaru77]

Wouldn't you have to replace the damaged drywall anyway? Don't worry about punching a hole in the ceiling. Drywall repair is easy.
Are you sure it was a leaking fill valve? A leaking flapper could cause the same result.

If you put your ear to the toilet reservoir, you could barely hear the water passing through the valve(water line). Also, there was no sign of water entering the toilet turd target.

 

[Flapper]

If you put your ear to the toilet reservoir, you could barely hear the water passing through the valve(water line).

Yes, a leaking flapper would cause this, usually with a ballcock valve (not float cup, they turn on and off completely). That's what happened when I found one of our leaking flappers.

 

[Pmaru77]

Yes, a leaking flapper would cause this, usually with a ballcock valve (not float cup, they turn on and off completely). That's what happened when I found one of our leaking flappers.

Yeah, I guess we won't know for sure. But I thought I would share my experience. I cannot remember if the water was going down the overflow tube, but I had a plumber there and he quickly blamed the leak on the bad wax ring and the water continually running. It took two things to go bad. If just flushing the toilet made water get past the wax, the amount of water would probably evaporate and not be noticeable.