Few residential plumbing fixtures are as frequently used as toilets. Everyone in your home is guaranteed to use one of your toilets each day. In busy households, toilets frequently experience overflows and clogs, and their bowls are often riddled with stubborn stains. The following are seven common residential toilet problems along with tips for resolving them.
1. Recurring Toilet Clogs
Recurring clogs are an all-too-common toilet issue with many possible causes. If you have low-flow toilets and a big household, you might need a toilet upgrade. Frequent clogs can also be a sign of a developing blockage within your sewer line, especially if you also have multiple clogged or slow-moving drains in other areas.
One of the best ways to put recurring clogs to a swift end is by removing “flushable” wipes from your bathrooms. Although these products are marketed as being flushable, they’re hardly toilet-friendly. These slow-degrading products are frequently reinforced with durable polymers. They can get snagged on sediment in your pipes or on rough pipe interiors. Worse still, they can remain fully intact for weeks or months. Encourage everyone to flush human waste and toilet paper only.
If this doesn’t solve your problem with recurring clogs, schedule a plumbing inspection. A licensed plumber can check for sewer line obstructions or make recommendations for a toilet upgrade.
2. Leaky Toilets
Leaky toilets often have deteriorated flush valves or flappers at the bottoms of their tanks. The good news is that this doesn’t mean that toilets are ready for replacement. Have a plumber inspect and replace your flapper. Hiring a professional to complete this work is the best way to keep your toilet manufacturer’s warranty intact.
3. Toilets That Constantly Run
There’s nothing quite like flushing a toilet and then listening to it run for hours. Constantly running toilets can cause significant water waste. In fact, a running toilet can waste between 1,000 and 4,000 gallons of water per day. Your toilet may need a new flapper or a new valve assembly.
4. Dingy, Discolored Toilet Bowls
Few things are more embarrassing than having a guest use your bathroom only to find your toilet bowl discolored and dingy. Even with the best bleaching agents and vigorous scrubbing, you may have toilet bowls that never come clean. If your toilets have dark orange or brown stains, these could be mineral build-ups from excessively hard water. If hard water is a common problem in your neighborhood, you can correct the issue by installing a whole-house water softener. However, if hard water minerals are coming from deteriorating water supply pipes, you may need to replace your water lines instead.
5. Insufficient Flushing Power
Insufficient flushing power could mean that you’ve purchased the wrong toilets for your household. However, it can also indicate a water supply line issue. Schedule backflow testing to ensure that your incoming water isn’t being contaminated due to pinhole leaks or issues at the water main.
6. Slow-Filling Toilets
If your toilet is slow to fill, make sure that the water supply valve behind the toilet is fully open. If this doesn’t correct the issue, you might have a backflow in your water line or slow-moving water due to hard water minerals in your pipes.
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7. Toilets That Rock From Side to Side
Toilets that rock from side to side have often sustained considerable wear. However, your toilet flange might sit higher than the floor. Your plumber can steady your rocky toilet with shims and by tightening the nuts at its base. Fixing a rocking toilet is essential for protecting the toilet seal.
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