Toilet Problems in Your
Austin, TX Home
The first step to solving some
of the most common problems
associated with toilets is to gain
an understanding of how the toilet
works. For most people, it’s
understood that you flush the toilet
with the handle and magically the
water flushes away everything.
Anything beyond the handle is a
mystery to most.
The main components of a toilet
include a tank, a bowl, a handle, a
trip lever, a stopper and a
ball-cock and flush-valve assembly.
All of these components work
together to make your toilet flush.
Most often, if one of these
components fails to work, then the
whole process falls apart.
The handle is connected to a trip
lever. When the handle is pressed
down, it raises a chain or vertical
rod that is attached to a stopper
located at the bottom of the tank.
The stopper is responsible for
covering the flush valve. When the
stopper is raised, water in the tank
rushes through the flush valve. The
flush valve is located at the bottom
of the tank. The water then travels
into the toilet bowl through small
flush ports at the underside of the
rim of the bowl.
At this point in the process,
gravity plays a major role because
it pulls the water in the bowl out
through the trap and into the
drainpipe. This causes the tank to
empty out. As soon as all the water
has left the tank, the stopper drops
back into the flush-valve seat. Now
the float ball has fallen down to
the bottom of the tank which then
triggers the ball-cock assembly to
refill the tank with new water.
Water begins to enter the toilet via
the supply line. The supply line is
located below and to one side of the
tank and then through the tank-fill
tube. As the water level rises, so
does the float ball. Once the float
ball reaches a certain height it
turns off the flow of water to the
bowl. If for some reason the water
fails to stop running, then the
water is redirected from the tank to
the overflow tube and then into the
toilet bowl. This is often referred
to as a "running toilet."
A “running toilet” is a common
problem with toilets. However, it
can be caused by several things so
it’s important to play around with
different components to try and
figure out what the source of the
problem is. Almost always, the
source of the problem is a float arm
that is not rising to the proper
height. This can usually be simply
resolved by bending the float arm
downward.
If you come to find out that the
float arm was not responsible for
your running toilet, then you may
want to take a look at your stopper.
It’s very possible that your stopper
is not seating properly against the
flush valve seat. This can be the
result of deterioration of the
stopper or a flush-valve seat that
is damaged or corroded. Once again
this can usually be resolved simply
by replacing or cleaning the stopper
and repairing the flush-valve seat.
Aside from a running toilet, other
common problems include those that
are associated with a cracked
overflow tube and defective
ball-cock valves. Repairing these
components is an option, but you
will find that it is often a better
decision to just replace them. Also,
you will find that some of the older
ball-cock devices are not equipped
with an anti-siphon valve. An
anti-siphon valve prevents water in
the tank from being siphoned back
into the freshwater system. By
replacing your ball-cock device with
a new one you will be sure to get
one that contains the newer
anti-siphon feature. Additionally,
it is often more expensive and time
consuming to find and purchase
individual parts then it would be to
replace the entire assembly.
If you are looking for a plumber for your Austin home, please
call us today at 512-445-5212 or
click on the link below:
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