Service
Running Toilet Repair
Stopping a toilet that runs continuously or refills by itself, which is usually one inexpensive part and a surprisingly large amount of wasted water.
- Licensed and insured
- Price agreed before work
- A plumber who works your area
Silent, invisible, and expensive
A running toilet is the largest water waster most houses ever have, and it is the hardest to notice.
Water passing a worn flapper runs from the cistern down the inside of the bowl and away. There is no drip, no puddle, and often no sound beyond a faint trickle that fades into the background of a house.
Meanwhile it can be hundreds of gallons a day. It is the standard answer to a water bill that has risen for no apparent reason, and the part responsible costs almost nothing.
The dye test settles it in twenty minutes: colouring in the cistern, no flushing, then look in the bowl.
Two different faults, one sound
What you hear is similar. What has failed is not.
A passing flapper. The seal at the bottom of the cistern is not closing, so water leaks down into the pan and the cistern refills to replace it. The dye test catches this one, because colour reaches the bowl.
A fill valve that will not shut off. The valve keeps supplying water past its cut-off point, the level rises to the overflow, and everything above that spills into the pan. The dye test shows nothing, because the water going into the bowl is clean water arriving from the supply.
Both are inexpensive parts. Fitting the wrong one is a wasted afternoon, which is why the test comes before the trip to buy anything.
Does this sound familiar?
Problems this service solves
- A toilet that runs constantly after flushing
- A cistern that refills on its own periodically
- The sound of trickling water in a quiet house
- A water bill that has risen with no change in use
- A fill valve that will not shut off cleanly
Signs you need running toilet repair
If more than one of these is true, the problem is usually past the point a plunger or a store-bought cleaner will fix.
- You can hear water running with nobody using it
- The cistern refills every so often unprompted
- Water is visibly trickling into the pan
- The bill has gone up unexplained
What to expect
How the visit works
Confirm with dye
A few drops of colouring in the cistern, twenty minutes without flushing, then look in the pan. Colour means the flapper is passing.
Check the flapper and seat
A perished flapper is the usual cause, but a pitted or mineral-coated seat will prevent even a new flapper from sealing.
Test the fill valve
A valve that does not shut off cleanly keeps topping up and overflowing into the pan, which sounds the same but is a different part.
Set the levels
Water level below the overflow and a correctly adjusted chain, since a chain that is too short holds the flapper fractionally open.
What's included
What you get on every job, whoever we send.
- Confirmed with a dye test rather than guessed
- The seat checked as well as the flapper
- Fill valve and flapper faults told apart
- Levels and chain set so it does not recur
Questions
Running Toilet Repair questions
How much water does a running toilet actually waste?
Far more than it appears. A flapper that passes water continuously, even as a trickle you can barely see, can waste hundreds of gallons a day, and because it runs down the bowl there is no sound and nothing to see. It is one of the most common explanations for a water bill that has climbed with no change in household use, and the part responsible usually costs a few pounds.
How do I test it myself?
Put a few drops of food colouring into the cistern, not the bowl, and do not flush. Come back after about twenty minutes and look in the pan. If there is colour in the bowl, water is passing the flapper and the toilet is leaking continuously. It is a definitive test, it takes no tools, and it is worth running on every toilet in a house when a bill goes up unexpectedly.
I replaced the flapper and it still runs. Why?
Usually the seat it closes against. Over years, mineral deposits build up on the rim or the plastic becomes pitted, and a perfectly good new flapper cannot seal against an uneven surface. Cleaning the seat carefully often solves it; a badly degraded seat needs replacing. The other possibility is the fill valve, which keeps topping up and spilling into the overflow, producing the same sound from a different cause.
Related services
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See what this covers
Get it fixed
Running Toilet Repair, handled locally
Call with your ZIP code and what you are seeing. We route you to a licensed plumber in your area who does running toilet repair every week.
- Licensed and insured
- Answered 24/7
- Price before work