Noisy Toilet

 

CAROLYN: We have a toilet that automatically flushes. You can hear the sound in the bedroom, in the hall and all of the sound and water seems to take place in the tank. What causes a toilet to spontaneously flush?

TOM: Well, you know, some people would pay thousands of dollars to have their toilet automatically flush. (Carolyn chuckles) The reason it’s happening is because you have a leaking flush valve – that’s the valve in the bottom of the toilet – and what happens is it leaks water out to the point where the fill valve wants to sort of complete the job and refill the toilet. And so the solution is to replace the flush valve but since both flush and fill valves are so inexpensive, I would replace all of the guts of the toilet, both flush and fill valve. It’ll cost you about 15 bucks in parts. It’s not too hard to do it yourself and that problem will go away for good, Carolyn.

CAROLYN: Oh, that sounds great. That sounds great. So I will replace both of them, just as you said.

LESLIE: And Carolyn, there’s a great website – it’s FluidMaster.com – and they give you detailed pictures of the entire process, step-by-step, how to go ahead and change both of these items so you can actually do it yourself.

CAROLYN: OK. Thank you very much. Thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome, Carolyn. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.