When the flapper in your toilet’s tank is malfunctioning, your toilet can waste hundreds of gallons of water each day due to leakage. Other problems caused by a flapper that works improperly can result in a waste of your time, requiring that you flush several times or hold down your toilet’s lever to achieve a complete flush. There are a few quick fixes you can do to make the flapper in your tank work correctly and keep the toilet in your Delaware home running smoothly.
Flapper Won’t Close
You can waste a great deal of water if your toilet’s flapper doesn’t properly close. Buildup on the flapper can prevent it from achieving a good seal and is often the result of an accumulation of mineral deposits or hard water residue. You can wear plastic gloves and use your fingers to scrape away the debris until it is gone, which will enable the flapper to stop water leaking from the tank once the flapper can seal well again.
Another possible reason that your toilet’s flapper has stopped closing may be due to a twist in the flapper’s chain. This can cause the chain to shorten in length, which doesn’t allow the flapper to extend far enough down for it to adequately seal the water in the tank. You can simply squeeze the twisted link in the chain to jar it loose, which will make it longer again.
Flapper Closes Too Soon
If you find that you need to flush the toilet more than once to remove all waste, it is important to check that the problem isn’t due to the tank’s water level not being the correct height, which should be a measurement of a bit more than an inch below the top of your toilet’s overflow pipe. If the water level is at an adequate level, the problem may be due to the tank’s flapper closing too soon. This is caused by there being too much slack in the flapper’s chain. Adjust the chain so that the slack doesn’t exceed the length of two or three links.
Flapper Doesn’t Open Wide Enough
If you need to hold your toilet’s lever to make the toilet flush completely, your flapper’s chain is likely too long, causing the flapper to not open wide enough. You can increase the tension on the chain by disconnecting it from the handle and reducing the chain’s length by one or two links before reattaching the chain to the handle.
Problems with your toilet’s flapper can cause the toilet in your Delaware home to leak water or require several flushes to remove waste. The flapper should be free of substance buildup for it to properly seal, and a chain that is too long or too short can make the flapper perform ineffectively. Adjusting the chain’s length can make the flapper rise higher or stay open longer, which may be needed to complete a flush.
The toilet in your Delaware house is an important part of your home’s plumbing system, and problems with the toilet flapper can cause inconveniences on your time and reult in a waste of water through leakage. The skilled HVAC technicians of First Class HVAC have been providing professional plumbing maintenance in Delaware, in cities including Pikecreek and Ellendale, and in Maryland, in cities including Whaleyville and Fairmont, for over 40 years. Contact us today to learn about options for plumbing remodeling job that can modernize your bathroom.