Find Toilet tank -to-bowl Water Leaks the Easy Way With Plastic Totes - Photos - Fix Your Bathroom

Standing on your head under your toilet tank is not the easy way to try to find those pesky water leaks between the toilet tank and the bowl. That's the location where the tank sits on the lower bowl part of a standard two piece toilet. How will you know if it's the tank bolts, or the supply intake pipe, or the discharge tube causing the leak?

It isn't too difficult for a fairly able bodied person to disconnect the water supply valve and tank bolts and remove the tank from the bowl after flushing and draining the tank. The main problem is; the tank is usually made of porcelain and is brittle and must not be placed on anything that is also too hard. What, then, are you to use to position the tank on to check for leaks. In the below photo you can see how perfectly adaptable a full sized plastic tote can serve the purpose here to help with repairs. The soft plastic tote is less likely to break the tank and can save you money by preventing breakage disasters. You can position a plastic waste basket or other such water pail under the tank as in photo.

1. Preparing to remove the tank

You probably know the basic drill of removing the tank. It is not too complicated. First turn off the water supply valve which furnishes water to the tank. Now flush the tank to empty it of water. Now you can use a sponge or towels to soak up most of the remaining water in the tank so it won't spill all over the place. That big white tube in the center with a lock ring on it is the tank discharge tube.

Photo - Toilet tank suspended on two plastic totes.

2. Position plastic totes and remove tank

Position two totes next to each other closely enough together to support each side of the tank as in the photo. Remove the tank bolts by loosening the nuts below the tank and holding a screwdriver in the bolts inside the tank. Unscrew the water supply hose coupling at the tank and remove the tank and place it on the totes. It should be mostly empty at this point. Many tanks allow the nuts and washers to be attached BEFORE reattaching the tank to bowl, and the bowl bolt holes are large enough to allow these nuts to go into the bowl and still connect the last nuts below with washers. There are sometimes four nuts to go with two bolts for this reason. This double bolt method allows the seal to be secure without depending on the last bolts that secure the tank to the bowl. This way there is a set of nuts below the tank above the bowl and a set of nuts below the bowl with metal washers. Check to see if your toilet can fit both sets of nuts onto the tank bolts like that. This is an excellent opportunity to test the tank while off the bowl part of the toilet, so connect the tank toilet bolts to the nuts with washers in place in the tank and outside the tank as in photo. Close the flapper which covers the discharge tube before adding water for the test.

Photo - tank bolts

3. Plug the water supply intake pipe temporarily with a cork, makeshift plug, or even tape to stop water from flowing down through it during the test. This supply pipe stub can rest over onto one of the lids of a plastic tote during the test. Remember to remove the plug or tape after the test when reconnecting the water supply hose.

Photo - water supply intake temporarily plugged

4.
Now that you have the tank completely viewable to examine you can pour a gallon or so of water into the top of the tank to see if and where any water leaks out of any of the bolt holes, discharge tube hole, or water supply pipe hole. Any slight trickle of water getting past the rubber flapper which normally allows flushing of water through to bowl might be okay as long as it comes from inside the discharge tube since the flapper is likely to seal better with a full tank of water weighting it down under normal conditions. If any doubt, you could fill with a full tank of water. A drop or two of water then coming from the inside of the discharge tube might not be too important, but any amount of leakage here could point to either a worn out flapper seal or a possibly defective seal inside the tank at bottom around the discharge tube. This can be changed by removing the large nut and rubber gasket from the bottom of the outside of the tank and replacing and reconnecting.

Photo -

If the bolt holes leak it might indicate the need for new gasket washers inside the tank, also. When changing out and replacing these washers and seals, be sure to brush off any sediment buildup which might interfere with a positive seal. You can use a fairly stiff brush for this, etc..

DON'T OVERTIGHTEN BOLTS
Remember not to tighten bolts too much or the bowl or tank could crack. They should be snug, but not under excessive strain or pressure. Read your directions on the replacement toilet parts kits available and use your good judgement.

If there are no leaks during your test and the toilet tank still leaks after replacing the tank to the bowl you may need to replace the lower large rubber gasket which fits around the base of discharge tube outside the tank and down into the bowl. If the supply hose leaks at the tank water intake pipe you might remove it and look directly into the supply hose to ensure that the rubber washer is not jammed crossways in the nut. Sometimes simple things like this can cause a flooding leak. Straighten any such sideways jam and place the rubber gasket washer straight again in this case and the result may be a nice tight seal for eliminating such leak there. Otherwise, you may need to replace this supply hose, etc..

Other problems may be a constantly running toilet filler, etc., or not enough water level or too much water level in the tank. These problems can often be solved with a fairly inexpensive tank filler tube assembly repair kit available at most hardware and discount centers. These kits may generally cost $7 - $12 on up as of this writing. This article is not intended to address each and every toilet and/or toilet-tank problem, but is a suggestion on how to more easily examine the works.

The inexpensive plastic totes may be an ideal easier way to examine what's going on with toilet tank-to-bowl water leaks. Happy flushing!

Infoeditor

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