Your water and sanitation bills are based on how much water you consume. But if your water consumption seems abnormally high, you could have a leaky toilet. Fixing a leaking toilet could save you water and money!
Here are four simple steps to test your toilet to determine if it's leaking:
- Open the toilet tank
- Drop a dye tablet or some food coloring in the tank water
- Wait 15-20 minutes
- Look in the toilet bowl (not the tank) and see if you have colored water. If so, you have a leak.
Here are some additional ways you can check:
- Make sure your water level isn't above the overflow pipe in the tank. If it is, you may have a problem with your fill valve.
- If you see water trickling down the inside of the toilet bowl when it hasn't been flushed, this is a sign of a leak.
- If your unused toilet is making lots of noise (a running sound), you probably have a leak.
- If you can jiggle the toilet handle and make the running stop then you probably need to adjust the flapper valve or the chain connecting the flush handle to the flapper valve.
If none of these tests determines a leak but you still think you may have one, before you go to bed, shut off the water to the toilet. In the morning, check the water level in the tank - if there is only an inch of water left at the bottom of the tank, then one or more of your tank parts is allowing the leak.
Once you've fixed a leaky toilet, you can submit a form to SD1 to have us reexamine your water usage. Just visit https://forms.sd1.org/forms/ChangeRequest and choose "Sanitary Sewer Service: Leak or Winter Factor Adjustment."