Toilet Will Not Stop Running
This is not an emergency and you should not pay emergency rates for it. It is costing you money on the water bill, and it is almost always one of two cheap parts, but it can wait until normal hours.
What to do right now
Do these first. None of them need tools or plumbing knowledge, and they limit what this ends up costing you.
- Shut the valve behind the toilet if you want it to stop tonightTurn it clockwise. The toilet will not refill, so you get one more flush and then it is out of use, but the running stops and so does the cost.
- Find out which of the two parts it isPut a few drops of food colouring in the cistern and wait half an hour without flushing. Colour in the bowl means the flapper is leaking. No colour but still running means the fill valve is overfilling into the overflow tube.
Does this need a plumber tonight?
- Water is overflowing the cistern onto the floor
- The running is accompanied by water appearing outside the toilet
- A toilet running continuously with no water escaping the cistern
- Water audible in the cistern but the floor is dry
- A toilet you have isolated at its valve
What it is actually costing
A silently running toilet is the single most common cause of an unexplained water bill. It can pass hundreds of gallons a day without making enough noise for anyone to notice.
If your water bill has risen with no change in habits, check every toilet in the house with the dye test before looking anywhere else. It is the first thing to rule out and it is free.
The reason it goes unnoticed is that a worn flapper often lets water past in a slow continuous seep rather than a refill cycle, so there is no periodic sound to draw attention.
The two parts
The flapper at the bottom of the cistern, or the fill valve at the side. Both are inexpensive, both are widely available, and both are within reach of most homeowners.
The flapper is a rubber seal that perishes and hardens over time, and Utah's hard water accelerates it. When it stops seating properly, water seeps from the cistern into the bowl continuously.
The fill valve fails differently: it does not shut off at the right level, so water runs into the overflow tube and away down the pan. Bending or adjusting the float usually confirms which it is.
What this costs to fix
[PLACEHOLDER: PRICING] Pending from the client.
This is a small parts job during normal hours and it should be priced as one. If any plumber presents a running toilet as an emergency, that tells you something about how the rest of the visit will go.
Questions people ask about this
Is a running toilet an emergency?
No. It costs money and it is worth fixing, but nothing is being damaged. Shut the valve behind it if you want the noise and the cost to stop tonight, and book it for normal hours.
Can I replace the flapper myself?
Many people do. Shut the valve, flush to empty the cistern, unclip the old one and take it to the shop to match it. If it does not solve it, the fill valve is the other suspect.
It runs only sometimes.
That is typically a flapper that is seating unevenly, or a chain with too little slack holding it fractionally open. Both are easy fixes.
If that is not quite what you have
Not sure how urgent this is?
Describe what you can see and hear. We will tell you whether it needs someone tonight, and what to do in the meantime either way.
Or send it over
Four things and a photo.