New Toilet Installation - Dripping Noise

[Cornerman]

I'm starting to lose it, so I thought I'd try here.

I've removed an older toilet and replaced it with a Kohler Wellworth. I've used a wax ring with horn and set that sucker in place, and mounted a new tank.

After flushing, and after the tank stops filling, I can hear water flowing somewhere until it slows to a drip. The drip noise continues every 5 - 10 seconds.

After some attempts at deduction, I removed the tank. So, with just a commode, I poured water in. Same thing. I can hear water flowing somewhere until it slows to a drip. The drip noise continues every

5-10 seconds.

I saw no water seeping anywhere, and I have yet to see any signs of water anywhere. And with the amount of noise I hear, I guess I'd expect to see something somewhere.

So, I pulled the commode off. There was no tell tale signs of any water getting past the wax seal. Everything looked bone dry.

I was thinking that maybe the excess water was simply dripping from the horn into the pipe, and that the plastic pipe was amplifying the noise, especially with my ear up against the commode. But I would also expect the dripping noise to stop. But it doesn't (didnt, that is since as of this writing, everything is uninstalled.

With no commode in place, I've poured water into the waste flange to see if I can recreate "excess water dripping down the pipe" to no avail.

So, sports fans... is there any chance that water in the commode is somehow backing up and over and through the trap. And what would cause that?

My next step is to get a wax-less Fernco ring and try again with some crazy hope that this "excess water" was simply hanging on to the wax and slowly dripping off forever.

Any help, sage advice, or direction to the nearest neighborhood bar would be appreciated.

Fred

[Gary]

Did you adjust the float height to make sure no water goes over the fill tube?

[Cornerman]

Yup. The fill tube has a nice line marked.

And just to reiterate, I could still hear the drip noises with the tank completely off the commode. I can't hear the drips with the commode off the waste flange, so I don't think the drip noise is simply echoing from someplace else.

Fred

[Jeff Wisnia]

Well, the one thing nobody's mentioned yet is the fact that water does have a coefficient of thermal expansion. It expands in volume about

0.04% per degree Fahrenheit.

And it's not unreasonable that the drain may just look act a perfect percussion instrument to let you clearly hear every drip.

So, maybe, just maybe, if the water which filled the bowl was COLD and slowly warmed up to room temperature, it's expand in volume by over one percent, which could supply quite a few drops of water, 'eh? I'd certainly expect it to keep trickling over the trap and dripping for quite a while until it got warmed as much as it could.

The test already suggested of lowering the water level in the bowl a little to see if the noise stops seems like a good way to "prove" where the drip is coming from.

Now, if you could figure out where the lowest spot on the bowl horn is, you could epoxy a length of thick string to it and let it dangle down against the drain pipe. That was the "lazy man fix" for getting rid of annoying drip sounds from leaking bathroom taps while waiting "forever" for your landlord to fix them.

Jeff

[Jeff Wisnia]

I know it's a bit of work, but how about pulling the bowl one more time, standing it up off the floor over the drain flange on a couple of two by fours on edge, filling the bowl and looking with a mirror and flashlight to see if there's really a drip coming out of the horn.

It's not totally beyond reason that your new toilet came equipped with a manufacturing defect which lets water bypass the trap hump somehow. If that's the case, and you can prove it in the way I just suggested then you should be in good shape to get a warranty replacement from the place who sold it to you.

Jeff

[Don Young]

Wouldn't it be easier to just see if the water level in the bowl continues to drop? If the trap is completely refilled, I think all toilets drip water over the edge of the trap for a while after flushing as the water possibly expands from warming up and as the rest of the clinging water slowly drains down from the water passages and the higher parts of the bowl. I can't imagine any reason why they would not drip nor why it would be considered a problem unless the bowl loses too much water.

Reducing the flow of the refill tube so that the trap is not completely filled can correct the situation if it is considered a problem. Don Young