My wife (and I love her) is on the heavy side, and so over a short period of time her continued use of the johns in my house cause the wax seals to begin leaking - from her weight I am thinking.
So - I have tried a couple of different types of wax rings, but they all leak after a while. What else can I do?
The site below has what I use, rocking with this type of seal will not break the seal and it's the only type I would use from now on. No more wax seals !!!!
Thanks all of you. Maybe my weight assumption was incorrect. Sure hope so. I have been in this house 6 years now. I have two johns - both manifest same problem. I even replaced one john with an American Standard. I even opted for what was supposed to be the better seal. I thought I had the bases down tight - maybe I didn't. I never had this trouble in prior house (20 years).
I agree-- I used one a month ago when I started working on my tiny bathroom. As it turned out i had to take the toilet out a half dozen times during the course of the job. [I'm slow & the Mrs. wanted a handy toilet no matter what the room looked like.]
It was not only the most economical way- [at the Borg- $6 once instead of $4 6 times]- there was no messy wax every time I moved the toilet.
I don't see a disadvantage to the rubber rings yet-- though time will tell if the rubber holds up under those conditions for as long as the wax.
It would certainly take care of a 'rocking toilet' leak-- but if the toilet is rocking, chances are there is a subfloor problem. [or the house is settling and the plumbing isn't]
I take an extra wax ring and heat it with a hair dryer. Then use a putty knife to smear softened wax around the bowl outlet "horn". Work it into the porcelain surface so it has good adhesion. Then stick a fresh wax ring onto the horn and work it around to get a good seal.
Use the putty knife to apply soft wax to the flange as well. When you drop the bowl down onto the flange, twist it back and forth. You wind up with a seal that is close to "forever". Jim
Years ago a similar problem drove me nuts. The cause was determined to be an extra plastic horn stuck to the toilet. Between the two horns there was no seal. Make sure you are cleaning the bottom of the toilet well and that the floor framing is up to the task. Given a choice between plain wax gasket and wax gasket with horn take the horn.
I would have to agree with the above comments on transitioning from wax rings over to a more resilient conduit from the basin to your drain. I have over time rotated out almost all of the wax rings in my apartment units to a waxless model. I have not used the particular model (Ultraseal) mentioned above but it actually looks better and cheaper then the ones I have been purchasing. I have not had any leaks to date and I recommend this practice. Wax rings were a good solution back when pvc and rubber were not available and the only methods of connection were lead and cast iron. Besides cleaning wax rings off just stinks! ;)
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