Sweating toilet...help!

The moisture condenses from warm air in contact with a cold surface (toilet tank). So, there are some kits that let you glue pieces of insulating foam board inside your toilet tank, and there are kits that let you plumb in hot water to a mixing value (like the shower) so you fill the toilet with warm water. Air flow is important, too.

snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net wrote:

Hey thanks Stubby for those ideas. I like the one about the insulation on the inside of tank.

Kohler has the Insuliner, but I think it is only factory installed American Standard used to sell a molded foam insulating liner. Don't know if they still do of if other brands may have them. Worth asking though. .

google. is your friend.

Here's a direct link:

The humidity in your home might be too high.

Stubby wrote: and there are kits that

BAD idea. If someone flushes a few times, you'll get very hot water being passed over the wax ring and cause melting or significant softening.

Spray it with antiperspirant.

Is that a BAD joke or something? The mixing valve is the VERY BEST way to solve this problem. It can be adjusted to limit the flow of hot water coming through - the temperature is controlled. You may very well find that the insulation trick won't work well, if at all, in a retrofit case.

See link below:

they don't let THAT hot of water in.

Tempering valves only add enough hot water to get somewhere near room temperature. Nobody's suggesting replacing the cold-water supply with pure hot water.

I'm glad that's being clarified, but I'd still be more confortable with something lower-tech with no possibility of malfunction and the ensuing rotting floor.

Insulation is good, and the best solution is dealing with the excess humidity that will likely cause other headaches (i.e. mold). Even putting a longer run of copper pipe outside the humid bathroom would allow the extra cold water to get closer to room temperature before entering the bathroom area, but that wouldn't be my first choice.

Folks:

I have had some luck with just cutting pieces of 1" thick styrofoam 'bead board' and wedging them firmly against the inside walls of the toilet. By 'some luck' I mean it stopped the sweating, it was tricky to wedge all the foam into place where it wouldn't interfere with the mechanism, and it may not work with a G___D___ low-flush john that fills the tank only 8" deep or so (too much displaced water) and though it worked beautifully when the lid was, the pieces tended to rise majestically skyward when said lid was removed with a full tank. :) But it did work. This toilet also had a homemade detergent-bottle deflector to prevent water from spraying against the lid from the cheap'n'leaky fill valve. We do what we must sometimes. :) :)

Cordially yours G P

Ideas I was told:

1. Insulate the outside of the tank with those fuzzy jackets.

1. Insulate the inside with a foam kit.

2. Install a mixing valve to inject a little warm water to bring fill water temp up. Saw this on "Ed the Plumber"

later,

tom @