Toilet issue, Moms

[cshenk]

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."

Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

[dpb]

Flapper valve

--

[BQ340]

Evaporation if toilet is not used much? Vent issues causing suction in drainpipe when other drains are used? Dog water bowl is empty?

MikeB

[Van Chocstraw]

High wind area? Sometimes the wind causes a vacuum in the sewer pipe sucking the toilet water out. Sometimes you can see the toilet water bouncing up and down with storms.

[John Grabowski]

Capillary action. There's a piece of toilet tissue stuck somewhere and the water is flowing through it. It may clear itself someday.

[aemeijers]

'Dog water bowl is empty?'

Snort. Best post I've read today.

-- aem sends...

[Stormin Mormon]

Made and seconded. A motion is on the floor.

[cshenk]

Wouldnt that affect the tank and make it sound like it's running all the time? LOL, thanks for your patience. She lives a 6 hour drive so this is a sort of 'distance support'. I recommended she change that though just in case. Its a real easy fix if related! She's just never done the plumming part of the work when we fixed up houses for sale. That was almost exclusively my older sister's job.

[cshenk]

Naw, this was her main one. She's using the back one now.

This may well be it. Snake the vent somehow? Blockage of some sort suspected? She's handy but this sort of thing (plumming) isnt her forte at all, and one I only know a bit about. I can replace a toilet seal, thats about it.

Snicker, she doesnt have any pets.

[cshenk]

"Stormin Mormon" wrote

Naw, best today was the lady date ad.

[cshenk]

Yes, high wind and that's an interesting one. She's in a trailer and the skirting is always causing trouble so she just replaced it again for winter. Some of the old stuff had rotted out (wood, doesnt affect the trailer itself but abuts it) so she put up new base and some sort of siding. I don't have the details but she's a pretty savvy lady even if 79 now (grin). If she was into newsgroups, she'd be all over this place with 30 years of 'house flipping' experience. Like all of us though, she doesnt know everything and plumming is a gap for her.

So, the issue may be downline of her I take it? That would explain why it seems to be transient.

[mm]

I can barely understand what you're talking about. If the bowl level goes down, why must it be refilled? How low does it go, how long does it take?

[hrhofmann]

Are you sure that your mother doen't mean the water level in the tank, not the toilet bowl itself?

[Oren]

What are the chances the throat of the bowl has a hairline crack and is leaking water?

[nefletch]

As a previous poster noted, the most likely scenario is a paper towel or toilet paper stuck in the P-trap of the toilet siphoning the water away. A common problem.

[cshenk]

I'd say about zero as she'd have water leekage and have mentioned it. She just replaced all the insulation under the trailer so had it down to bare wood this past summer. She'd had some freezing problems last winter so re-winterized the underside this year.

[dpb]

Was presuming this was communication gap. They can seep so slowly never hear it until it does finally reach level it refills.

If it really is bowl level, does it fully refill on flush? If not, may be sediment buildup in supply holes.

If it really is the bowl level dropping w/o the tank between flushes it has to either be siphoning, leaking or vacuum pulling water out as someone else mentioned (if the pet, evaporation, etc., other external causes are excluded).

Sounds like time to send in the sister... :)

[cshenk]

Yup, I've had 49 years to learn how to translate 'Mom-speak' ;-) commode=bowl in her lexicon

I'm looking a the stuck paper in the P-trap as a possible but normally she'd use a plunger first thing which I imagine would clear that.

[cshenk]

"nefletch" wrote

I'll check and see if she gave it a good plunging. I imagine that would be the fix for that?

[Stormin Mormon]

Two words: Use closet auger.