About four months ago I installed a new toilet with a super reinforced wax ring. Yesterday, I noticed it was leaking from underneath through the grou t around the base. I pulled up the toilet, put on a new wax ring and set i t back down. After bolting it down, I decided to let the toilet run to see what would happen. Thirty minutes, nothing, 45 minutes, nothing, an hour.. bingo - more water was leaking from the =front= of the toilet.
I pulled up the toilet and after flipping it on its side, I noticed that it was very wet up inside under the front of the bowl where the water gets pu shed through from the tank. There are a few areas in there where Kholer br ushed on some glazing, I guess to reinforce or seal up some holes, but it m ust be leaking from those areas. I can't find any other reason why the toi let would be wet up inside of that cavity.
Has anyone else come across this? Now I need to buy another toilet tomorro w and call Kholer. Not sure what they'll do about this, but I'm curious if anyone here has ever heard of something like this.
x ring. Yesterday, I noticed it was leaking from underneath through the grout around the base. I pulled up the toilet, put on a new wax ring and set it back down. After bolting it down, I decided to let the toilet ru n to see what would happen. Thirty minutes, nothing, 45 minutes, nothing, a n hour.. bingo - more water was leaking from the =front= of the toilet.
it was very wet up inside under the front of the bowl where the water gets pushed through from the tank. There are a few areas in there where Khole r brushed on some glazing, I guess to reinforce or seal up some holes, but it must be leaking from those areas. I can't find any other reason why t he toilet would be wet up inside of that cavity.
orrow and call Kholer. Not sure what they'll do about this, but I'm curi ous if anyone here has ever heard of something like this.
Could the tank to the bowl seal not be working completely, and the water seeps down and after many flushes finally appears where you see it?
I pulled up the toilet and after flipping it on its side, I noticed that it was very wet up inside under the front of the bowl where the water gets pushed through from the tank. There are a few areas in there where Kholer brushed on some glazing, I guess to reinforce or seal up some holes, but it must be leaking from those areas. I can't find any other reason why the toilet would be wet up inside of that cavity.
Has anyone else come across this? Now I need to buy another toilet tomorrow and call Kholer. Not sure what they'll do about this, but I'm curious if anyone here has ever heard of something like this.
Thanks!
Try returning it to the store. If they refuse then buy a new one and put the old one in the box and return it. I had a planter. One day I moved it and discovered the floor was wet under it. I checked the bottom and it wasn't glazed. I emptied the inside and it wasn't glazed either. The water was able to pass thru the unglazed porcelain. Your toilet may have a manufacturing defect.
at the connection of tank to bowl 2. at the waste exit
If it is leaking anywhere else then it is cracked. If it is cracked - and you didn't crack it - then it is defective and there should be no problem in returning it.
If there is a crack, I would think it would be visible with close inspection. About the only places where you could have cracked it would be the hold down bolts for the tank and bowl; cracks there wouldn't cause a leak.
Regarding the area "up inside under the front of the bowl where the water gets pushed through from the tank", could the wet be from condensation? I rather doubt it so I'd be examining that area carefully. Glaze or the lack of it wouldn't cause a leak.
Sounds like a defective toilet. I'd dig out the warranty and call the retailer. This shouldn't be hard to sort out but you'll be on the phone for about an hour.
Called Kholer this morning without the receipt. They said it could be a defective toilet. Was on the phone with them no longer than 10 minutes and they've already sent me a replacement certificate to bring to the store to get a free, replacement toilet.
No, before you start returning porcelain as defective, you need to investigate the matter conclusively, so that anyone hearing your story will agree with what you've done and conclude the porcelain is defective too. What you're doing now is guessing.
If a toilet is leaking at the wax seal, you're going to see water on the floor after the first flush, not after letting the toilet water run for an hour.
What you did is not reasonable. Letting cold water run through a toilet for an hour is going to cause the toilet tank and bowl to get cold, and atmospheric humidity is going to condense on the cold areas and drip off. Just because you saw water on the floor after that, there's no reason to believe there's a leak anywhere, especially if you weren't looking for condensation forming on the tank and bowl during that hour.
And, any monkey working in the plumbing isle of your local home center is going to think of that too and will be reluctant to return/refund anything to you unless you come to him/her with more credible evidence that there's a problem with the porcelain.
What you should do is set the toilet bowl ITSELF on a pair of 4X4's or two concrete blocks or anything that will both support the bowl and allow you to wipe up any water that leaks out of the bowl. Fill the bowl with water until water just starts to come out the bottom of the bowl and wipe that water up. Now, leave the bowl sitting with water in it overnight and see if any more drips out. If there's no further water leakage out of the bowl, there's nothing wrong with the porcelain.
Now, if this is a tile floor you're installing the toilet bowl on, it could be that you need TWO wax seals. Note that the plastic insert on a wax seal is there to prevent wax from squeezing INWARD and getting into the toilet drain pipe. So, if you need two wax seals, it's best to waste another two wax seals to check to see if those two plastic inserts will nest inside one another like paper cups. If so, use two wax seals, with each one having a plastic insert. If not, use a wax seal without an insert on the bottom, and one with a plastic insert on top.
Now, when re-installing the toilet, it's actually best to put the bowl on first and bolt it down to the floor, and then bolt the tank to the bowl. That's because you simply have more control when you're holding up a lighter weight like the bowl itself as opposed to the bowl and tank bolted together.
When I reinstall a toilet bowl, I do it with the toilet seat OFF. That way I can use a 24" spirit level and a stack of tapered shims to ensure it goes down horizontally and level. I set a stack of tapered shims where I can see that the front of the toilet bowl will be and set the bowl down on the wax seal. Then I put my spirit level on the bowl rim both this way and that to figure out which nut I have to tighten or if I need to pull out a shim or push one in further to get the bowl sitting level and horizontal. I keep on tighting the flange-to-bowl nuts down a little at a time and sliding shims out a little at a time until the bowl is down on the floor. That way I ensure the wax seal squeezes out uniformly around the floor flange.
THEN put the tank on with a new sponge gasket between the bowl and the tank. When tightening the tank down, DO NOT tighten the tank-to-bowl bolts so that they're really tight. Doing that doesn't allow for any thermal expansion or contraction of the porcelain. Better to leave the bolts snug, but so the tank moves a little when you push or pull on it, that way the sponge gasket between the tank and bowl isn't fully compressed, and the tank can contract and expand with changes in temperature.
Then, flush the toilet and watch for water leaking out between the toilet bowl and the floor. If you don't see any leakage, then there's no leak; especially on a tile floor where water could leak out from under the bowl so easily at the grout joints.
Condensation. You need to stand that toilet bowl on a pair of 4X4's or concrete blocks to conclude anything about leakage through the porcelain.
the temp swings of a normal house won't expand/contract porcelain to any great extent, that you can measure. heck, when i fire porcelain in my kiln to 2300 it doesn't expand very much: just very small fractions of an inch at those temps.
I'm not concerned about the variations in ambient air temperature that happen from day to night or from summer to winter in a heated house. I'm concerned about the thermal shock the tank gets when toilet tank water that's warmed up to 70 degrees overnight quickly gets replaced with 40 degree water after the first flush of the new day.
I understand that as a ceramic material, fired clay has less thermal expansion than metals or plastics, but there's another good reason not to tighten the tank-to-bowl bolts too much. It's because during a drought, the house can move and shift as the clay in the soil under it shrinks. That movement can cause the wall behind the toilet to start pressing on the tank from behind. Leaving a bit of wiggle room in the toilet tank helps the toilet accomodate that as well.
These are probably good points for another area than South Florida. Water comes out of my tap at 75 degrees. The foundation is a concrete slab and n ot too far under that is coral. We do get some movement here as evidenced by the cracks in the walkways, but that occurs when the ground gets saturat ed with water after heavy rainfall. The tank is an inch away from the wall , so no chance of the wall moving and pressing up against the tank.
In any case, I replaced the toilet last night and no issues. I'm convinced that there must have been a small pinhole or hairline crack in the other t oilet that caused the leak.
I appreciate everyone's input and all the good points. Not a bad one in th e bunch.
Going through this myself. Just installed a new toilet two days ago. Notice d a bead of water round the base of the toilet. Ambient air and toilet wate r are close enough that we have NO condensation issues, never have.
So, drained toilet, and tilted up from back side to determine source of lea k. No water around seal and very good/even seal around flange and ring.
Then I noticed micro-beads of water around the base on the interior non-ena mel inside of the bottom bowl. As I sat there, monitoring all read of the t oilet, I witnessed the gradual pooling of water beading out of raw porcelai n so the point of forming water droplets and beginning to pool on the floor .
Noticing this, I started looking for flaws, and sure enough, around the ins ide ring or the toilet, there are patches of non-enamel and it is hard to s ee up inside to evaluate how far into the trap these non-enamels area reach .
Suffice it to say, contrary to some posts above, non-enamel surfaces in my toilet are slowing slow but steady transfer of standing trap and bowl water THROUGH the parceling, least path of resistance, and into my floor.
On Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at 2:07:48 PM UTC-4, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wro te:
ced a bead of water round the base of the toilet. Ambient air and toilet wa ter are close enough that we have NO condensation issues, never have.
eak. No water around seal and very good/even seal around flange and ring.
namel inside of the bottom bowl. As I sat there, monitoring all read of the toilet, I witnessed the gradual pooling of water beading out of raw porcel ain so the point of forming water droplets and beginning to pool on the flo or.
nside ring or the toilet, there are patches of non-enamel and it is hard to see up inside to evaluate how far into the trap these non-enamels area rea ch.
y toilet are slowing slow but steady transfer of standing trap and bowl wat er THROUGH the parceling, least path of resistance, and into my floor.
You neglected to mention the brand of toilet, so we know what to avoid. Have you contacted them to see what they have to say? You wouldn't think water could make it through fired clay like that. Even clay flower pots, roof tiles and such don't pass water.
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