How I (Arlene) Saved Money with My Toilet

I don’t know if the Tidy Bowl Man would survive this but, if you want to find out what your toilet really costs you there are several things you can address.  Does your toilet decide when it wants to flush?  Do you lay in bed at night and instead of counting sheep you are counting the number of times you can hear it mysteriously flush and fill up?  Just so you know, it isn’t the Tidy Bowl Man trying to get out. To test to see where the leak is at you need to add food coloring ( color of your choice) into the tank.  Stir it and wait 15 to 30 minutes and see if it leaks into the bowl.  It might be as simple as the flapper needs replaced.  This should be done every couple years because most leaks are silent ones. 

The blue pellet things with the chlorine, that you might add to the tank in order to keep the bowl clean can and will actually eat at the rubber on the flapper and any other rubber items in the tank.  And could cause the tank to leak.  Not wise to use these things in the tank.

Another problem which it could be is the fill valve.  When the fill valve goes bad most times you won’t know it at first.  What the fill valve will do is not shut off all the way and it will continue filling until, it starts to slow down the overflow tube. This can happen at such a slow pace that you will  not hear it until, eventually it will leak so quickly you will start to hear it.  To check your fill valve, lift the toilet tank lid off and look at the water level in the tank. The water should be somewhere below the top of the fill valve. If it is at or near the fill valve look at it closely to see if the water is overflowing into the overflow tube.  As long as it is not you are safe. If it is, you are wasting water and losing money and the fill valve is in need of repair or replacement.