Fixing a running toilet
A running toilet can waste hundreds of litres of water a day and shows up directly on your water bill. Most often the fault is in the float, the fill valve or the flush valve seal, and you can fix these yourself in under an hour.
You will need
- A screwdriver
- A towel and a bucket
- A spare part: a seal or fill valve to match your toilet model
- A torch
- A phone camera for photographing the model label
Steps
Identify the leak
Listen for a constant hiss from the cistern and look at the bowl: a trickle of running water means a leak. You can drop a little food colouring into the cistern and see whether the colour appears in the bowl without flushing.
Turn off the water
Open the cistern lid
Adjust the float
Clean the flush valve seal
Replace the fill valve if needed
Test and reassemble
Report it in a rental home
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