Is your toilet running or constantly running?
A toilet flapper can be one of the easiest repairs on a toilet to replace to stop it from occasionally turning on or constantly running.
If you hear your toilet turning on and shutting off by itself, the first item to investigate is the flapper. Flappers can deteriorate over time, get misshaped, and get hard. When this happens, they do not seal correctly and will allow water to seep past and cause your toilet to refill and run unnecessarily. A leaking flapper can waste thousands of gallons of water in a short amount of time.
To get started, you will need to identify the correct flapper size. It will more than likely be a 2” or 3” flapper (see below to order a universal flapper).
You do not need to have turn off the water to change the flapper
We caution turning off the water to the toilet at the wall. If your shut off valve is old, this could cause more issues. If it hasn’t been turned off in a while, it may leak when turned. Please watch the video to see how Ross solves this problem by holding up the fill valve arm and stopping the water from filling the tank.
Simply remove the flapper from the flush valve arms and disconnect the chain from the trip lever.
Run the finger over the edge of the seal where the flapper sets, to make sure it is clean.
Attach the new flapper to the arms of the flush valve and adjust the chain so that it is slightly sagging at the flapper.
You may need to adjust the dial on the universal flapper. This adjusts the amount of water that is allowed to flush into the bowl. After flushing the toilet, if it automatically flushes twice, then adjust the dial to a lower number.
Thank you for tuning into DIY on the House!
