We had a new toilet put in a few months back. In the last week or so
there has been a lot of condensation forming on the outside of the
tank. So much so that it drips down onto the floor and there is some
standing water. Not much but more than I like to see.

Any idea why this is happening? I assume that the water is really cold,
being December and all, and that it's condensing just like a glass of
cold water would on a hot day. This never happened with our old toilet.
Any idea why it's happening now?

Anything I can do about it?

It is usually in warm Summer weather that you get the condensation on the
outside of the toilet tank. Your situation is the reverse of normal. Is
there a lot of humidity in your house? Do you have condensation on your
windows? Most of us have the heat on in Winter and the air inside the house
is on the dry side which would normally absorb any moisture forming on the
outside of the toilet tank. You can get kits of styrofoam at the hardware
store that you glue onto the inside of the toilet tank and they provide
insulation between the cold water in the tank and the warm air outside the
tank and eliminate the condensation.
Per


wrote in message
oups.com...
We had a new toilet put in a few months back. In the last week or so
there has been a lot of condensation forming on the outside of the
tank. So much so that it drips down onto the floor and there is some
standing water. Not much but more than I like to see.

Any idea why this is happening? I assume that the water is really cold,
being December and all, and that it's condensing just like a glass of
cold water would on a hot day. This never happened with our old toilet.
Any idea why it's happening now?

Anything I can do about it?

wrote:

We had a new toilet put in a few months back. In the last week or so
there has been a lot of condensation forming on the outside of the
tank. So much so that it drips down onto the floor and there is some
standing water. Not much but more than I like to see.

Any idea why this is happening? I assume that the water is really cold,
being December and all, and that it's condensing just like a glass of
cold water would on a hot day.

Sure.

This never happened with our old toilet. Any idea why it's happening now?

Different weather conditions? A new humidifier in the house?

Anything I can do about it?

A $15 50 W aquarium heater in the tank, set for about 60 F. It won't run much.

Nick

maybe the previous tank was insulated.
maybe you have a mixer valve upstream of the toilet that needs hot
water increased slightly.
maybe the bathroom exhaust fan is blocked or broken allowing increased
room humidity.
maybe your new toilet is leaking cold water into the tank so much that
it makes the tank unusually cold.
maybe you have increased usage due to guests or additional humnidity
from their showers.
maybe the leak can be found by you keep reading.
"Toilet leaks can waste as much as four to five gallons of water per
minute and cost you the consumer up to $100.00 per month in increased
water and wastewater bills.

Follow these simple instructions to find out if a leaky toilet is
robbing you of precious gallons and dollars.

Toilet leaks occur in two ways and are often very difficult to detect.
The most common toilet leak and often hardest to detect is caused by a
deteriorated or defected flush valve (flapper) ball at the bottom of
the toilet tank. If the flapper or ball valve does not seat properly
and form water tight, seal water will leak around it into the toilet
bowl. Often, this leak will occur without being heard. To test for this
type of leak, add a few drops of food color or place a colored dye
tablet (available from many hardware stores or possibly your water
utility) in the toilet after it has stopped filling. Do not flush the
toilet. Wait about twenty minutes: if the food coloring or dye appears
in the toilet bowl, the flapper/tank ball or drain seat is leaking and
needs to be replaced.

The second most-common type of leak is caused by an improperly adjusted
or broken fill (ball cock) valve. If the float is set too high or if
the shut-off valve fails to close completely, water will continue to
enter the tank and flow into the overflow tube. This type of leak can
be seen simply by taking the tank top off and observing if water is
flowing into the overflow tube once the tank is full. "
quoted section from
www.fluidmaster.com
where much more help is also available

buffalobill wrote:

maybe the leak can be found by you keep reading.

"Toilet leaks can waste as much as four to five gallons of water per
minute...

I stopped reading here :-)

Nick

some water could be also be sneaking out the flush handle's hole if the
overflow tube is too tall.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We did recently add a humidifier to a
nearby room as our son has a bad cold. If the condensation doesn't stop
after we remove the humidifier then I'll look into some of the
suggestions people have posted.

Thanks!

wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions. We did recently add a humidifier to a
nearby room as our son has a bad cold. If the condensation doesn't stop
after we remove the humidifier then I'll look into some of the
suggestions people have posted.

Thanks!

This happens in cold climates where the toilet is heavily used and/or
additional moisture is being added to the air recently and water coming
in to the toilet from outside is cold causing warm heated air inside to
condense on the outside of the tank.

There are several ways to combat this issue, one is installing a mixing
valve where a little hot water is mixed with the cold before entering
the toilet. However this is often hard to do in existing construction.

May be able to insulate the toilet to prevent this from happening.