Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up fine
but leaks out over time so must be refilled."

Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

cshenk wrote:
Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."

Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

Flapper valve

--

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine
but leaks out over time so must be refilled."

Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.



Capillary action. There's a piece of toilet tissue stuck somewhere and the
water is flowing through it. It may clear itself someday.

BQ340 wrote:
cshenk wrote:
Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."

Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.


Evaporation if toilet is not used much?
Vent issues causing suction in drainpipe when other drains are used?
Dog water bowl is empty?

MikeB
'Dog water bowl is empty?'

Snort. Best post I've read today.

--
aem sends...

Made and seconded. A motion is on the floor.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
Dog water bowl is empty?

MikeB
'Dog water bowl is empty?'

Snort. Best post I've read today.

--
aem sends...

"dpb" wrote
cshenk wrote:

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."
Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

Flapper valve

Wouldnt that affect the tank and make it sound like it's running all the
time? LOL, thanks for your patience. She lives a 6 hour drive so this is a
sort of 'distance support'. I recommended she change that though just in
case. Its a real easy fix if related! She's just never done the plumming
part of the work when we fixed up houses for sale. That was almost
exclusively my older sister's job.

"BQ340" wrote
cshenk wrote:
Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."
Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

Evaporation if toilet is not used much?

Naw, this was her main one. She's using the back one now.

Vent issues causing suction in drainpipe when other drains are used?

This may well be it. Snake the vent somehow? Blockage of some sort
suspected? She's handy but this sort of thing (plumming) isnt her forte at
all, and one I only know a bit about. I can replace a toilet seal, thats
about it.

Dog water bowl is empty?

Snicker, she doesnt have any pets.

"Stormin Mormon" wrote

Made and seconded. A motion is on the floor.

Naw, best today was the lady date ad.

"Van Chocstraw" wrote
cshenk wrote:

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."
Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

High wind area? Sometimes the wind causes a vacuum in the sewer pipe
sucking the toilet water out. Sometimes you can see the toilet water
bouncing up and down with storms.

Yes, high wind and that's an interesting one. She's in a trailer and the
skirting is always causing trouble so she just replaced it again for winter.
Some of the old stuff had rotted out (wood, doesnt affect the trailer itself
but abuts it) so she put up new base and some sort of siding. I don't have
the details but she's a pretty savvy lady even if 79 now (grin). If she was
into newsgroups, she'd be all over this place with 30 years of 'house
flipping' experience. Like all of us though, she doesnt know everything and
plumming is a gap for her.

So, the issue may be downline of her I take it? That would explain why it
seems to be transient.

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:39:44 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up fine
but leaks out over time so must be refilled."

Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

I can barely understand what you're talking about. If the bowl level
goes down, why must it be refilled? How low does it go, how long does
it take?

On Oct 10, 6:34*pm, mm wrote:
On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:39:44 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:
Hi folks, this in from Mom. *"comode is not holding water but fills up fine
but leaks out over time so must be refilled."

Ideas? *She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

I can barely understand what you're talking about. * If the bowl level
goes down, why must it be refilled? *How low does it go, how long does
it take?

Are you sure that your mother doen't mean the water level in the tank,
not the toilet bowl itself?

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:02:35 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

Evaporation if toilet is not used much?

Naw, this was her main one. She's using the back one now.

What are the chances the throat of the bowl has a hairline crack and
is leaking water?

As a previous poster noted, the most likely scenario is
a paper towel or toilet paper stuck in the P-trap of the
toilet siphoning the water away. A common problem.

"Oren" wrote
"cshenk" wrote:

What are the chances the throat of the bowl has a hairline crack and
is leaking water?

I'd say about zero as she'd have water leekage and have mentioned it. She
just replaced all the insulation under the trailer so had it down to bare
wood this past summer. She'd had some freezing problems last winter so
re-winterized the underside this year.

cshenk wrote:
"dpb" wrote
cshenk wrote:

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills
up fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."
Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

Flapper valve

Wouldnt that affect the tank and make it sound like it's running all the
time? LOL, thanks for your patience. She lives a 6 hour drive so this
is a sort of 'distance support'. I recommended she change that though
just in case. Its a real easy fix if related! She's just never done
the plumming part of the work when we fixed up houses for sale. That
was almost exclusively my older sister's job.

Was presuming this was communication gap. They can seep so slowly never
hear it until it does finally reach level it refills.

If it really is bowl level, does it fully refill on flush? If not, may
be sediment buildup in supply holes.

If it really is the bowl level dropping w/o the tank between flushes it
has to either be siphoning, leaking or vacuum pulling water out as
someone else mentioned (if the pet, evaporation, etc., other external
causes are excluded).

Sounds like time to send in the sister...

--

"hr(bob) wrote
mm wrote:
"cshenk" wrote:
Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine
but leaks out over time so must be refilled."
Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

I can barely understand what you're talking about. If the bowl level
goes down, why must it be refilled? How low does it go, how long does
it take?

Are you sure that your mother doen't mean the water level in the tank,
not the toilet bowl itself?

Yup, I've had 49 years to learn how to translate 'Mom-speak' ;-)
commode=bowl in her lexicon

I'm looking a the stuck paper in the P-trap as a possible but normally she'd
use a plunger first thing which I imagine would clear that.

"nefletch" wrote

As a previous poster noted, the most likely scenario is
a paper towel or toilet paper stuck in the P-trap of the
toilet siphoning the water away. A common problem.

I'll check and see if she gave it a good plunging. I imagine that would be
the fix for that?

Two words: Use closet auger.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"nefletch" wrote in message
scommunications...


As a previous poster noted, the most likely scenario is
a paper towel or toilet paper stuck in the P-trap of the
toilet siphoning the water away. A common problem.

"dpb" wrote
cshenk wrote:
"dpb" wrote
cshenk wrote:

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."
Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.
Flapper valve

Wouldnt that affect the tank and make it sound like it's running all the
time? LOL, thanks for your patience. She lives a 6 hour drive so this
is a sort of 'distance support'. I recommended she change that though
just in case. Its a real easy fix if related! She's just never done the
plumming part of the work when we fixed up houses for sale. That was
almost exclusively my older sister's job.

Was presuming this was communication gap. They can seep so slowly never
hear it until it does finally reach level it refills.

Well, she says she'll go to the HW store and get a new one tomorrow.

I appreciate you guys (and gals) patience! It's frustrating to not be able
to answer in details other than I do 'Mom-speak' quite well, so yes, it's
the bowl and she's not hearing anything (her hearing is still tip-top).
She's checked the tank (The other bathroom had a tank problem last year and
we talked her through fixing it)

If it really is bowl level, does it fully refill on flush? If not, may be
sediment buildup in supply holes.

Yes, re-fills on flush.

If it really is the bowl level dropping w/o the tank between flushes it
has to either be siphoning, leaking or vacuum pulling water out as someone
else mentioned (if the pet, evaporation, etc., other external causes are
excluded).

I'm thinking vacumn pulling via vent sounds most likely just now but I'll
have her give it another good go with a plunger and change out the flapper
since those are simple cheap fixes.

The reason why I think it may be wind driven is 2 things recently changed
the wind pattern. She put up a much better wind barrier and re-insulated
underneath. She also mentioned a large tree was taken out fairly near her
lot, just a little bit ago. That might be affecting any top venting.

Sounds like time to send in the sister...

--

"Stormin Mormon" wrote

Two words: Use closet auger.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2071719_use-closet-auger.html

Looks easy! I sent her that one too and combined all the notes. I probably
won't hear back from her until Monday. She uses the library for her
internet access.

Stormin Mormon wrote:
Two words: Use closet auger.


TWO words?

I count THREE. G

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10e12 furlongs per fortnight.

cshenk wrote:
....

I'm thinking vacumn pulling via vent sounds most likely just now but
I'll have her give it another good go with a plunger and change out the
flapper since those are simple cheap fixes.
....

I'd also suggest a good dose of vinegar in the tank and a squirt of CLR
or similar in the ring area of the feeds--I'd still suspect liming there
as a culprit in low flow during flushing, particularly if water supply
is a little or a lot hard...

I suppose the changes enumerated _could_ have changed the venting and
caused a problem but I'd think it fairly unlikely--I don't think I've
ever known of a case that caused measurable/noticeable volume to go down
the drain on a consistent basis. That would imply somehow having a
persistent vacuum problem which doesn't seem too likely to be caused by
wind or other changes of the type you've noted as that would be variable.

Easy enough to test (altho probably not for Mom) by adding a baffle at
the vent exit. Sister good at climbing too???? vbg

--

"dpb" wrote
cshenk wrote:

I'm thinking vacumn pulling via vent sounds most likely just now but I'll
have her give it another good go with a plunger and change out the
flapper since those are simple cheap fixes.
...

I'd also suggest a good dose of vinegar in the tank and a squirt of CLR or
similar in the ring area of the feeds--I'd still suspect liming there as a
culprit in low flow during flushing, particularly if water supply is a
little or a lot hard...

Grin, more info. It's not when flushing the toilet. Acts normal then.
Sporadically though, the bowl volume goes way down, sometimes coming back up
later on it's own. Flushing restores it always.

I suppose the changes enumerated _could_ have changed the venting and
caused a problem but I'd think it fairly unlikely--I don't think I've ever
known of a case that caused measurable/noticeable volume to go down the
drain on a consistent basis. That would imply somehow having a persistent
vacuum problem which doesn't seem too likely to be caused by wind or other
changes of the type you've noted as that would be variable.

I'm wondering if it's a combination thing?

Easy enough to test (altho probably not for Mom) by adding a baffle at the
vent exit. Sister good at climbing too???? vbg

Sadly, Sister pretty much out of the picture. So's the brother. Life moved
on and she isnt part of their world anymore. I'm the only one with daily
communication. Unfortunate but happens.

cshenk wrote:
"dpb" wrote
cshenk wrote:

I'm thinking vacumn pulling via vent sounds most likely just now but
I'll have her give it another good go with a plunger and change out
the flapper since those are simple cheap fixes.
...

I'd also suggest a good dose of vinegar in the tank and a squirt of
CLR or similar in the ring area of the feeds--I'd still suspect liming
there as a culprit in low flow during flushing, particularly if water
supply is a little or a lot hard...

Grin, more info. It's not when flushing the toilet. Acts normal then.
Sporadically though, the bowl volume goes way down, sometimes coming
back up later on it's own. Flushing restores it always.
....

Ah, that's a completely different kettle of fish than simply going down
gradually over time...

Need to (as somebody else noted, I think I recall???) watch and test
other drains one at a time starting w/ other toilets and those near in
proximity to this one.

Sounds like an obstruction in drain vent--perhaps a varmint or something
else fell into one. When another drain using the same line operates,
that creates either vacuum or pressure depending on which side it's on
relative to this commode.

She can do the testing herself by establishing a level and going to do
something and coming back to check results but it would be far quicker
to have an observer and operator.

Too bad of sister; sorry, your earlier post indicated she was the handy
type and had been involved w/ repair/fixup but didn't mention that was
in days of yore...

Anyway, think this has isolated a root cause; solution is probably going
to require rooftop rooting of vent line although if lucky perhaps
there's just an obstruction retrievable from the top easily.

--

"cshenk" wrote

Hi folks, this in from Mom. "comode is not holding water but fills up
fine but leaks out over time so must be refilled."
Ideas? She'd mean the toilet bowl not the tank.

Grin, back from Mom 'You are a gem, now tell all them cute young men
thanks!' (Mom's 79 so all of you qualify ;-)

She's shut the water off to that one and taken the flapper off. It's in her
purse as the generic one from the HD didnt fit. There's this cute young
guy, mid-50's that she's gonna charm up to help her find the right one.
Local plumming supply place. Lordy mighty, knowing Mom, he's gonna be lucky
if he gets away just selling her a flapper! (hehe the ladies will catch on,
guys at that age tend to be a little slow on the uptake).

Thats my Mom! Go girl go!