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

--

"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.

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...

--

"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...

--

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

--

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.

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?

"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.

"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!