Identifying Problem With a Toilet

Video Transcript

"Now, to check to see if this toilet has a leak in it, what you can do is you can take, and put a little bit of food coloring into the tank. If there is a leak in this toilet, the water food coloring will go through the tank, and end up in the bowl. So, in fifteen minutes we will be able to see that food coloring appear, and we know that there is a leak in this toilet. We don't know what the leak is from, though. The leak could be from the ballcock, which is the fill valve, or it could be from the flapper, which is the flush valve in this toilet. So what we do is look at the water level. The water level, in this case is about an inch and a quarter below the top of the overflow tube. If the water level was at the top of the overflow tube, we would suspect the ballcock. That it's not shutting off, and it's putting too much water into the tank, and it needs to be repaired. Seeing as how the water level is low in this tank, and we see food dye get into the bowl, we know the flapper is leaking water past the flapper, and it's getting into the bowl. So, before we start, we know that we're going to need to work on either the flush valve, or the ballcock; it's that simple. "