This problem is almost certainly caused by a bad flapper or flapper seat. The solution is to drain the tank and bowl, check and clean the flapper seat and then replace the flapper if it's worn or damaged.
This sound can happen intermittently and occur every few minutes or every few hours. Such a refill sound is usually alerting you that your toilet is losing water, either internally (if there's no water on the floor or exterior of toilet) or externally leaking if you see water outside the toilet.
In the vast majority of cases, the problem is with the flapper, which is the rubber seal between the tank and the bowl. When it's worn, or the chain is too short, water seeps into the bowl, and the fill valve cycles on as soon as the float falls below the cutoff level.
If the toilet keeps running or runs intermittently, you're not getting a good seal. Try a different flapper if the toilet won't stop running. If you just can't find a flapper that seals, consider replacing the entire toilet overflow tube/flapper. On most toilets (two-piece), this means removing the tank.
The Flapper Is Leaking and Needs Replacing
Perhaps the most common reason for a running toilet is an old flapper that needs to be replaced. When flappers get old, they don't seal the way they should, and this allows water to pass constantly from the toilet tank into the bowl.
A toilet that won't stop running is another common problem. You can expect to pay between $50 and $400 to repair a running water issue. If there is too much water in your tank, it will be a quick, easy fix and may be possible to do at home.
A toilet that cuts on and off by itself, or runs intermittently, has a problem that plumbers call a "phantom flush." The cause is a very slow leak from the tank into the bowl. This problem is almost certainly caused by a bad flapper or flapper seat.
In general, a single flush 1.6 gpf or 1.28 gpf toilet tank will take around half minute (30 seconds) to one minute (60 seconds) to fill.
Will a running toilet stop eventually? As fresh water enters the tank, a mechanism eventually shuts off the water flow and the toilet will stop running. However, when things go wrong with the valve, flapper or overflow then it's best to get it sorted.
However, the amount of water a malfunctioning toilet wastes will quickly add up. A run-on-toilet can use up to 2 gallons of water a minute. That means in only an hour, you'll waste 120 gallons of water! Even though a running toilet may not seem like an emergency, you need to get the problem fixed as soon as you can.
More often than not, the flapper valve could need adjustment, or you may need to replace the toilet fill valve. Both are relatively small fixes that most homeowners can usually handle without calling in a professional plumber or having to remove the toilet and then having to install a new one.
Irregular Running Water
Check that your toilet tank ball falls onto your valve seal. If it lands off-center or doesn't connect at all, you need to replace the valve. To fix this problem, a plumber will need to remove the defective tank ball and then put the new valve in place.
Like a slowly dripping faucet, a running toilet can waste thousands of gallons of water each day. Worse yet, the issue is, more often than not, indicative of a much larger problem. If your toilet keeps running or is overflowing, contact a plumbing company immediately and schedule running toilet repair services.
A running toilet can quickly turn into a flooding toilet. If you have a septic tank, all of that excess water risks flooding the tank, which can lead to the saturation and failure of your drain field.
Beyond the astronomical water bills running toilets have the power to produce, they can also cause damage to the home if water is actually leaking out of the bowl or tank.
Most professionals recommend spending no more time on the toilet than it takes to pass a stool. Studies have shown that the average bowel movement takes 12 seconds. Sometimes it does take longer, however, so at maximum, you should not spend more than 10 minutes on the toilet.
A constantly running toilet is typically due to an issue with the flush valve assembly, so one of the first parts to inspect should be the chain and flapper. If the chain is too short, then it won't allow the flapper to close properly, but if it is too long it may get trapped underneath the flapper, causing it to leak.
“Frankly, if you're sitting on the toilet for longer than it takes to poop, that's likely too long,” Leavey says. If you're planning on timing yourself, the medical community generally agrees that you should limit the time you spend sitting on the toilet to ten minutes or less.
As stated above, this is 20 minutes for all adult workers who work over six hours per day. However, there is no law that prevents you from restricting any further time away from work. Although this should always be approached with caution and within reason.
A few blamed “boredom”, others “relaxation” and “hygiene”. But the most common response, with almost 80 percent of the vote, was that they were in there “to get some alone time”.
Typically, a running water toilet will waste thousands of gallons of water per month which translates to approximately $200 unnecessarily tacked onto your monthly water bill-- that's nearly $2,500 dollars a year down your toilet bowl.