Not knowing how your toilet works can be a major issue that can turn into a disgusting problem quickly. It pays dividends to properly get acquainted with your bathrooms Most Valuable Player!
How Does a Toilet Work?
Often times we take having a toilet for granted. It’s easy to forget that not too long ago having a running toilet was a luxury. Let’s take a look at how the components of a toilet tank work should you need to diagnose an issue.
Bowl Siphon
Despite having no moving parts, the toilet bowl features a highly functioning design. The toilet bowl is attached to a pipe with a U-bend that leads into the sewer system. As water and waste leave the bowl on flush, air rushes in causing the “flush” sound. The air coming into the bowl stops the siphoning process. The bowl is then refilled with water.
Toilet Tank
The toilet tank is located in the upper part of the toilet and holds about 2 gallons of clean water. More importantly, the tank can send the water fast enough through the bowl to activate the siphon effect and send waste down the pipe! By pushing the handle down, the tank system is activated causing water to dump into the bowl triggering the flush.
More On Toilet Tank Parts & Their Functions
Flapper Valve: A flapper valve creates a watertight seal in the tank. This valve holds the water before and after a toilet flush. When you push the handle, the flapper rises and this allows water to flush out the waste.
Refill Tube: The refill tube is located above the overflow tube. When it is pushed down into the overflow tube it can siphon water from the tank into the bowl causing the fill valve to cycle on and off.
Float: There are two types of floats for conventional toilets. Older toilets tend to have a large plastic or brass ball that is connected to a horizontal rod. This rod is connected to the toilet fill valve. The other style of a float that moves up and down along the vertical pipe of the toilet fill valve.
Refill Tube & Overflow Tube
The refill and overflow tube work together to help keep water in the tank. The overflow tube empties directly into the toilet bowl below. The overflow tube refills the bowl after each flush.
Shut-Off Valve: The shutoff valve connects to copper plumbing pipes in one of two ways: compression fitting or sweat fitting.
Wax Seal: The wax ring on a toilet provides a soft, pliable seal between some of the harder components of a toilet system. Toilets are generally made of porcelain. The wax ring fits around the exit hole in the bottom of the fixture and rests on the flange. The flange sits atop of the drainpipe.
How Do Toilets Work Exactly?
If you didn’t already know a toilet is essentially made up of two important pieces. You have the toilet tank and the toilet bowl. Both of these parts work together in unison to provide us with the indoor plumbing we have come to love.
First, when the flush lever is pushed it pulls on the chain. This, in turn, pulls up the flush valve. Once this happens the ball or flapper bulb fills with air so it tries to float naturally, but the weight of the water on top clamps it against the discharge hole. However, once it is pulled away the water flows underneath and it floats.
Next, after the flush, the water level in the tank starts to go down. As a result, the float starts to go down. The float opens the fill valve and water begins to flow into the tank. Essentially, you have water coming into the toilet tank and water leaving the toilet bowl. But water is going out faster than it is coming in. This causes the toilet tank to empty into the bowl quickly. Once it is empty the Flapper cannot float and falls into the discharge hole closing it up once again.
The majority of water waste occurs in the bathroom. Specifically, the toilet and the root cause is often times a running toilet. A running toilet can be caused by a leaky flapper, bad fill valve or the overflow pipe being at the incorrect height.
With this information, we hope you will be more confident addressing toilet issues that may arise in your home.
