Tips to Stop Your Toilet from Running

Most toilets take about a minute after flushing before they return to their normal, silent state. Sometimes after a flush, the toilet simply keeps running and refuses to stop. If you’re lucky, slightly jiggling the toilet handle might stop the toilet from continuing to run; however, that is not always the case. Here are a few tips to follow if you encounter a time when your toilet refuses to stop running after a flush. 

If you jiggle the handle only to find it is completely loose, the chain inside the toilet tank has most likely fallen off the lift arm attached to the toilet handle on the exterior of the toilet. If you take off the tank lid and see a chain at the bottom of the tank, it most likely fell in such a way as to prevent the toilet flapper from closing completely. You’ll need to reach in and re-attach the chain through the hole at the end of the lift arm. Often this will fix the problem. If the chain keeps falling off, you can take a pair of thin-nosed pliers and after re-attaching it to the lift arm, gently pinch the chain to keep it attached to the lift arm. If the chain is broken altogether, you can use dental floss as a temporary replacement until you get a new chain.

If the chain seems to be working properly, check to see whether the toilet flapper is closing properly. Perhaps something got lodged or the flapper is simply stuck. If the flapper seems to be working properly, but the tank does not fill with water, there could be a problem with the water valve or the float, the roundish rubber ball residing on a metal arm.

If your toilet frequently will not stop running after flushing and you can’t seem to easily resolve the issue, please contact us to let our experts in repair get your toilet fixed and running properly again.