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The toilet in the bathroom runs for about 10 seconds when the cold water faucet valve is closed. We have owned the house for 5 years and this started about 1 year ago. It does not do it every time, the toilet does not leak or run by itself. I have run the cold water in the rest of the house for about 2 mins. as some one told me that there could be some air trapped in the line but this did not help. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Greg
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Replace the float valve (post #205808, reply #1 of 9)
The is a slight hammer occuring when you shut down the faucet, which is then flowing past the float valve that is a little weak, or has a bad seat.
Try replacing the float valve, they aren't too expensive, and pretty straight forward to replace.
You might also want to buy some of the hammer arrestors that Souix Chief makes that can plumb into the feed lines to the sink. That should eliminate the pressure surge you see on shutdown, and protect the valve.
Also, you might check the static pressure, and consider installing a pressure reducing valve for the whole house if the pressure is above 60-psi. All the valves are typically desinged for 100-psi, and if your static is at 85-psi, there isn't much of a cushion in the rating to stand up to the transient surges you get as valves are closed.
My Dad replaced three float valves in one bathroom of their house because they kept failing. I was up watching tv one night while the sprinkler system was on, and every time a sprinkler zone shut down, the float valve burped, as the water hammer caused by the sprinkler valve closing hit the house, and the downstairs bath was the first thing the pressure wave hit.
Dad ended up installing, a home made surge arrestor, made out of 3-inch pvc pipe, at the sprinkler manifold. That solved the problem.
Plumbing Problem (post #205808, reply #2 of 9)
Thanks for the reply. The surge arrestors are out of the question as the plumbing is run in the slab, no basement or crawl space. Both of the bathroom toliets are doing the same thing but do not run at the same time. One is the master bath which gets used most of the time and since we have no kids the main bath gets used about 10% of the time and when we have guests and both bathrooms are side by side. I have talked to some neighbors about this problem, all of the houses built by the same builder and same subs, and none have heard of this. I assume since it is city water the rest of the community has the same pressure and there is very little elevation change in the community they would be seeing the same thing we are.
Thanks for the info,
Greg
Surge Arrestor (post #205808, reply #3 of 9)
The mini surge arrestors just screw in after the sill[JOBSITE WORD]s for the sink, (or the toilet for that matter), and then the hose to the faucet screws onto them. Quick simple installation. It will probably take more time to get the stuff stored in the vanity out and put it back, than it does to install the surge arrestors.
As far as the pressure: a gauge that hooks on a hose bib costs about $6. May not be the problem, but would definitely make it worse if the pressure is high. The water utility should be able to tell you what pressure you should be seeing.
Surge arrestor (post #205808, reply #4 of 9)
Would you suggest the toilet of the faucet valve?
The mains pressure should (post #205808, reply #6 of 9)
The mains pressure should have essentially zero effect on this problem. The force on the fill valve is produced by the float, which is generally less than half submerged and hence able to produce twice the pressure if need be.
We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy -- sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. --Thomas Edison
There is a pressure surge (post #205808, reply #5 of 9)
There is a pressure surge when you shut off the water at the sink suddenly. This increase in pressure briefly forces the toilet fill valve open. There could be two reasons for this:
1) The toilet fill valve is an older model that doesn't have a positive-action valve, and the increase in pressure is enough to briefly overcome the force of the float inside the tank.
2) The toilet tank has actually leaked down slightly (due to the flush valve leaking imperceptably) and the surge just pushes the fill valve "over the edge" to replinish the leaked water.
If the cause is #1 there's no harm -- after 2-3 episodes the water level inside the tank will rise high enough to prevent any further opening. But replacing with a new fill valve will likely prevent the "problem".
Obviously the second possibility is wasting water -- probably not much, but it will get worse over time. Sometimes you can successfully identify a leaky flush valve by putting dye into the tank and waiting to see if it appears in the bowl, but it takes a lot of dye for this to work.
We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy -- sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. --Thomas Edison
pressure surge (post #205808, reply #7 of 9)
If the fill valve is questionable wouldn't this happen all of the time when you shut the faucet off? Already checked the fill line in the toilet tank and it does not seem to be leaking out after I shut the valve off to the tank for 1 day.
Each surge adds a little more (post #205808, reply #8 of 9)
Each surge adds a little more water to the tank, increasing the force of the float on the fill valve. Eventually the pressure becomes great enough that further surges have no effect.
We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy -- sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. --Thomas Edison
pressure surge (post #205808, reply #9 of 9)
We shall see!!! Changed out both fill valves today and I should know if it worked in about 2 hours. That was the time it usually takes from the last time the toilet was flushed and when you shot off the cold warter faucet in the basin.
Thanks for the info,
Greg