Checking Toilets for Leaks

Two moderately leaky faucets, say a drip every 2 seconds, wastes 5 gallons a day or the equivalent of 41 baths a year. Play around with this calculator from the U.S. Geological Survey. You may be surprised how much water your leaks are wasting.

This month's Sustainability Coaching issue suggested 12 Easy Ways to Conserve Water. Fixing your leaky toilet is one easy and fast solution. A leaking toilet can waste 22 gallons a day. Checking whether or not you have a problem is easy ... as long as you don't have an aversion to playing around with your toilet. Just put a few drops of food coloring in the tank. Wait 30 minutes. Then check to see if you can see colored water in the toilet bowl. If you do, you have a leak.

We are a two-bathroom house. I wasn't surprised that we have a leak. But I was surprised where it was found! ... in our second, spare bathroom. The main bathroom toilet sticks from time to time. I actually felt silly putting the blue dye in our second toilet. It is rarely used, and seemed so tranquil I couldn't imagine there would be a leak. But THAT is where the problem is. Perhaps I should have known better. It is an older model.

It looks like there may be an issue with the lever with the ball (Sorry, I'm not a plumber. You'll have to look at the picture to see what I mean.), rather than the seal that keeps the water in the tank. My husband propped it up with some wire to see if that keeps the colored dye from leaking. He suspects that mechanism may be the problem because it's rusty. He's probably right. There's no blue dye yet in the toilet bowl.