In the dead of the night, where all is quiet in your home, except for an annoying hissing sound that gushes out from your toilet. What is that sound? Is there anything to be worried about? The answer to this question is yes, you should be worried because that is a symptom of an issue with your toilet cistern.
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Checking Your Toilet Cistern
A toilet cistern is designed to allow water to fill up to a pre-determined level. This allows your toilet to contain water in the tank that can then be used for flushing when triggered. So what then is that dreaded hissing noise? That is the sound of your inlet valve filling the cistern. It occurs primarily due to two possible reasons:
Firstly, it may be due to your inlet valve being faulty. If so, water will be allowed to constantly fill up the tank with no stoppage at the previously pre-determined height. Alternatively, it may be the outlet valve or rubber that is faulty. In which case, water will be constantly leaking out of the cistern and into your toilet pan.
Either way, water will be wasted, driving up your utilities bill while also testing your patience with the annoying hissing sound. However, sometimes a toilet leakage is not so simple to spot. If the sound is not sufficiently loud, you may go unaware for days or even weeks of the leakage in your household.
Conducting Periodic Tests for Toilet Leakages
How then can you conduct periodic tests to look for small toilet leakages? We suggest that you first lift the toilet lid up and check if you find any signs of water running into the toilet pan when no flushing has taken place. If you do indeed see water running down the internal walls of the toilet pan or ripples in the water at the bottom of the toilet bowl, then you may have a leakage.
Having trouble seeing water running in your toilet? Another simple test would be for you to take a couple of sheets of toilet paper and to hold them against the internal walls of the toilet bowl but above the water line. If the paper becomes soaked, then it is an indication of a leak.
Finally, a more thorough test involves putting food coloring into your toilet’s cistern and waiting to observe for any leakage of the coloured water.
Other Possible Sources for Toilet Leakages
Other places that may contain a toilet leakage includes that of pipes connected to the toilet – flush pipe rubber, inlet pipe and the isolating pipe. Checks for these can be done through visual confirmation as well as by checking for any damp tiles or grout.
Engaging a Professional Waterproofing Comapny
If leakages are found, it is imperative that you engage a waterproofing company’s expertise as soon as possible. Water can be a destructive force if left unattended, but can be addressed with ease if the problem is found early enough. Professional waterproofing contractors have the expertise and equipment to help detect all aspects of your toilet leakage and to fix them before real damage is dealt to your home.