When you hear your toilet running, have you ever wondered how much water and money you’re throwing down the drain?
The EPA estimates that your toilet alone can use 27 percent of your home’s average water consumption per day, and that’s when it’s working correctly.
So how do leaks start? The cause of most leaks lies in the factory parts of the toilet. As a toilet gets older, the cheap rubber parts inside will wear down, limiting their functionality. Toilet cleaners can expedite this, though wear and tear is just a normal part of toilet use.
The most common problem parts are damaged seals, gaps from the flush valve, flush valves with small cuts, and fill valves that remain open. All of these parts are affordable when replaced on a single toilet and can be done immediately to reverse leaks altogether.
How much water can a constantly running toilet leak? A leaking toilet can lead to thousands of lost gallons every month, making identification vital.
In a worst case scenario, your toilet running full-force, that is, the flapper valve is open and the tank is constantly draining.
If you have a standard 1.5 gallon toilet, it takes approximately 30 seconds for the tank to refill from a standard flush. So that’s 1.5 gallons per flush or per 30 seconds, or 3 gallons per minute. For all 1,440 minutes per day, that is up to 4,320 gallons of wasted water! If you left your leaky toilet running this way for an entire week, you’d waste 30,240 gallons of water.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the average residential customer in the U.S. uses between 80 and 100 gallons a day. That’s roughly 700 a week, rather than our calculation of over 30,000! Just imagine a water bill that is 43 times bigger than the one you’re used to, and you’ll surely run to check each of your toilets immediately.
Check your toilets regularly for any leaks or continuous flowing! And if you notice a problem, give us a call at Total Plumbing to get it fixed right away!
