A leak in your toilet tank can cause your water bill to skyrocket and needs to be fixed promptly. To know if your toilet has a leak, you don't need any fancy tools. All you need is a little food coloring to confirm that there's a leak.
If you're wondering how to check your toilet for leaks, simply use food coloring to dye the water in the tank and leave it there for 20. You may think using food color in the toilet bowl is a good idea or not. Let's see.
Does food color leave a stain on the toilet bowl? When you examine the toilet for leakage with food color, you must think about stains in the toilet bowl. Most of the time, people love to use the pure white or almost white toilet in the washroom. Drop about 4 to 5 food coloring drops in the toilet tank.
You may want to use a dark color such as blue or red instead of yellow. [2]. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank as a toilet leak detector.
Wait for 25 minutes. If the color spreads into the toilet bowl, there's a leak. Check for any sediment or debris that may have built up around the flapper.
Cleaning it may fix the leak. If there's no sediment or the leak persists after cleaning, replace the leaking toilet. Drop about 4 to 5 food coloring drops in the toilet tank.
You may want to use a dark color such as blue or red. Wait 20 to 30 minutes and then survey the toilet bowl. If the colored water appears in the bowl within 15 minutes, there is a leak in the flapper valve.
Remove the lid from your toilet tank and squeeze some liquid food coloring into the water. Allow it to sit undisturbed for about 20 to 30 minutes and then check the bowl. If there is food coloring inside the toilet bowl, you have a leak.
More than likely you will need to replace the flapper. If your toilet bowl shouldn't be refilling but you still see this kind of water movement, no matter how minor, it's a good indication you have a leak. A Colorful Test To test for a leak, simply open the lid on the toilet tank and add a few drops of food coloring.
Leave the toilet alone for a half hour or more. Come back and check to see if the water in the bowl of the toilet has become tinted with the food. Tip: Any type of food coloring or dye will do - you can even make your own from blueberries, beets or cabbage.
You can also purchase colored tablets specifically for this purpose, an especially good idea if you have many toilets to check. Just lift the lid off your toilet tank and add a few drops of dye into the water inside. Put food coloring in your toilet tank to check for leaks.
If you have a slow leak in your toilet tank, hundreds of gallons are just slowly and silently cascading down the side of your toilet bowl every month.