Is my new toilet okay?

December 16, 2008 2:20 PM

I replaced a toilet about a week ago and since then I've been hearing little pings in the bathroom-- like what you might hear coming from a cooling ceramics kiln. I've noticed it three times. There are no visible cracks in the toilet. Is this normal? Or is my new Plebe (seriously!) toilet going to suddenly bust up?
posted by Mayor Curley to home & garden (6 comments total)

It's worth keeping an eye on it. I heard something like that from my toilet just before I heard drip-drip-drip. (But mine was years old, so YMMV. )

If it happens, firmly turn off the valve on the wall beneath the toilet tank, then flush the toilet. This empties all the water so no more can leak out.

Of course, if it decides to let go while you're asleep or away from home... it can mean flooding the bathroom floor with water. :-(
posted by exphysicist345 at 2:43 PM on December 16, 2008

Could you have the floor bolts over-tightened?
Or, perhaps you have metal against porcelain, without a rubber washer?
Or, the threads of a floor bolt could be against the edges of the hole instead of centered within it.
Is the tank right up against the wall, or some other object?
Is some internal part of the toilet tank (float valve, etc.) rubbing against the inside of the tank?

Warming, cooling and settling could cause noises under these circumstances.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 3:15 PM on December 16, 2008

just to clarify, is the ping noise a water drip?

i replaced my toilet a few months ago, and it took some adjustments before everything was flush (no pun intended...). my main problem was that when i removed my old toilet i bent the water input pipe (yeah, i don't really know the technical terminology...) so there was a bit of a leak there. once i fixed that there were no more leaks.

also, and this was my first time replacing a toilet, so may not have had this issue, i pushed the toilet down too hard and really thinned out the wax ring, so there was a grinding sound for awhile until the toilet settled.

oh, and definitely don't overtighten anything...especially if your toilet is sitting on an old, cracked, uneven floor.
posted by junipero at 4:55 PM on December 16, 2008

just to clarify, is the ping noise a water drip?

No, it's like someone threw a coin at the toilet, except much more quiet. There's no visible leakage.

As Fuzzy Skinner and you suggest, it might be that the base is overtightened. It is indeed on an old, uneven floor.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:33 PM on December 16, 2008

it's like someone threw a coin at the toilet, except much more quiet

like someone threw a too-tight screw at the toilet, every time your weight and/or powerful bowel movements lightly shift the bowl left/right back&forth over the uneven old floor?
posted by matteo at 8:15 PM on December 16, 2008

Just to clarify, the sound I heard from my about-to-destruct toilet were not connected with sitting on it. It was alone in the bathroom, deciding all by itself when and where to crack... and leak.
posted by exphysicist345 at 9:30 PM on December 16, 2008