It Sweats More Than Me!

July 5, 2023 4:24 AM

I'm having a stubborn problem with condensation leaking from the toilet in my apartment. What can I do as a renter?

The condensation on the toilet is so bad that it makes puddles that collect in front of the toilet; both my roommate and I have nearly slipped a couple times. We thought it was the toilet leaking at first, but it's definitely all condensation.

I tried lining the floor around the toilet with cork first; that helped for a while, but the cork got so saturated I had to throw it out. I tried getting a drip tray for it but it won't fit on the toilet. I'm going to steal some bubble wrap from work today and try this trick as well. But if that doesn't work....what else can I do?

I'd prefer to do as much as I can without involving the landlord or super JUST yet.

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Home & Garden (16 answers total)

Lowering the room's air temperature and improving ventilation should help. You can also get cistern insulation.
posted by knapah at 4:53 AM on July 5, 2023

The only thing that will permanently stop the condensation is to insulate the cistern. Most toilets now come with interior insulation (a styrofoam liner, basically) already installed. I guess your toilet is fairly old. And if it's not water efficient, it may be worth the landlord's while to just replace it (if they're paying for water). Wrapping insulation around the outside of the cistern will help a little but it will continue to drip off the bottom where it's hardest to get good coverage. It's a tough problem, and why toilets now come with insulation.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:13 AM on July 5, 2023

Best answer: That much condensation makes it very likely that the real problem is a leak from the tank into the toilet which is keeping the water in the tank cold enough for condensation to form in the first place.

A new flapper in the tank solved the same problem for me.
posted by jamjam at 5:55 AM on July 5, 2023 [9 favorites]

Best answer: To confirm this, put a drop of food coloring in the tank over a period when no one is flushing for a while and see what happens.
posted by jamjam at 5:58 AM on July 5, 2023 [10 favorites]

Reduce the humidity in the bathroom while using it. Use a ventilation fan, take cooler showers, dry off all wet surfaces when you're done.

Lower the humidity in the whole apartment/house for the summer. Get a dehumidifier, use air conditioning to dry the space, and/or close off the bathroom from the rest of the house when you're done with the bathroom.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:18 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: The only thing that will permanently stop the condensation is to insulate the cistern.

That's what the bubble wrap trick I linked to was for.

Lower the humidity in the whole apartment/house for the summer. Get a dehumidifier, use air conditioning to dry the space, and/or close off the bathroom from the rest of the house when you're done with the bathroom.

We've actually been accidentally trying to do this; my roommate leaves for work later than I, and I've often come home to find that he's forgotten to turn off the bathroom exhaust after his own shower; but that just means that we've been running it all day, then. And still have this problem.

The food coloring trick to diagnose is a good idea - if the bubble wrap doesn't work I'll give that a try (and this is perfect timing, since my roommate will be out for the next several days and wouldn't be weirded out by "why is the toilet bowl green?" or whatever).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:24 AM on July 5, 2023

Best answer: but that just means that we've been running it all day, then. And still have this problem.

Well, that can actually exacerbate the problem! Exhaust fans do a great job of removing air from a room, but there needs to be some incoming air to replace it. If the outside air is very humid and, say, you crack a window in the bathroom for ventilation, now you're drawing a constant stream of moisture into the bathroom for an entire day. No wonder your toilet is dripping!

There are timers you can install to trip the fan off after a certain amount of time, or even by reading ambient humidity. But your landlord might not like you messing with wiring.

First attack at the problem would be to ask your roommate to turn the fan off after 30-45 minutes and make sure it's off before leaving. And close any windows to the outside.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:28 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I can’t imagine bubble wrap working. It would float, and probably get tangled in the mechanism. Some more rigid insulation will probably be necessary.
posted by jon1270 at 6:31 AM on July 5, 2023

Response by poster: Exhaust fans do a great job of removing air from a room, but there needs to be some incoming air to replace it. If the outside air is very humid and, say, you crack a window in the bathroom for ventilation, now you're drawing a constant stream of moisture into the bathroom for an entire day. No wonder your toilet is dripping!

.....Huh!

I'll speak to him when he gets back home - I'd been meaning to anyway, since I'm not sure whether this is also affecting our electric bill. I'd thought it might be helping with the humidity, so I didn't - but if it's making it worse I'll definitely have a word.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:43 AM on July 5, 2023

Jon1270 is right, that link you posted suggests using an insulating kit which is designed for inside the cistern but then suggests using bubble wrap as a substitute which would be a disaster. No problem with putting it outside the cistern if you can though.
posted by Kiwi at 7:10 AM on July 5, 2023

I lived in one rental in a humid place where the best solution available was to put a towel around the toilet base and change it daily. Like, a toilet diaper, basically. It wasn't elegant but it solved the problem of the gross puddle.

The other solutions being suggested are better, but if nothing works or you just need a temporary bandaid, it is something to consider.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:43 AM on July 5, 2023

Another way to diagnose whether there is a leak: Before using toilet, partly fill a bucket with hot water (and thoroughly dry the floor). Use toilet. Flush, and while the tank is filling up, dump the hot water into the tank, so the tank water is now warm. No condensation should happen, because the tank needs to be cold for that. If you condensation happens later on, you've got a leak. (Before insulated tanks came along, plumbers would install a hot/cold mixing valve to let warm water into the tank, to solve sweating problems. Building codes have nixed that idea.)
posted by beagle at 9:27 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I just came in to recommend switching the toilet water supply to hot (stolen with a splitter from the nearby sink, probably) so that the issue will not occur.

If that's not up to code where you live, then maybe don't do that.

A big ol' dehumidifier could work IF there's room in the bathroom for it.
posted by Acari at 12:44 PM on July 5, 2023

Response by poster: I just came in to recommend switching the toilet water supply to hot (stolen with a splitter from the nearby sink, probably) so that the issue will not occur.

Restating the salient point that I do not own, I rent. Making my own adjustments to plumbing is probably not something covered by the lease terms.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:45 PM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: At the risk of threadsitting, I have a bit of an update -

So, I tried the bubble wrap thing yesterday. I was a little uneasy about using any insulating kits because they all call for a permanent-sounding adhesive as part of the install, and I am uneasy about doing anything too irreversible without letting the landlord know "hey, I'm doing a thing" - and since I'm JUST starting the new 2-year term on the lease I'm trying to be a good girl scout.

Hence the bubble wrap which I tried to secure using packing tape....and that worked about as well as you would imagine it did. Poo. I gave up and started taking it out....and that's when I noticed a very faint trickling sound coming from inside the bowl. As if....the tank was leaking into the toilet.

I was out of food coloring so I'll be getting some to confirm that after work today; and I've done a Youtube deep dive into "how to replace your toilet flapper thing," and a price check for the part, and I think that and invoking the spirit of my plumber grandpa will let me fix that. (The part is about five bucks, and may just need to be cleaned instead of replaced; there's a really great hardware store next to the place I get my CSA pickup tomorrow, and I'll bring the flapper with me and show it to the guys there for advice.)

I also got a compact dehumidifier for the bathroom as well, for backup. But let's see if i can fix that flapper thingy.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:18 AM on July 7, 2023

Response by poster: Finally resolved - I never did get the flapper thingy fixed, I couldn't get it out of the toilet. I decided to tackle the humidity in general and that's gone much better - a small desktop humidifier is now just outside the door, and there's a damp-rid thing in the bathroom proper. I also gave my roommate a heads-up about how running the exhaust for too long may make things worse.

We also have had a drop in humidity and heat this past week anyway, and...on average the humdity in the bathroom is now at about 50%, and we haven't really had much of a problem since.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:30 PM on August 4, 2023 [1 favorite]