OT: toilet flapper vs well, which one wins?

jose bagge · Nov 25, 2011

So- got home to check on my well issue and found about 20 feet of water in the well (still not sure how far down the hole the pump is, but assuming it's down there) When I refired the pump, water level went down about 4 feet. As i listened at the house I could hear a toilet trickling, and saw a very slow bleed off of pressure at the guage. I replaced the flapper in toilet, which stopped it from from trickling, and haven't had a water issue since Wednesday night.I see no bleed down now watching the guage.
Question- how much water do you think a barely audible trickle in the toilet uses? Could it "over-run" a well/ pump, or do you think this is just a coincidence ?

Stephen Newell · Nov 25, 2011

You shouldn't hear any water trickling. It sounds like you got a defective flapper valve.

rustred · Nov 25, 2011

not unless your well is in poor shape and not recovering what your drawing out.

showcrop · Nov 25, 2011

Can't say about the well, but I've been told multiple times that a trickling toilet would overfill a leach fied in a couple of days.

Sid · Nov 25, 2011

If a pump/well would not keep up with that leak how could it keep up with a faucett turned on?

Old Roy · Nov 25, 2011

may give you a close estimate on what ya may loose , but a well should easily keep up and surpass any small amount of loss.
Untitled URL Link

Sam#3 · Nov 25, 2011

You would be surprised by how much.
I live by myself and my hearing is not that of a twenty year old any more so I cannot hear a slight trickle. On two different occasions I have had a flipper go bad and my water consumption went up by 400 gallons a month. No well involved because I'm on city water so that's enough increase to push me onto the next billing bracket.

johndeereman · Nov 25, 2011

We were headed to a tractor show one year to camp when we left mid day Thursday I went to rest room one last time. When we returned Sunday evening the toilet was still running full stream. The flap got stuck wide open I couldn"t believe it didn"t run well dry or anything

George Rausch · Nov 25, 2011

I'm retired from our City utilities. Leaks waste a lot of water. Steady streams waste this;

1/16" = 74,000 gallons per quarter
1/8" = 296,000 gallons per quarter
3/16" = 667,000 gallons per quarter
1/4" = 1,182,000 gallons per quarter

These flows are at a pressure of 60 psi.

NCWayne · Nov 25, 2011

My parents had a toilet in their rental house that had a slight trickle past the flapper vlave. It wouldn't take but about two days for the trickle to flood the septic field and cause water to become visible on top of the ground. Can't say exactly how much water that was gallon wise but it had to be alot to both fill the field and then saturate the ground enough to leave puddles on the surface.

Geo-TH,In · Nov 25, 2011

To check your flapper, turn the water off to the toilet and see how long it takes to empty the tank.

fixerupper · Nov 25, 2011

Our basement toilet will do that only once-in-awhile, just long enough between times that I get caught off guard. Did it just this morning after behaving well all this last summer. Went upstairs to wash my hands and noticed the pressure was down a bit so I went back down in the basement and sure enough, she was a runnin. Jim

Jon Hagen · Nov 25, 2011

Guys like "Gismo can cause the same problem.

Gizmo the flusher .

Michael Soldan · Nov 25, 2011

..not always a flapper...if your float is set just a tad too high,water trickles out the overflow into the toilet..can waste a lot of water in a hurry..and because its the float everything looks good and jiggling the handle won't do it.

Ken Macfarlane · Nov 25, 2011

Parents well is 2 gpm with 200 ft of 6" bore hole for storage. A leaky toilet will run it dry.

Ours with 30+ gpm and same bore size, never runs dry with the pump we have.

Earl Gray · Nov 25, 2011

Any time we are gone from the house overnight we shut off the power to the pump and water softener. When we come home I check the pressure, if it's down I know we have some kind of leak.

barnE · Nov 25, 2011

Bout 35 years ago, had rental property in Detroit. Got water bill over 1600. Cause not a car wash, but toilet valve. True. Dave

Anonymous-0 · Nov 26, 2011

Well I never thought It would be that, a small leak can add up to alot of water though

OT: toilet flapper vs well, which one wins?

jose bagge

Well-known Member

Stephen Newell

Well-known Member

rustred

Well-known Member

showcrop

Well-known Member

Sid

Well-known Member

Old Roy

Well-known Member

Sam#3

Member

johndeereman

Well-known Member

George Rausch

Member

NCWayne

Well-known Member

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

Jon Hagen

Well-known Member

Michael Soldan

Well-known Member

Ken Macfarlane

Well-known Member

Earl Gray

Member

barnE

Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Similar threads