Hey all,
I recently started noticing this small crack on my toilet, in which a small amount of water leaks out after flushing. It is very small, but I want to prevent this from getting worse. This is located between the seat and the tank. Is this something that can just be fixed with plumbers putty? Or is this beyond that? Thanks in advance!
Do you see a crack in the porcelain or could it be leaking from under the tank? If it’s the second it might just need a new seal.
Yeah, I can see it. Almost looks like it's was chipped a little bit.
Cracked tanks eventually lead to flooded houses.
All of the models of toilet in my home have been recalled for tank cracking. For a limited period there were new tanks you could buy and install, but they're all discontinued/NLA.
Just get a new John.
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Fair enough 😂
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Your never going to get that crack to be water tight. If you can find a replacement tank get a new tank, but otherwise just swap out the toilet. It can be totally DIYed with minimal tools.
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Have a pro look at it or just replace the toilet if you can. If the tank cracks or otherwise keeps leaking your house will flood because the float vavle will never stop the stream of water. My neighbor's house flooded exactly this way.
Gotta replace it. Easy DIY project. If your in a money bind used toilets are very cheap (or altogether free)
Read Mark E. Eberhart's Why Things Fail to understand why cracks in most materials just get bigger. Thank your toilet for not failing catastrophically (yet).
You need to replace that tank ASAP. If the crack opens up while you are out of the house, the fill valve will just continue to run and you will be looking at some serious flood damage.
Nope, there’s no fix to porcelain toilet crack. It needs to be replaced.
Replace it, they are not as expensive as a flood ruining a lot of stuff
If you dont care about aesthetics you can use 10 min epoxy on porcelain but to be even more cautious it would be better to replace the whole toilet
Vartans? A friend had one of those tanks break on the third floor of her new bought townhouse the night they closed. They didn’t move into the house that night, they went over in the morning and saw water coming out the front door. All the floors had to be replaced.
Replacement is the best option. Turn off the water valve for the toilet until you can replace the toilet. Turn the water on just to flush, then turn it off.
Unless you have really good insurance and want new floors anyway
I'll see myself out.
Vortens is how it's spelled. 😅
That would be too risky for me. Replace the tank.
The toilet needs to be replaced. This is not something you want to mess around with. It’s a matter of when your toilet is going to fail rather than if it will fail. The cost to replace a toilet is a few hundred dollars for the toilet and an hour or two of a plumbers time. When the cracked toilet fails it can lead to damage to your bathroom and other rooms in your house which could cost much more and your still paying for the replacement toilet and plumbers time.
Is it possible to repair and get it water tight/safe? yes. you could use silicone outside, some kind of wrap around brace. It'll look like shit, but should work if you're in an apocalypse/3rd world country type situation.
Is it worth it? under normal conditions? HELL NO!!!!!
Lol I was close
Replacing the toilet yourself is likely to be cheaper than having a plumber even just come out for a service call.
This was my thinking as well. If OP does not know how to replace a toilet, now is a good time to learn.
Our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore often has new toilets in the box for under $100.
This!!!! Replace it asap, if not you will be cleaning the flooded house showing your crack shown from your pant, when you bend and clean.
Not a single joke on here about the small leaky crack on everybody's toilet every morning... Shame!
Unless you want replace your floors as well, replace the toilet. If the tank fails when you are not home the autofill valve will just keep trying to fill the (now broken in this example) tank until the city runs out of water.
We had that issue and fixed it by draining the talk and caulking both sides of the crack with waterproof sealer. It doesn’t leak and has bought us a few years so far.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! Much appreciated
Yes do this straight away. And avoid Glacier Fucking Bay garbage from Home Depot unless you want to replace your shitter twice.
Yep, it’s super easy! I’m a single woman, who is fairly handy and can figure stuff out and have been slowly renovating my house by myself, but replacing the toilet intimidated me so I just turned the water off for like 2 months and used a different bathroom lol. Untill final the other day I just did it. Watched a video, got a new toilet. Replaced it. Honestly easiest diy thing I’ve ever done. A plumber is absolutely not needed for this unless there’s an issue with the water line coming in. It was comical how easy it was!
I would replace asap. Aside from property damage caused by the leak, if the toilet fails while someone is using it, they could be grievously injured.
If it's only leaking after flushing it's a crack in the rim wash channel(s). Any crack will get worse with heat/cooling expansion/contraction. Eventually it'll grow...even if you use adhesive or sealant. You may be able to stop a growing crack by drilling holes at either end...but makes the risks of making the situation worse kind of high. I'm sure you're following the good/prudent advice of others saying replace replace replace! Good luck.
In which case OP should delete this post and probably their account.
If you can't replace the tank, replace the whole toilet. It's not a difficult thing to do. Porcelain can't really be repaired. Now its structure is compromised. All it will take is the right amount of pressure at the wrong moment and it will fail and flood your house.
Epoxy might seal the leak, but it won't repair the porcelain's structure. Given time, it will fail.
My friend, please replace your toilet.
Yes a new decent quality toilet is less than $200
I see a small crack on my toilet that leads to water leaks on the floor occasionally, but my wife told me its my fault for wanting a boy.
Get a new toilet… most toilets even come with an all in one tool you can use… may need a crescent for the old bolts tho… would suck to come home to a layer of water over the floor
I just installed two Mansfield toilets in my house. I highly recommend them, if you decide to get a new one. I got it at Lowe's.
I just looked, I am really surprised at how cheap a new toilet can be. Lowes has them as low as $100. As plumbing repairs go, it's really reasonable.
All the cracked tank advice had me on my hands and knees with my phone's flashlight checking out my throne, stray hair had me tweaking thinking I found one 🤣
A lot of comments about flooding if the toilet breaks, which is great, but OP, I'm begging you to replace that toilet if it is cracked. Sharp porcelain will cut through your body like butter and people have been seriously injured (or worse) by being on one of those when it breaks. Image search will show you some horrifying accidents if you ever want to see what a broken toilet can do to you, but I don't recommend it unless you have a strong stomach.
$400 toilet or $85k in water damage repairs. Buy the new toilet :)
This exact issue is why we ended up replacing our old toilet.
Whenever I sit on the toilet there is a crack above the bowl but when I stand up and wipe the crack is gone and the I pull my pants up so nobody can see the crack
I had a votens tank crack open on its own and cause serious water damage. Is this brand known for this?
Also, if you're buying a toilet pick up a new wax/etc seal. You will need to replace that with the old one
New toilet.
Looked for crack on toilet jokes and was disappointed. Sorry, I've been drinking
My place just put some silicon for bathroom around the bottom. Apparently how you do it here.
No insurance company is scrolling reddit looking for months old posts to pair up with a current claim for flood damage... that may or may not have enough identifying information to link to their client. Lol, wtf man, you live in a paranoid world.
I mean... I was responding to a bad idea with a bad idea, so...
See if your toilet is new enough to be under warranty. It's not that difficult to replace your own toilet as long as you can lift that porcelain weight. Definitely worth the $200 for a toilet vs the potential water damage.
That's for the outside edge. The wax seal thingy goes on the inside where the toilet meets the drain hole.
There are also reusable rubber types so maybe there already was one?
Oh that I don't know. It weren't there when they changed it. They just told me they changed the toilet and put a silicon seal around the edge. So they probably changed it as well. Since the other toilet that was there was atleast 10+ years old and started to crack in the bottom.
I have replaced 3 toilets. I would almost rather do that than fix anything inside the tank. On one of them, I laid all the vinyl flooring on the same day as well. It's a very simple job if the rough in is good
IMO the silicone around the base isn't a requirement. I think it is useful for uneven tile floors where the toilet might be inclined to rock slightly when weighted or floors where dirt could easily be awept under the toilet base.
Way way worse is if that toilet splits while you’re on it and a razor sharp piece of porcelain cuts you to the femur as you fall. I saw a NSFW picture where that happened to someone once and it’s been a fear ever since.
Yes, absolutely. It was happening several years ago and they denied it for a very long time as far as I know. Then I believe they were recalled. My husband was a homebuilder and his company used them. It was a mess
Get a new toilet asap
That's fucking terrifying!
There's no such thing as 'a small leak.' It's a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Nothing you can do with porcelain. I’d replace it or shut the water off and on after every use if you can’t afford a plumber or new toilet. They’re really easy to install if you read the directions that come with it and watch a couple YouTube videos. Just have a five gallon bucket on hand just in case:)
Adding to the cracked tank flood horror stories: Mine was cracked by someone during a party. Ended up with 3“ of water in the house and a $50,000 homeowners claim and 7 weeks in a hotel with 2 young kids at Christmas. Don’t risk it. Replace ASAP. Meantime turn off water to toilet. My insurance company dropped me 3 months later.
What?! No! Read this to yourself and imagine what you’d say to someone else in this position. Get a new toilet for the love of god.
American standard sent me a replacement for free. I called to find out where to buy a replacement tank and they said it was covered by their lifetime warranty. Try calling them if you got American standard
A cheap fix is replacing it
Does the crack disappear once your off the toilet?
Replace it immediately. Failure is inevitable and will result in damage far more costly.
If you see a crack, try to find a replacement right away. You are just seeing a small, but important part of the big issue. It would save youa huge headache
Replace the toilet my friend.
Ah Taco Bell enthusiast eh?
I'm doing the same thing. I'm small so besides lifting the toilet itself its an easy job
Oh thats why! Yeah the tile floor is a bit wonky
High five! It does feel great knowing I can actually do a lot of this stuff!
Phil Swift here for Flex Seal! …But seriously, just replace it. $100-$200 is much better than tens of thousands in water damage
For sure!
hey language!!
how many courics?
Lol, 0 poop seen or touched
I mean 3 toilets is no joke!!
? You know the design means the poop just goes down immediately, right?
Yes-GoAway t1_j9p6bnp wrote
I had a crack in my tank and after reading online decided to replace the toilet. My toilet was older and where the crack was, was a difficult part to repair. I did see videos on YouTube of how to water seal that crack which looked easy enough.