What to Do When Your Toilet Ghost Flushes

It’s late at night, the house is quiet. Suddenly, you hear the toilet flush. However, there are no lights on, and no one else is awake. What just happened? The phenomenon is referred to as ghost flushing. It is when your toilet flushes all by itself, but it isn’t caused by any paranormal activity.

Ghost flushing happens because water is slowly leaking out of the tank and into the bowl. If it goes on long enough, it will trigger the toilet to flush. This not only makes for some spooky nights of sudden inexplicable noise, but it is also quite wasteful in terms of water. So why is this happening and what can be done?

A ghost flushing toilet is a problem, but the occurrence is also a symptom. When the toilet ghost flushes, it is typically the sign of a loose flapper. The fact that it has flushed on its own once is cause enough to replace the flapper. However, you can run a conclusive test to make sure the flapper is the cause.

In order to check the flapper, you will want to put food coloring in your tank. Do not flush the toilet for at least 30 minutes. If the water in the bowl changes color, then your flapper is leaking. However, this issue can be caused by a loose or damaged flapper, but the issue can also be caused by a short chain as well. If you recently replaced or reattached the chain, it may be causing your flapper to open prematurely or allows it to not form a proper seal. Thus, you would only need to loosen the chain instead of replace the flapper.

While replacing a flapper can be done on your own through parts picked up at the hardware store, if you want to fix this issue quickly and correctly, you may just want to call a professional. If you have a spooky ghost flushing toilet or other plumbing problems, contact us today to see how The Plumber Guy plumbers near me can help.