How to Fix a Sweating Toilet

A sweating toilet is more than a nuisance. Water from the toilet drips onto the floor and can ruin your beautiful bathroom floor and subfloor in no time. But, why does your toilet sweat in the first place?  And what preventative measures can you take to stop it? The answers to these two important questions are covered in the article below!

Why is your Toilet Sweating?

The water that collects on your toilet tank is condensation and as it turns out, your toilet is a natural dehumidifier. When the weather turns hot and humid, there’s a lot of moisture in the air. At the same time the water entering your toilet’s tank is comparatively cold. Moisture forms on the surface of the tank because the tank water is colder than the surrounding air temperature. This difference in temperature causes one sweaty, drippy toilet! Although a toilet sweats only on warm, humid days, it can drop a surprisingly large amount of water in a very short time.

How to Fix a Sweating Toilet

Changing the environment in your bathroom can reduce or eliminate the issue of a sweaty toilet. It can also help preserve the condition of your bathroom floor. So, what exactly can you do?

Get rid of the water in your bathroom: First, you can take steps to ensure that the air in your bathroom doesn’t have a whole lot of water in it.

• Turn on an exhaust fan when you take a shower.
• Take shorter, cooler showers.
• Dry the shower walls after you’ve taken a shower.
• Open the bathroom door and/or windows when you finish your shower.

Warm up the water in the tank: You can install an anti-sweat valve that mixes a little warm water in with the cold when the tank refills after a flush. As long as the water temperature gets close to the air temperature in the room, toilet sweat will be a thing of the past!

Reduce the amount of water in the tank: The less water you have in the tank, the less the tank will sweat. Installing a low-flow toilet not only saves water, but also reduces the amount of condensation a tank can generate. If you can combine a low-flow toilet with an insulated tank, your bathroom floor will stay drier.

Check the flapper valve: If your flapper valve at the bottom of the tank is leaking, the toilet will regularly take on a lot of fresh, cold water to replace the water that leaked out. If you stop the leak, the water in the tank can reach room temperature and sweating will be reduced.

Trust Super Terry for all of your Plumbing Needs

If you have a plumbing emergency, trust Terry’s Plumbing for expert installation. Contact us by phone ((412) 364-9114) or send us an inquiry online for more information about our plumbing repair and installation services.