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Many people have experienced a toilet that seems to flush by itself. At first thought, you may wonder if you need to call a plumber or ghost busters. Trust me, the problem is all in the plumbing. A toilet may flush by itself when the Douglas valve seal becomes warped. When this happens, the toilet’s tank will continually leak water into the bowl and the fill sensors are triggered that the toilet bowl is full and needs to be flushed. This is the same principle as when you fill the toilet with buckets of water, you’ll find the toilet reaches a certain level then automatically flushes itself.

To check if your toilet is leaking from the tank to the bowl, you should use the food-coloring test. After flushing the toilet, add several drops of food coloring into the toilet bowl tank and wait about half an hour. If you see any traces of the food coloring in the toilet bowl water, then you know there is a leak. If the water is clear, there is no leak. However, make certain that there wasn’t a leak and that the toilet didn’t automatically flush and remove all traces of the water.

If you detect the food coloring in the toilet bowl’s water, then you know that the problem is caused by too much water leaking past the flapper and filling the toilet bowl. If this is the case, you will need to have the flapper replaced. The flapper valve is made of rubber and is very inexpensive. If you are uncomfortable replacing this valve yourself, a local plumber will be able to easily take care of the problem.

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