Plumbing Question: Is is possible for a toilet to flush itself?

[tar heel]

What a wonderful Saturday night it's been at my house! The toilet in my boys' upstairs bathroom overflowed drastically and ran water into the garage. Obviously, we're very lucky that the bathroom is over the garage rather than the dining room.

This is the third or fourth time this has happened and at least the second time they claim that none of them flushed it. I think one of them flushed it, immediately left the room, and didn't notice it didn't go down. They insist it didn't happen this way. There also is a ridiculous amount of water, so a little part of me is starting to wonder if there really is something strange going on with the toilet.

I think this is going to lead to us having to replace the garage ceiling and maybe the bathroom floor. I assume it's something we should do sooner rather than later. I don't even want to think about how many thousands it's going to cost.

 

[Pop Daddy]

sorry. I dont know about flushing themselfs but I know they dont put the seat down by themselfs

 

[tar heel]

Bathroom shared by three boys - this one definitely has that problem, Pop Daddy!

 

[Cindyluwho]

I feel a song coming on
ooooo ghost flushers in the sky.....

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

I'd be fairly sure that toilets DO flush themselves. (but then, all the toilets at work are auto-flush)

 

[mickeyfan2]

Yes, we had one that did this. Kohler replaced it for us. The mold had a defect and it did not seal properly.

 

[tar heel]

I just googled this and found an amazing amount of information. I don't know if it's flushing itself, but I have determined that it has a leak. I put green food coloring in the tank. If the water in the bowl turned green, then it was leaking. Water turned green. Weird.

 

[ducklite]

Check with your home owners insurance, some of the damage might be covered. Good luck!

Anne

 

[heart4pooh]

Ours did that a couple of weeks ago! But my husband is a plumber and went in there to take a look. I haven't thought about it since then. I'll ask him when he wakes up!

 

[golfgal]

We had a leaky toilet in our basement, it didn't over flow but would re-fill frequently. I had been after DH to change the toilet for quite a while, like over a year. He finally fixed it and our water bill went down $40 this month . I wonder if your toilet isn't flushing itself but rather the shut off mechanism isn't turning off and it is spilling out of the tank? I am sure your boys are not causing the problem .

 

[UncleScrooge338]

Hi,

I put green food coloring in the tank. If the water in the bowl turned green, then it was leaking. Water turned green.

I think you have 2 problems. Your flush valve is allowing water to leak down from the tank into the bowl. The dye test proved that. However, the water should not overflow unless the toilet is clogged. What I see a lot is that someone will use the toilet, flush it, and the waste will appear to exit properly. Actually it will plug up partway in the toilet. Then your leak just keeps filling the bowl until it overflows. Sometimes the stoppage will (sorry) soften up enough to go on down from the weight of the water in the bowl and when you go to look at it it is functioning normally!

 

[SleepyMom]

Not the same problem you had, but yes toilets do sometimes flush themselves.

I was home alone a few years ago and the upstairs one flushed itself, scared the daylights out of me My thoughts instantly went from "there's someone in the house that shouldn't be" to "wow, a thief who flushes".

I told DH about it and he didn't really believe me even though it happened a few more times. Eventually it happened one night while he was home and a plumber was called. They replaced something and all is well now.