One of our toilets went from running a rather long time after a flush, to running a very long time.... Time to look in the tank and see what is going on.
In my experience, there are several reasons a toilet might run too long: the flapper or cup that closes the hole at the bottom doesn't sit right, or the float (a cup or a ball) needs to be adjusted, or the inlet valve is bad and needs to be replaced. (Remember: I am not a plumber. Nor a handyman.)
The first is easy to check: flush and watch, maybe give it a nudge to see if it is in place. For the third, a bad inlet valve will, I believe, leave the toilet running continuously. At least that was the case the one time that I've seen.
For the second reason, a float that is too low will let water start spilling down the upright overflow tube before the float gets high enough to mechanically turn off the water. Again, flush, and watch.
This was the case this time, fortunately; no need to do more internet research or go out to buy parts.
This particular toilet is a fairly common brand, not high-quality, and the plastic innards look rather chintzy. The float cup is connected to the shut-off lever by a plastic rod. It took me some fiddling and careful disassembly (not wanting to snap the plastic) to figure out how to adjust the rod to raise the float cup. But once I more or less understood how it worked, it was easy to put back together, and, voila!
Now the toilet tank refills much more quickly.
Before I started, I consulted both of our DIY fix-everything-around-the-house books. The Reader's Digest Fix It Yourself book I like a lot, but it does zip through the topic of plumbing quite rapidly. The Black and Decker book is also occasionally useful.
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