Blog

Photo By jjn

Have you ever noticed that your toilet sweats? If you leave it alone and go to the washroom, you’ll notice that a lot of water has clung to the tank. This condensation will then drip down onto the floor and may even get on the nearby walls. Although toilet sweating is not actually considered a huge problem, it is something that you should address sooner or later by calling a plumber in Mansfield, TX.

If you don’t address this problem, the excess water may end up damaging your floorboards or your walls. The condensation also increases the humidity inside your washroom. This is a place that gets humid very easily, to begin with. Excess moisture will only increase the risk of fungal growth, which can be damaging to your health and spread throughout the entire home. Fungal growth can also be difficult to get rid of and can significantly lower the property value of your home. In worst-case scenarios, you might have to renovate the entire home in order to get rid of the fungal growth.

In this article, we’ll look at the phenomenon known as toilet sweating in detail. By the end of this, you should know why your toilet sweats and what you can do to solve this problem with ease. Most of the solutions are not things that you can do alone but are things that you can call a plumber for. Let’s get started!

Why Does the Toilet Sweat?

This seems like a strange phenomenon; however, if you’re familiar with some science, you’ll realize that this is no different than seeing condensation on your windows after a cool night. It’s also the reason why you see dew on your grass.

The sweat that you see on the toilet is actually moisture that’s been pulled out of the air in your bathroom. As you already know, the air in your bathroom is quite humid. This is because you take your showers here and your baths. In fact, the washroom is probably the most humid area of your entire home.

The toilet is a natural dehumidifier. The water in the tank is quite cold. In comparison, the air inside your bathroom is quite warm. When the warm air in your washroom touches the cold surface of the toilet, condensation forms and — voila! — that’s how you get a sweaty toilet.

A sweaty toilet doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s anything wrong with the toilet. It’s simply a sign that there’s a huge temperature difference between the water in the tank and the air inside the washroom. Another important thing to note is that the condensation won’t damage the toilet at all. This isn’t something that you should be concerned with. If the condensation is going to damage anything, it’s going to be the seals around the toilets like the caulk at the base and the floorboards.

5 Ways to Prevent Toilet Sweating

As we’ve mentioned above, toilet sweating is not a plumbing emergency that you need to call a plumber for immediately. If you’ve noticed that there’s a lot of condensation on the toilet, you can wipe it all away with a towel first. Next, you should schedule an appointment with a professional at a time that’s convenient for you. It’s always a good idea to let the plumber know what type of problem you’re facing. This will allow them to bring in the appropriate tools and equipment needed to fix the problem. It can save them a trip.

Depending on your concerns, here are several solutions that can fix a sweaty toilet. If you don’t know how to perform some of the solutions yourself, just leave it to the plumber. Most of the solutions are fairly easy to do, so the plumber should be in and out of your home within the day. These solutions aren’t expensive repairs either.

Another tip is to make sure that the plumber offers some type of guarantee or warranty for their work. If any problems arise in the future, make sure that they’ll be willing to take responsibility. In order to ensure that the plumber is willing to offer some type of guarantee or warranty, make sure that they have their terms and conditions written in the contract. You can then reference the contract should anything go wrong in the future.

#1. Get Rid of Excess Humidity

One of the easiest ways to fix a sweaty toilet is to get rid of the humidity in your washroom. A sweaty toilet is usually an indication that the washroom is too humid. Some of the most common solutions recommended that may or may not require the help of a plumber include:

• Turning on the fan. If you haven’t been turning on the fan after a long shower or bath, you should start doing that now. A bathroom that’s too humid will sustain some type of water damage. You might notice that the doors are cracking or that there are water stains on the walls. Water damage can be difficult to fix.

• Take shorter and colder showers. If you’re someone who loves long and hot showers and baths, it’s not unusual for the washroom to get too humid. One of the simplest solutions is to cut down on the number of hot showers and baths that you take in a week. There are health benefits to taking cold showers!

• Use a portable dehumidifier. Purchase a portable dehumidifier online to get rid of some of that humidity. This is not only a good investment for your toilets, but also for your home in general

• Open the bathroom door and window after you finish showering. This will increase overall ventilation and allow warm air to escape easily. With that said, you should only open the windows if the outside air isn’t more humid than the air that’s in your home. If it’s more humid, then you’re only allowing more moisture to enter your home.

These solutions are fairly easy to do, and you should see the results almost immediately. Depending on how humid the washroom is, the toilet might not stop sweating completely; however, you should see a noticeable difference.

#2. Insulate the Toilet

By insulating the toilet, you can also prevent it from sweating. There are several different ways that you can insulate the toilet. You can line the tank with some type of insulation kit or you can even cover the outside of the tank with a cover. There are even toilets on the market today that are insulated. However, you might not want to replace your old toilets with these new ones unless you have a large budget.

One of the easiest and simplest things that you can do is get a plumber to put sheets of polystyrene or foam rubber inside the tank walls. This should do the trick, and you should notice that the toilet will stop sweating almost immediately!

Another thing that you might want to consider doing is insulating the pipes inside your home. This can make a difference. Insulating the pipes will also protect them from cool climates. Your pipes are much less likely to burst since it’s much more difficult for water to freeze inside insulated plumbing. With that said, insulating the plumbing in your Mansfield, TX home is quite a large project and will be quite costly. You should speak with a plumber first to see whether this is something that they recommend.

#3. Warm Up the Water in the Toilet

As we’ve mentioned above, the condensation forms because the toilet water is too cold. If you warm up the water in the toilet, you can also prevent the toilet from sweating. You can get a plumber to install a mixing valve at the tank inlet. The mixing valve will introduce warm water into the tank so that the tank water is not cooler than the air in your washroom by too much. This solution should also produce immediate results.

This solution is only feasible if you live in an area that isn’t too hot. It’s not possible to warm up the toilet water by too much. Due to this reason, some homeowners may have to tolerate a sweaty toilet during the summer, especially when the weather gets really hot and humid. In order to ensure that the condensation from the sweaty toilets does not affect the flooring or nearby walls, homeowners should make it a habit to wipe their toilets with a cloth regularly.

#4. Reduce the Amount of Water in the Tank

Although this isn’t a sure-fire solution, it can help. Reduce the amount of water in the tank in order to prevent it from sweating. To do so, you’ll need to switch from a regular toilet to a low-flow toilet. Low-flow toilets will help save water and are great for the environment. You’ll get to enjoy the benefits almost immediately through lowered water bills. In fact, the EPA estimates that homeowners who have switched to low-flow toilets save several hundred dollars a year.

Low-flow toilets are also more gentle on the plumbing, so you will require fewer plumbing services and repairs in the future. They can also last for several decades, so they’re quite a good investment and will pay for themselves with time. These toilets are also fairly easy to install. A plumber should be able to get the job done within a day.

Some plumbers also claim that low-flow toilets will increase the overall market value of your home. A lot of potential buyers nowadays are very environmentally-conscious. They appreciate plumbing appliances that have less of a strain on the environment.

#5. Check the Flapper Valve

Last but not least, consider checking the flapper valve that’s located at the bottom of the tank in order to see whether it’s leaking or not. If it’s leaking, fresh, cold water is constantly getting pushed into the toilet. This will only increase the amount of condensation that forms on the tank and other areas of the toilet. Once you stop the leak, the water in the tank will slowly reach room temperature. This should reduce the amount of condensation that forms.

Fixing this leak is also good for your water bills. If fresh, cold water is constantly entering the toilet bowl and tank, it means that you’re using more water than necessary. A leak in the flapper valve can add an extra several hundred dollars to your water bills every year. On top of that, the sound of fresh water continuously entering the toilet can be a nuisance to some people.

Call a Plumber in Mansfield, TX for Maintenance

If you’ve noticed that your toilet gets sweaty really quickly, you can try to fix the problem by calling a plumber in Mansfield, TX. A plumber will be able to come to your home in order to assess the situation and determine what solution may be the best fit. Will usually be able to offer you a great solution that has different budgets. From there, you can choose the one that works best for you.

Regardless of what types of plumbing problems you’re faced with, a Mansfield, TX plumber from Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Fort Worth can provide you with the plumbing services that you need to fix the situation! Our plumbers are licensed and insured. They also receive ongoing training, so they always know what the latest technologies and solutions may be. They’ll be able to offer you several solutions to choose from depending on your concerns. Most importantly, they’re available 24/7 and can be there in a jiffy if you’re faced with an emergency situation.

It’s worth it to have our number written down on a piece of paper that’s stuck on your fridge. If you’re in the Fort Worth area, give us a call at 817-983-7876. If you’re in the Arlington area, give us at Benjamin Franklin of Fort Worth a call at 817-478-4119. Those who aren’t in a rush at all may want to contact us through our online form! Regardless of the method that you use to contact us, we’ll have someone get back to you as soon as possible.