Ode to the Commode

A leaky toilet can waste hundreds of gallons of water a day!  The good news is that it is often a simple fix to stop the leak.  The toilet flapper - the plug that falls against the drain hole inside the tank and holds water in until the toilet is flushed - can become bent or chipped.  You instantly save water and money by replacing the flapper to stop the leak.  Replacing a flapper is a simple and inexpensive repair most can do themselves.

Don't Have a Blue Lou:  Toilet Tablets/Dye Testing

A simple test to check for a bad flapper is to add dye tablets or food coloring to the back of your toilet tank.  Wait about 10 minutes, then check in your bowl.  Did food coloring seep into the bowl?  If so, you probably have a bad flapper.  Visit the Water Business Office, 124 E. Hancock Ave., to pick up free blue dye tablets.  Fun for the whole family!

Dive deeper into flipping your flapper with WaterSense

Switch Out Your Toilet for one with an EPA WaterSense Label  

Good news for those in Georgia:  Any toilet you select to replace an old, leaky one meets the EPA WaterSense standards for water efficiency!  Thanks to the 2010 Georgia Water Stewardship Act, all toilets sold today have a maximum of 1.28 gallons per flush (gpf).  Older toilets can use up to 5 gallons per flush!  When you see the EPA WaterSense logo on a product, you know the product is at least 20% more water efficient than its traditional counterpart.    

Did you H2knOw?

We aren't recommending drinking from the toilet, but the water used to flush away your waste is clean treated drinking water.  Using a high-efficiency toilet uses our precious resources wisely.   

Did you know a bad toilet flapper can waste hundreds of gallons of water daily? 

You may need a new flapper if:

  • Your toilet bowl is running (if you have to jiggle the handle to make it stop, your flapper is probably bad)
  • You touch the flapper, and it starts to fall apart or rub off
  • The eyelet hole (where the chain hooks into the flapper) is torn
  • You use chemical bowl cleaners
  • Do a dye test and see the dye in your toilet bowl (dye tablets available at Water Business Office, Normal Hardware, or Athens Hardware)
  • It has been at least five years since you flipped your flapper