Dealing With a Whistling Sound from the Toilet

There are a few different concern types that might arise surrounding a given toilet in your home, and noises are one of these types in certain cases. One particular type of noise you might be experiencing: A whistling sound coming from the toilet, either in a softer whistle or a loud, violent whistle you can’t ignore.

At My Buddy the Plumber, we’re happy to offer numerous 24-hour plumbing services, including those to cover your toilet and any concerns that arise with it. Have you recently been hearing these whistling noises without any certainty about what’s causing them or what could be wrong? Here’s a quick primer on the likely culprits and what can be done about them.

Valve Concerns

Generally speaking, the cause of the whistling sound will be vibrations coming during the refill of the toilet tank after a flush. This vibration comes from the metal ballcock valve that’s located in many toilet types – the ball and armature of this piece may begin to vibrate after flushing.

Why does this happen? The most common reason is a faulty fill valve gasket. In other cases, the metal ballcock valve may be vibrating due to simple wear-and-tear on this or related parts over time.

Replacement Options

Your two primary options if the above is indeed the issue for your toilet are either replacing the gasket within the fill valve, or replacing the entire fill valve itself. Due to the relatively low expense of both of these parts, neither of these is necessarily a bad choice – both of these are made out of plastic today, and it’s generally very easy to source these parts from your local home improvement store.

In addition, most plastic valve pieces, including gaskets, will easily unscrew and screw back into place. This makes them easy to install.

Plumber or DIY?

Due to the ease of replacement for either the fill valve or gasket within this area of the toilet, this is a job that many handy homeowners can handle on their own without the assistance of a plumber. If you feel you have the skills for this, we won’t advise against it.

However, even simple plumbing repairs can go wrong if you’re not sure what to do. If you have any uncertainty about where certain items are or how you should proceed, we strongly recommend calling our plumbers for assistance. We’ll ensure that not only are the proper parts replaced as needed, but also that no issues are caused by improper technique or breakage of other components while this job is performed.

For more on the causes and remedies of a whistling sound coming from your toilet, or to learn about any of our plumbing services, speak to the staff at My Buddy the Plumber today.