Over time, any toilet tank can start leaking slightly, constantly releasing water. Usually, this isn’t critical, but over a month, a significant amount of water and your money go down the drain. And that constant trickling sound can be really annoying. Usually, there are two non-tool-required solutions to this problem.

Method #1: First, shut off the water supply to the tank, then flush all the water out of it. Next, remove the tank lid, inside which is the flush mechanism. You need to remove a button from the mechanism. Usually, you can unscrew the flush mechanism by turning it half a turn counterclockwise. After this, the mechanism easily comes out of its fitting.

At the bottom of this mechanism, there is a rubber gasket that acts as a seal. Clean the fitting and gasket of any buildup, and do the same with the ceramic surface beneath them.

Reassembling and reinstalling the mechanism may fix the leak.

Method #2: If the first method didn’t help, the issue is likely with the float. In this scenario, the overflowing water in the toilet infiltrates an undesigned opening in the flush mechanism.

To fix this, use the nearby mechanism to lower the float by one notch. This way, the tank will fill with less water, preventing it from reaching the opening in the flush mechanism.

These two methods usually resolve the problem in the majority of cases. However, if neither works, the issue might be with a hardened rubber seal, meaning it doesn’t fit snugly against the ceramic. In this case, you’ll need to replace the seal.