Hi, This evening for no appraent reason the water in the toilet bowl just started to disappear. There have not been any signs of any problems until this one today. When I flush the tank empyies the water and it returns to normal levels. When I go back within a bit of time the water is gone. What do I need to do? No I am not really into doing things like this but I am willing to try.

Hi Mgood...

Let's start with the basics.. OK? Take some food coloring and carefully drop 10 drops into the toilet tank only. Let that sit for some time (say 1hour) and then pop back and check the toilet BOWL... any coloring present in the bowl? If so, the toilet FLAPPER is defective and will need to be replaced.

Take the old flapper out and bring it with you to get the best match possible at the local home supply store. If you have difficulty matching up the flapper I would suggest that you pop over to a local plumbing supply store and see if they can provide an exact match. In terms of flappers an exact match is always preferred to settling for a "universal" match up... ;) Many times, the universal flappers fail!

After replacing the flapper if you still have an issue then the entire flapper assembly... called a FLUSH VALVE... will need to be replaced.

Back to you...

Mark

PS: Please post any reply to the box at the very bottom of this page... thanks!

I have a different take on it. If this were the flapper leaking from the tank it would be adding water to the bowl and not pulling water out of it.
The bowl level can drop for several reasons,
1) Something was dropped in the bowl and cracked the bottom so the water's seeping back down 5the sewer.
2) A clogged vent will allow water to be suctioned out every time something's drained. **OR**
3)There could also be a factory defect in the bowl. Sometimes in casting the bowl there is a small bubble in the china. Instead of junking the bowl the manufacture will put a porcelain patch over the hole and send it on through. On occasion the patch will fail allowing the water to seep out of the bowl. If that's the case you would have a full bowl after you flushed and the bowl filled but some time later you would notice a drop in the bowl level. To check the bowl must be pulled, filled and put up on saw horses. You can then see if there's any leakage from the bowl.
Let me know what you find. Good luck, Tom