A customer in Hudson called about a toilet that was making a chirping noise every time it filled — and, oddly, even when nobody had used it. That second detail is the real clue, and it’s a good one.

Why a toilet chirps and runs on its own

That chirping or whistling sound is usually the fill valve struggling to shut off all the way, and a toilet that runs when nobody’s touched it is almost always a slow leak from the tank down into the bowl. The water level drops a tiny bit, the valve kicks on to top it back up, and you hear that little chirp each time. It’s not loud enough to panic over, but it IS wasting water around the clock and it won’t fix itself.

Stopping the noise and the constant running

We traced it to the fill valve and got the toilet filling quietly and shutting off completely again. Once the valve was right, the phantom running stopped and the tank held its level the way it’s supposed to. No more chirping, no more water sneaking down the bowl all day.

If your toilet in Hudson or anywhere in MetroWest is making noise or running when nobody’s using it, call Richard T. Curley Plumbing & Heating at (978) 562-3736. Usually it’s the fill valve or a slow tank leak, and we’ll get it quiet and right again.

If your toilet is also leaking onto the floor, that’s usually a bad wax seal — here’s one we fixed.