In the middle of the night, I woke up to gurggling and spitting sounds coming from one of my toilets. I turned off the valve and the noise stopped, but the water in the tank and the bowl was brown. It doesn't smell bad, it looks as though it's just dirty. I checked all my toilets and they are all that way. One doesn't make the noise, but the other two do. PLEASE HELP!! We just had rain -- could that have anything to do with it? I'm on a septic tank, if that matters.

Water conditions can cause that issue, creating brown stains and affect both the fill valve and flush valve. A good toilet bowl & tank cleaner will resolve those issues. The cause of the brown water is an entirely different issue. Do you have city sourced water or well?

Best Wishes

I have city water ... but actually, there's an update. I ran the water in the bathroom sink and everything seemed fine, so I thought the problem was isolated in the toilets, but later, I turned on the water in my kitchen sink and it sputtered and spat out some dirty water too. I left it on, and it eventually ran clear, but when I filled a pitcher, I could see that it had some faint brown tinge to it. Also, my icemaker made dirty ice during the night, so the problem isn't just in my toilets. I live in an old historic home, but the plumbing is new. Please, please tell me that it's not a broken water line. I'm at my end .....

was the city/town flushing out the water mains?

Thank you so much for your time. As it turned out, a city water main broke and they had it repaired by 2:00am, but there was all kinds of air and dirt in the line. Since this was Saturday, I had no way of calling anyone to find out, but it so happened that I found a neighbor who knew what was going on. All is well. Thank goodness it was not one of my water pipes. My house was built in 1820 and I can't tell you all the renovation "adventures" I have endured so far. I love my house, but, I swear, I'm one disaster away from a mental breakdown!

Ah, the joy of being a home-owner
Now, since your pressure has stabilized, you may want to un-screw your aerators from the faucets, and clean/soak/replace them.
Also, I would not be suprized if it's time to put a new fill valve and flapper in the toilets that were making noise. The debris from the line repair may clog or slow down your fill valves. The fact that 2 toilets were trying to fill back up when service was restored points to a leaky flapper valve. (unless they were flushed after the water was cut off.)
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