Hi,

Our toilet has always been hooked to the hot water. It was a mistake by the plumber before we bought the place. We've been told the only solution is to break through the tiles to reach the pipes. It's annoying, but not a major problem since it's in the bathroom we only use semi-regularly and the toilet only gets hot if flushed consecutively.

The recent problem is that yesterday we replaced our hot water heater from an AO Smith to a Bradford White power vent and now for some reason the water in the toilet seems to be hot all the time even if it hasn't been flushed recently.

I'm hoping someone might have some kind of a suggestion on how to solve this without breaking through the tile in our bathroom.

Thanks in advance!

I wouldn't think you would have to break thru the tiles to fix the problem . The pipes are usually accessible from underneath the floor, so the ease of fixing the problem depends if you have a crawlspace, basement, or the bath is on a 2nd floor. If the toilet is adjacent to a sink cabinet you might be able to bring a cold water supply thru the side of the cabinet to feed the toilet.
Also check the flapper in the tank, if it's leaking thru just a little it will allow hot water to replenish the water in the tank, and hot water is not good for flappers. Hot water can also cause the china to crack so the problem needs to be addressed. I don't think it would be a big project.

If the bathroom wall is on an interior wall, and the other side is a regular wall with sheetrock, you may be able to open up the other side and do the pipe reconfiguring from the back without any damages to the front tiled wall. Patching sheetrock is easy.

The other option is to go from your bathroom sink which is going to be right next to the toilet, depending on whether it is a pedestal or cabinet vanity you could modify the line or valve there, change it to a dual outlet valve and run a longer hose to the toilet or even do a rigid supply to make it look "nicer". The second approach means capping the hot line and the dead line if not flushed occasionally can have bacteria buildup.

I would fix it right if you have access from the back. Open a smaller hole to see the wall cavity, where you have the cold line to tee off and if there are interferring studs would dictate how big a hole to open up.

yeah, probably the flapper is leaking by and the toilet is constantly slowly refilling. shut it off as hot water is not good for the porcelain. it will crack it.
as my friend from NC said, lots of ways to correct this without opening up the wall. just depends on the layout of the bathroom and what you are willing to see as a finished product.

The toilet is adjacent to an exterior brick wall. We're on the 5th floor of a condo building, so no crawl space or basement. All the walls and floor are tiled in the bathroom.

I think you're probably right about the flap leaking. I'll see if I can figure that out to change on my own.

Thank you for your advice.



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quote; The other option is to go from your bathroom sink which is going to be right next to the toilet

A major supposition there. I have seen thousands of bathrooms where the sink is NOT "right next to the toilet", in fact it is often in a different "room".