Uh oh, ever looked in your toilet bowl and seen something…cloudy staring back?
Don’t worry – that milky, murky water staring back at you isn’t necessarily a sign of plumbing issues. While it can be a bit unsettling, cloudy toilet water can have a few different explanations.
Some are simple and some require a bit more attention.
The good news? I got you.
In this post, I’ll explain why there’s cloudy water in toilet bowl, and offer some easy solutions to get your bowl sparkling clear again.
Let me go over the most common causes of cloudy water in the toilet bowl:
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Air bubbles in the toilet bowl are a pretty common cause of cloudy water.
If the cloudiness clears up after a few minutes or when you flush again, it’s probably it.
High water pressure from your plumbing system can force tiny air pockets into the water stream leading into the tank and eventually down into the bowl.
Cloudy toilet bowl water can also be caused by high mineral levels in the water supply, especially in areas with hard water.
Minerals like calcium, magnesium, and silica dissolve in the water and can form solid deposits in the toilet tank and bowl over time.
These deposits make the water look cloudy.
Many bathroom cleaners boast about their scrubbing power or stain-fighting abilities, but the strong ingredients they contain can sometimes leave behind cloudy residues.
Things like surfactants, bleaching agents, fragrances, colors, and preservatives may not fully dissolve when the toilet bowl is refilled.
This causes the water to look cloudy, almost like milk.
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Plus, these residues often stick to the sides of the bowl too.
If you get your water from a private well, sometimes the water there might look murky or cloudy.
This could happen for a few reasons, like:
Whatever it is, if your well water is cloudy, it’s gonna make your toilet bowl look cloudy too.
Here are a couple of ways to clear up a cloudy toilet bowl:
If air bubbles or cleaning product residue seem to be the cause of the cloudy toilet bowl water, thorough flushing and scrubbing the toilet should help clear things up.
Fill up about 3 gallons of water to a bucket and bring it into the bathroom.
With the bucket in front of the toilet, flush like normal so that the tank begins to refill. When the tank is about half full, pour water from the bucket into it.
The extra flow from the added bucket of water will help push out any trapped particles or residues causing the cloudiness.
Give it another flush or two, and see if it’s clear now.
If not, grab your toilet brush and give the bowl a good scrub, then flush again.
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If the water still looks cloudy even after you’ve flushed and cleaned everything, it probably means there’s too much calcium and other minerals buildup in the tank.
You’ll need to put in some work to get rid of it, but once you do, it should fix the problem for good.
Here’s how to scrub these away:
Once the toilet bowl water runs clear, you’re all set!
Flushing, cleaning and scrubbing the tank should clear up the cloudy water in your bowl.
But if you have cloudy well water, install sediment filters, water softeners, UV sterilizers, or other solutions to remove contaminants before they reach your toilet.
Treating the water source is the best resolution, if this is the case.
Apart from the things I mentioned, A partial clog in the drain line can also trap sediment and make the water appear cloudy.
FAQs
If there’s cloudy water in the toilet bowl even after flushing a few times, it probably means there’s a mineral buildup in the tank or drain line issues like a partial clog. Flushing more won’t help.
The smell is caused by the bacteria in the water. Flushing it a few times will get rid of the smell.
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