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Thursday, March 05, 2026

Cold Spray

cartoon woman in tool belt. "Handy Patti"

Life comes at you fast.

A few weeks ago, I flushed the toilet and heard a weird sound in the tank. This was the first time I ever heard anything like this, but I didn't have time to investigate because I needed to go to the grocery store before it got too busy. I don't do crowds.

When I got home, I flushed it again and listened carefully, hoping that it was just a one-time thing.

No such luck.

As the tank is refilling, I life off the cover...and have water spray me in my glasses. I couldn't see much, but I could see it was spraying out of that pump thing inside the tank. Quickly, before the water could go anywhere else, I put the cover back on.

I didn't check again immediately after it finished filling up. Instead, I did an online search about the problem. I knew I didn't have two of the three potential issues because nothing new had been installed recently and the third problem seemed unlikely, too, because I just had the toilet replaced about a year ago.

This immediately had me thinking it's plumber time and I was like, no. Come on.

I decided to take a look anyway. Maybe I could see something to avoid having to pay a plumber to come out. I lifted the tank, and without water spraying in my face, I spotted the problem.

The little hose thing had become disconnected from the pump thing.

I pressed it back in, did a trial flush. No weird noise. Problem solved.