No one likes to have a dirty toilet, and it is a place where hygiene is paramount. If you see yellow water in your toilet, it will probably gross you out, thinking it is sewage water.
Although this water is not urine in most cases, it certainly looks disgusting. That is why I will be enlightening you with a detailed answer to your question of why is my toilet water yellow.
Moreover, we will be discussing some solutions to your yellow toilet water issue, so your toilet doesn’t look like the ones in a stinky gas station.
What Makes The Toilet Water Yellow?
When people see that yellow water in toilet, they often assume there is some issue with sewage water, and the yellow water they see is urine. However, that is rarely the case, and there are many other reasons why there may be yellow water in your toilet.
Minerals
If your toilet water is yellow, then there is a very high possibility that this is due to the mineral that comes with your water supply. Often, there is a high mineral concentration in water supplies.
Over time, the mineral starts to build up inside the toilet, more specifically in the sidewalls of the toilet.
So, when you flush, the water that comes gushing cannot remove the build-up of minerals, but the mineral makes the water yellow.
Iron
Another common reason for your toilet water being yellow is when there is a lot of iron in your water supply. In the case of iron, the color may be a bit reddish-yellow rather than just purely yellow.
Besides a high concentration of iron in the water supply, the iron issue could also be caused due to rusty pipe fittings. In fact, the yellow color due to iron is more often caused by the rusting of pipe fittings than excess iron in the water supply.
When the pipes get rusty, and water flows through them, some iron is mixed with the water, making it yellow. Another way rusting may cause an issue is if the bolts inside the toilet tank get rusty.
In the same way as rusted pipes, the iron from the rusted bolts will mix with the water in the tank and make it appear reddish-yellow.
Methods to Fix the Yellow Toilet Water Problem
Although the yellow water in the toilet may not be harmful in any way, it is certainly disgusting to look at. Therefore, we will suggest a few ways to remove the yellow out of your toilet water for good.
Before you get on to fixing the issue, you must recognize where it lies, so you will have to check for mineral development as well as rusty pipes and bolts.
Scrub Down the Minerals
As we have mentioned earlier, minerals often develop in the sidewalls of the toilet, so that is where you should check first. Also, to be safe, you should check your toilet tank to see any mineral build-up there that could be causing the problem.
After you have recognized the area that contains the build-up of minerals, you will need to take a sturdy scrubber and start scrubbing there.
In some cases, merely scrubbing the area will not do, so you might have to take some toilet cleaner liquid on your scrubber to get rid of the build-up altogether.
For the mineral development on the sidewalls of the toilet, using a toilet brush is an excellent option to clean it well. Make sure there are no remains of the mineral, and then you can test your toilet. Flush the toilet a few times, and after that, the water should no longer have a yellow tint.
Remove the Rust on the Bolts in the Toilet Tank
Open your toilet tank, and use a flashlight to check if the bolts have gotten rusty. If a decent amount of rust developed on the bolts, you would see that the water would look entirely like the reddish-yellow color of rust.
To clean the rusty bolts, you will need to take a stiff brush with tough bristles to remove the rust with no trouble. Exert some pressure onto the brush and scrub the bolts to get rid of all the bits of rust.
Other parts of the toilet tank may also be a bit stained due to the rusty bolts, so we will suggest you clean those parts as well.
If the bolts get extremely rusty, removing the rust becomes very difficult or, in some cases, almost impossible. Hence, you might have to replace the bolts in the tank.
If you don’t know how to replace a toilet tank ; simply read our step-by-step guide that will help you to install the tank without help of a plumber.
Also, we recommend you to read our guide on how to clean toilet tank perfectly, it will definitely make your cleaning task super easy.
Replace the Pipe Fittings
Getting rid of rust from bolts is not very difficult since only a small area is affected, but you cannot just scrub and get rid of the rust in your pipe fittings. Therefore, you will need to get new pipe fittings to fix this yellow toilet water problem.
Some people may try to clean out the part of the pipe fitting that has become rusty, but this task is quite tricky, and you could make a bigger mess trying to do this.
If your pipe fittings have become rusty, it is best to get a professional plumber to replace them. This will cost you more money than simply cleaning the rusted parts, but it is absolutely worth it.
How to Remove Yellow Water Stains in Toilet
The yellow water might sometimes stain the toilet bowl, which makes it appear dirty and disgusting.
For the water stains in the toilet bowl, you will have to take a quarter cup of borax and distribute it around the bowl as evenly as possible, then wait for about 5-10 minutes.
Then, take a full cup of white vinegar and put it around the bowl where you spread the borax. You will have to wait for approximately half an hour for this mixture to activate.
After 30 minutes, start scrubbing the toilet bowl with a toilet brush, and when you don’t see any yellow stains flush the toilet.
Apart from that, we have cover more detail ways to get rust stains out of toilet, you may find these guide very useful.
Also, you may read our article on 16 common mistakes to avoid when cleaning your bathroom and toilet.
Final Words
Like we said previously in the article, although the yellow water in your toilet may look like pee, it’s most likely not, so don’t freak out!
You shouldn’t be wondering why is my toilet water yellow anymore, and if you follow our instructions correctly, you should be good to go with a clean-looking toilet.
