how toilets work
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We've already established how the toilet gets rid of water, but how where does the "bucket of water" come from to make the toilet flush? This is where the tank and flushing system come in (diagram of toilet is here). When one pushes the handle of the toilet down, it pulls a chain inside the tank which is connected to the flush valve. Once the chain pulls the flush valve up, the valve floats out of the way, exposing a hole in the bottom of the water-filled tank. This causes the few gallons of water in the tank to pour into the bowl and siphon of the toilet's bowl system, causing the toilet to flush. Once this has happened, we'll need to refill the tank with the right amount of water, so let's continue to find how that occurs.
Continue on to refilling the toilet's tank.