The phone calls usually start around
the end of June. After a run of two or
three hot, humid days, there will be a
couple of messages on my answering
machine asking me to come out and fix
a leaking toilet.
When I arrive, the customer points
at the damp bathroom floor and tells
me his or her toilet is leaking. More
often than not, I discover that the
toilet isn't leaking, it's sweating.
Condensation (the correct
term for what's taking
place when a toilet sweats)
will form on the outside of
a freshly flushed toilet as
the cold refill water contacts
the room-temperature
porcelain surfaces of
the toilet.
If the customers have difficulty
understanding the
underlying physics of condensation,
I ask them