Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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A customer was out of town for a few days and came back to discover that the toilet bowl was empty. Usually there is standing water in the bowl, but it was dry. She called her favorite Las Vegas handyman to determine why.
There are only a few reasons why this would happen. The first reason turned out to be the cause. The had a crack in the trapway of the toilet, which caused the water to drain out into the drain pipe below. This wasn't obvious because the crack was centered over the drain, and therefore didn't leave any water around the base of the toilet. Since the crack was small, it took some time for it to go dry. Naturally, if the toilet is being used regularly, the bowl will get refilled after each use, and you probably wouldn't notice a slightly lower water level. However, when the toilet wasn't used for a few days, it had time to go completely dry. The fix here was to replace the toilet bowl.
Another reason a toilet bowl will be dry is due to the vent. Drains require air, and the vent provides this. If the vent is clogged then as the water goes down the drain it tends to pull air with it from any source. This creates a siphon and pulls the water left in the bowl down with it. It won't pull all of the water down with it, but if the toilet is not used for a while the small amount of remaining water may evaporate. The fix for this would be to clear the vent from the roof.
We went to see a customer who called about a leaking toilet tank. There was a leak in between the tank and the bowl, and the customer said he had removed the tank to see if he could find the problem. When he couldn't find anything obviously wrong, he reinstalled the tank and it leaked worse. That's when he called this Las Vegas handyman.
When we looked at the tank, the problem was fairly obvious. The toilet tank had a crack from one bolt to the other. Although this may not have been the cause of the original leak, it appeared he over-tightened the bolts and cracked the tank. This caused the more predominant leak.
I'm guessing that the flush valve was initially leaking but now the bigger problem is that the tank needs to be replaced. Some decisions need to be made here. If the toilet is inefficient, it's probably a good idea to buy a complete toilet and make up your expense in water savings. If you opt just to replace the tank, you might find a match, or you may have to buy a generic tank of the same color. The important thing here is to get the same hole pattern in the new tank. Some have a 2-hole pattern and some have a 3-hole pattern in a triangle shape, so measure the distance from the holes before you buy. While you are at it, replace the flush valve, fill valve, and the flapper. Just don't overtighten the tank bolts.
You can see why it might make sense to buy a new toilet, especially if you can get rid of an old inefficient model in exchange for a water saving model.
