I'm pretty good with basic plumbing, but this one is puzzling me. We bought this toilet @5 years ago. It is low flow / dual flush. It is the guest / hallway bathroom so we rarely use it. About 6 months ago we both noticed a stale 'urine' smell near the toilet. My wife is OCD Mrs clean and is very detailed when she does. So I cleaned the top tank and added a few drops of bleach, but there really wasn't any smell from there. I set the water level in the tank = OK. The seal on bottom is not leaking, no smell from there.
Here is something that is odd and unusual. The water level in the bowl is lower than in the past. So I removed the tank lid, flushed and watched the flow of water into the fill tube. It was strong, continous until the float shut the feed off. I raised the float level just above the max and did several flushes but water level in bowl remains the same.
So, I filled a separate container with water and slowly poured in the bowl, raising the level slightly. I then watched as the water drained back to the lower level. See pix below.
So something has changed, the bowl water level is @1" lower than it should be, and possibly exposing the sewer gasses from below. We have 3 toilets, on a 1 level ranch home. The other two have no issues with smell or bowl water level.
I'm at a loss, as to why the bowl water level is lower fo some reason, and is draining back when I add just a little bit of water and the smell. What say y'all?