Toilet tank to bowl mounting - the better way

This post is for anyone that doesn't already have their toilet tank bolted via hardware directly on each side of the tank hole.  Seems many people rely solely on the clamping pressure between the bolt in the tank and the nut/washer under the bowl to prevent leaks at the bolts.  That works ok until someone leans hard against the tank (like children) and/or any gaskets lose some elasticity over time and loosen slightly.

So what do you do?

Put the bolt through the tank as normal (maybe with a rubber washer if your kit has one).  Directly under the tank, at a minimum, add a metal washer and nut.  At this point, with the tank flapper closed the tank should hold water without leaking while not attached to the bowl.  This may make future maintenance a bit easier depending on what you need to do. This doesn't prevent leaks at the tank to bowl hole when the flapper releases water but I have found that to be less of a problem normally.

If by chance, you get a new tank hardware kit and it doesn't have enough hardware included to do this; you can either try to reuse a nut/washer from your existing install or get something from your local hardware store.  I would recommend using stainless steel hardware if possible.

Here are a couple of pics to clarify; an inside tank and under tank image. In my original setup I didn't have rubber washers on the inside of the tank - I kind of prefer that setup but we will see how this works over time.

To mount the tank to the bowl itself; I used wing nuts under the tank which works ok but there is not much extra horizontal space to spare in my case so it may not work for all tanks.  They do

Here is the tank to bowl connection.

Wishing you a leak free throne!