intermittent clogged toilet

[dlb]

talk about off-topic but i couldn't find the answer i wanted in my online searching, figured i'd try the handymen here.

one of our toilets is occasionally clogged. when you flush, the water will fill the bowl right up and slowly drain back down to its normal level. it doesn't usually do this, usually only a few times a year but it's done it several times in the last week so i figure i should now do something about it.

looking online, it sounds like there is something in the toilet, like a q-tip, laying crosswise across the passage. sometimes masses of toilet paper will get caught on it, cause the toilet to back up and drain slow for a while, but after the toilet paper breaks down the problem will disappear. from here though, i'm not sure what to do. i don't have an auger and am not sure where i would get one, and most people said that wouldn't work anyway. most said the toilet would need to be removed so the obstruction could be cleared.

my question is: instead of removing the toilet, couldn't i just stick the hose of my wet/dry shop vac down the toilet to suck the obstruction out?

[ARCHINSTL]

See PM.
Tom

[keith]

Start with a plunger. The accordion shaped ones work the best. The plunger actually works best if you slowly compress it and then pull up sharply. Vacuum works better than pressure.

[dlb]

both my wife and i have used the plunger on it many times over the last 1.5 years but it has never helped. the clog just self-resolves after a few hours or overnight.

i looked up some youtube vids though and was convinced to buy a toilet auger at canadian tire for $20. got it today, will get to test it out tomorrow. oh boy.

[Petros]

some brands of toilets are chronically slow and prone to backing up. If the augur does not solve the problem you may find you have to change the toilet itself out.

[Jarf]

Petros is on the money again.
There are 2 kinds of low flush toilet.
The kind that were born as a low flush and the old high volume toilet.
When everybody wanted a low volume and stopped buying the traditional style, the warehouses were full of the other style.
Some jackass decided he would just stick a small tank on the old version and voila, instant inexpensive low flush toilets and no more full warehouses.
Issue being that the old style base really doesn't work well with a small tank and persistent "clogs" are the end result.

Other than that, tree roots can be a big issue on the main-line out.
We had to have them come in and run a grinding attachment down the exit to the main sewer, worked okay until the drains collapsed and they replaced everything.

One big no-no is the flushing of dental floss, can cause huge headaches, similar to what you describe, as well.

[Petros]

it was not that "everyone wanted" low flush toilets, it was the government medling in private matters again and set standards without consideration for the danger of poor flush performance. having human waste sitting in a bowl from a partial flush, particularly with small children, pets, etc. leads to a know and dangerous health risk for e-coli, infuelzena, polio, and a number of other dangerous pathogens.

With the stupid 1.6 gpf federal toilets I now get to watch my sh*t sworl around to make sure it all goes down, before I can just flush and walk away without having to inspect it. Than you waste even more water with several more flushes, not to mention the health hazard. if they went to something more reasonable like 2.2 or 2.5 gpf, it would save water, and save lives.

On my own property I have my own water supply from a very deep drilled well. It is my well, my water system, and my water, but some idiot at the EPA is DC is telling me how much of it I can use to send down my own sewage treatment system, that I paid to have installed. Screw them all, I am on the hunt for "vintage" toilets that will flush clean and fast.

Okay, rant over.

[ARCHINSTL]

The Administration in charge from 1989 to 1993 pushed this...
Tom M.

EDIT - the person who was president in 1992 did not veto it...

[Petros]

I think it was before that, Ford administration perhaps? but it was an act of congress, not any president.

Does not matter, we do not need the federal government telling us how much water we can use to flush our toilets, nor what kind of light bulbs we can buy, nor force us to buy crappy ethanol blend fuel (that cost more to make, has less energy and causes more pollution and environmental damage, as well as force food prices up).


Someone should do a study to see how much water is wasted with inadequate flushes, and how many people and pets are infected by unsanitary flushes. Likely congress would not be interested in changing it, no one can make any money on it selling patented federally approved toilets. No law gets passed unless some well connected private company can make big money off of it.

[keith]

There is another problem that can occur with low flush toilets, even the good ones. If the bathroom has a room below it, even a basement room, then the waste pipe may have to make a 90 degree turn just below the floor. Worse yet is if there is no water coming from behind like from sinks or a shower to keep the pipe clean, then the waste can pile up. Over time this waste decomposes, but in its place, minerals from water and urine replace it and turn it into a rock. Petrified poop to be exact.

This leads to a chronic slow toilet and poor flush performance, even from a top quality toilet. The only fix is to get a new wax ring, remove the toilet and clean out the waste pipe, then reinstall the toilet.

[splatterdog]

Perhaps a change in diet?

All the low flow toilets have different ratings based on flush valve and trap size along with glazed traps to make it more slippery. I recently replaced our 15 year old low flow with the best one I could find locally. It's rated for a bucket of golf balls. So far so good. It was always the kids fault the old one plugged. The basement toilet never clogged, but had to be a 5-7 gallon flush, so I did that one too. Fortunately no petrified poop hiding below that nearly 40 year old toilet.

They are spendy, but power assisted ones really "whoosh".

Any kids involved? A friend got sick of his slow flush, ended up pulling the toilet, and found his wallet that had been missing for a month or two minus everything but plastic cards. His girlfriend had some poorly behaved children.. When I first moved out(party house), a roomates handleless hair brush went down unknowingly. Had to pull the toilet to get that one as well.

[dlb]

no, not ACTUAL kids involved, but pretty much. this started a year and a half ago in the middle of a big house party we had and was most likely caused by one of our 'party hard' friends. you better believe that 'plunging a clogged toilet filled to the brim with very loose stool' was not on my birthday to-do list. i'm guessing one of our lovely guests unwittingly dropped something in the toilet before doing the deed. we haven't hosted a rager since.

i used the toilet auger on it twice the other day and nothing came up. it's possible it's still there but it's also possible the clog got dislodged and finally went down. the problem is only intermittent and rare so i guess time will tell.

[emmahumpfritter]

I had a similar problem last winter in my little bunker, after months of fruitless plunging (definition of insanity? Same thing expecting different results) I found the drain pipe below the bathroom (in the crawl space) had tree roots growing right through it. I was literally trying to flush waste through a briar patch. I cut the section out and replaced it--problem solved.

My house was built in 1947 and because of it's small footprint (450 sq ft.) most likely has been a bachelor pad for nearly 70 years. Females usually facilitate dwelling "improvements" thus explaining this and various other antiquities.

Wasn't there a toilet black market across the Canadian border for a while in the 90's??

[Sparkey]

I would pull the toilet and take it out in the yard and turn it upside down.
Look for an obstruction, and run the garden hose and snake it from the bottom side.
I had a toilet that would plug real easy and I would pull and find nothing.
So I had the Line scope by Roto-Rooter out to the street It checked out good.
I ended up buying a new toilet never had another problem.

[solarlord]

Put the hose into it as far as you feed it -then connect the hose to the tap(facet) then turn the tap on- or look for the inspection cover outside and rod the outlet pipe with a flexible /semi rigid tube on use the hose and flush with water- and stop putting wet wipes down the bog!!!-DEREK