Plunger for toilet

[Daniel Prince]

I need a new plunger to unclog my American Standard toilet which is ten years old and plugs up a few times a month (high fiber diet). The one I have is made out of red rubber. It has a thin rubber flange that can be pulled out but it no longer stays out. It is at least 18 years old.

I went to the local Home Depot (a small one) and they have two kinds. One is the same as what I have but made of black rubber. The other is made of a more rigid plastic in an accordion shape with a nozzle that is about two inches in diameter. Which is best? Is the a better design that I could buy elsewhere?

Thank you in advance for all replies.

[dpb]

...

Just had problem last week at daughter's house...had one of the accordian style which looked unlikely to work well owing to stiffer bottom so picked up one of the bell style while getting some other necessities to finish a tiling job before tackling that particular problem.

Turned out for the particular toilet anyway the accordian style actually worked much better than the traditional -- it did the job quite nicely. I suspect results will depend as much on the design/ shape of the bowl as the plunger. The key is need whatever works better to get a good seal for any plunger to be useful. The one real advantage of the accordian style I did notice the others can't match is the larger air volume available for compression which also seemed effective.

So in summary I'd suggest trying the accordian style -- they're only a few bucks, anyway, even if it doesn't seal well for your particular stool.

[Joseph Meehan]

I might suggest that you replace it. I'll bet it does not have a fully glazed trap and likely has a trap with a 2 inch or smaller diameter. A well design modern toilet with a fully glazed trap larger than 2 inches will seldom clog even with lots of fiber.

[purpleleaf]

The accordian style plunger is good. You might have some unknown object stuck in the trap, that makes it plug up. Read this article for help.

the larger trap toilets are great, as long as the pipe under the house is large enough so you don't get a clog there.

[dnoyeB]

I like the simpler bell shaped ones. I get scared the accordian will get feces stuck up inside the ridges and start stankin. I got a somewhat simple one with the open out bell at the bottom. Appearantly the regular bell is for sinks, and the bell with the sleve thingy is for toilets.

[Goedjn]

I'm giving serious thought to cutting a hole in mine, and gluing it to a spare shop-vac hose extension.

[mm]

In all that I've seen, the sleve thingy inverts and goes inside the bell, if you want to use it without the thingy.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Consumer reports did a review of plungers not too long ago (few months?). The one that came out on top was an accordian style. I usually take CR with a grain of salt. Cheers, cc

[dnoyeB]

Yea, i vacuumed my shower and was impressed with the amount of junk I got out.

[TH]

I do too, since anytime I actually used a product they reviewed, I almost always had a completely different experience and opinion.

I had a plugged up toilet that was almost up to the brim. There was no way I could get that big accordian plunger in that thing without over flowing it. I tried and tried. Finally I went to Home Depot and got a bell shaped plunger. I was able to get that in the toilet and unclog it without any over flow.