Drain Problems?

Question

Last year I installed a toilet for a friend of mine and haven't had any success with it. Basically all we did was move the toilet 4 feet further from where it originally was, this did however add a four foot section of 3

1/2 pipe that did not have a major slope. Now the problem seems to be a slow flush and plugging. I can't get any more slope out of this no matter what I do, since the septic tank is about 40 feet away and is only about 2 feet lower then the bottom of the toilet. I'm starting to wonder if a higher flush toilet will help? I've also gone to great lengths to add an extra vent pipe so that the pipe can breath, any chance that I shouldn't have added the vent pipe? Would that create more pressure from the toilet or just slow things down even more?

Speedy Jim · Accepted Answer

The vent should not hurt the situation.

A power-flush tank (pressure-assisted) may be a good solution.

Might try an experiment first: have the owner switch to old-fashioned toilet paper if they are using the highly soft and absorbent ones. Those new toilet papers are responsible for a lot of clogging problems in marginal situations.

Jim

Joseph Meehan · Answer

I am going to guess it is really a venting problem.

Art · Answer

We have Kohler powerflush toilets and even they can have trouble with Charmin Ultra.  I wonder who's toilet that stuff is designed for?

ds549 · Answer

you only need 1/8"-1/4" drop  per foot on the 3-1/2"pipe and ive seenemlevel and work just fine... if your toilet has the little holes aroundthe underside of the rim they may need reaming out, ive used a nail toclean them out.  make sure the tank water level is up to the mark.sometimes something like a pencil or toy lodged in the commode outletcan slow down a fush..have seen some crazy things like the outlet on theseptic tank clogged really slows things down,but if the other toiletsare flushing good thats not the problem..tree roots in the pipe thatgoes to the septic tank can slow it down also... lucas

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