Toilet dilemma

Sep 20, 2016 6 Replies

One of my granddaughters asked for assistance with one of the two toilets in her home.



Both toilets are of the same model and age and of course they are connected to the same water supply. Her toilet was flushing poorly. Upon examination, I noticed there was a thick lime scale in and around the flush jet and the drain path. The rim jets were all basically clean and clear.



The other toilet, used by her roommate had no scale of any kind.



I used Zep Acidic toilet cleaner (

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which is a 5



- 10% HCL solution ), letting it sit for an hour or so. The scale softened quite a bit and I was able to scrape away big pieces but not all of it, even after applying the HCL solution twice.



The toilet is flushing much better than it was previously, but the scale is still present. My next step is to use some Muriatic acid, which is HCL @ 35%, in the hope this will chew away the rest of the scale. I will probably dilute the HCL by 50% to begin with.



My quandary is accounting for the difference between the two toilets. My granddaughter is big on saving the planet, so, if there is only urine in the bowl, she will not flush. Combining that with her habit of taking lots dietary supplements, I am hypothesizing that many of the minerals contained in the expensive urine is leaching out and accumulating in the bowl.



I have tried to explain to her the supplement industry is a giant scam and have even provided her with evidence, but, well, she is a woman and that falls on deaf ears. At least she has compromised and agreed to flush after each use.



Has anyone here encountered such a heavy scale situation previously? If so, how have you dealt with it?


Bingo. Save some water, destroy a toilet. Urine has a lot of solids in it.

Not flushing urine causes a buildup of scale in the bowl. My commercial cle aning company once started a new account where the previous company never c leaned under the urinal screen. It took a couple of hours of multiple soaki ngs with HCL to remove it all. Lesser deposits can usually be removed with phosphoric acid, which is safer.

Simple test...have them switch bathrooms for a month or so.

That is a sexist comment.

That is a valuable article, thanks for posting the link. Fortunately, I can avoid the possibility of seal and plastic damage because her toilet has no problem under the rim, therefore I can put the acid directly in the bowl.

I am amazed at how much mineral has leeched out of her urine, in six years, as a result of dietary supplements and infrequent flushing.

Excellent advice, thank you!

I don't know if the supplements made much difference, but normal people have a lot of stuff in urine.

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Since we're considering using urine as a fertilizer, it makes sense to figure out what's in that yellow liquid. The actual percentages of each component can vary depending on what you eat, but pee from an average Westerner has an NPK of 11-1-2.5. For those of you not familiar with NPK, that's a fertilizer that's very high in nitrogen, low in phosphorus, and moderate in potassium.

After water, the major components in urine are high nitrogen chemicals including urea, creatine, ammonia, and uric acid. Pee also contains a significant amount of salt (sodium chloride), and a bit of calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. Rarely will urine contain a few disease-causing organisms --- primarily leptospirosis and schistosoma in the tropics, and salmonella (which dies quickly in soil.)

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