The water is flushing out the tank, but it is not draining out of the bowl. When it does drain out the bowl is drains really really slow. There is not any pressure behind the drain. I read information about the siphon maybe be clugged.I do not understand how to fix it. What do I need to do to fix my toliet?
Thank you!
Go to a hardware store and ask in the plumbing area for a toilet snake and ask them if they can give you a quick demonstration of how to use it,. You rotate the snake while pushing it down the toilet. It will eventually unclog whateve is in there. It could be almost anything, from a sock that got flushed down unknowingly to a toy soldier a kid flushed.
You could also try a toilet plunger, you put it over the botton of the toiket and move it up and down. Again the hardware store and ask them to show you how to use it.
You must have led a very pampered life to never have seen either of these common tools in use.
Turn off the water to the toilet and flush it. Remove the tank lid, exposing the insides. Raise the flapper valve and either remove it temporarily or tie it back. Pour EITHER (not both) of a can of Draino or Muriatic acid into the opening, being careful to not let it get into the tank in general. Wait an hour or two. Let the flapper loose, or replace it. Turn the water back on, let the tank fill and flush it a couple times.
Try flushing with a bucket of water, if the toilet flushes solids well with a bucket you can give the toilet a acid treatment, its safe cheap and fast.....
you can kinda tell if the water just swirls when flushing
I don't know much about this, but what is the point of putting it through the tank instead of straight into the bowl?
Also, be sure to add acid to water and not add water to acid.
This used to confuse me but when you at water to acid, there is loads of acid and only a little water. Any reaction, even just bubbling, has a high concentration of acid.
Sounds to me like a clog.
When this happened to me, what I did after trying unsuccessfully to snake the problem was to pull the whole unit, take it outside flip it up-side down and run the garden hose in the outlet.
Problem was a plastic cap my kid dumped in and flushed.
While I had the unit out I replaced: The gasket between tank and bowl and the bolts, The tee bolts, nuts to hold down the bowl, The overflow tube and flapper assy. (Old one still worked but was in poor shape.) The angle stop and supply line. (My policy is to replace any valve with quarter turn ball valves, and supply lines with the nice braided stainless steel lines.
Having the toilet completely apart is also a good time to clean all of those places that don't get cleaned too good.
You should also caulk almost all the way around the base. You want to leave a little gap in the caulk bead in the back as if the wax ring is leaking you want to spot that before you have major structural damage to the floor.
Buy the good parts, it only costs a few bucks more and they work better, last longer than the cheap ones do. It is a good idea to slather plumbers grease over the threads and then cap the hold down nits with a glob of plumbers putty. The plastic caps don't do much more than look good and the putty and grease helps keep the corrosion from boogering the threads.
Read this:
CY: Sounds like either clogged rim holes, or clogged drain. Try dumping in a bucket of water. If the water fills in the bowl, that's a clogged drain. If the bucket of water goes down promptly, then you've got rim holes problems, most likely.
I don't know much about this, but what is the point of putting it through the tank instead of straight into the bowl?
CY: Might be clogged rim holes, where the water goes into the bowl.
Also, be sure to add acid to water and not add water to acid.
This used to confuse me but when you at water to acid, there is loads of acid and only a little water. Any reaction, even just bubbling, has a high concentration of acid.
CY: Wrong. Concentrated sulphuric acid is a bit viscous (gloopy) and heavier than water. Pouring water onto the top of the acid has been known to layer the water on top of the acid, which can created a thermal reaction, and splatter. Also, good to use a stirring stick while pouring, so as to get a more instant mix.
From the upper tank to the bowl rim are internal passages that carry the water that helps make the flush, this is the water from the small line that goes in the dip tube.
These internal passages clog with sediment over time, and decreased flow causes no wave action in the bowl and no flush.
muriatic acid works great to clear this.
Wear safety glasses use a funnel and its best to empty the bowl of water so the acid can clean the trap area too but its not critical.
just pour in a cup or two down the dip tube, use a funnel avoid splashing, leave room close door wait 15 minutes, and perhaps do again.
for 5 bucks of acid its a no brainer to at least try:)
I would think perhaps not.
If there are, he should do that, but he didn't say anything about that.
You mean, Right, plus the rest of what you wrote. You said the same thing I did.
If there are, he should do that, but he didn't say anything about that.
CY: Which is why we suggested the bucket test.
You mean, Right, plus the rest of what you wrote. You said the same thing I did.
CY: Still wrong. The problem isn't concentration. It's stratification. The problem is water floating on top of the acid while reacting.
CY: Layer on top -- stratifying.
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Just to add some encouragement to the OP about this what seems to be a clogged toilet, or perhaps a drain that's blocked and full of 'stuff'?
The worst toilet clog ever had to deal with was a turkey bone! It was devil of a job to get out. Usually it's something like a toy or toothbrush that's fallen in there and got jammed!
Someone had decided to chuck the left overs from cooking and carving a turkey down the toilet, figuring the grease would be too much for the kitchen sink. Somehow a bone got in the dumping into the toilet bowl and could not be dislodged by all the usual methods! Toilet paper had got caught around the bone! And the toilet did not flush properly; sometimes not at all!
Ended up with everything disassembled, standing in the bath tub shaking the whole and completely detached toilet bowl, poking in the bottom with a bent wire coat hanger etc. until, eventually the bone was found and hooked out!
Reassembled the toilet using a new wax seal; by the way always keep one of them on hand because if the toilet blocks up and in our house it's the only one, it will usually be at 9.00 PM on a Saturday night of a long weekend. With the nearest plumbing outlet open the following Tuesday morning five miles away. After; stripped off and took a shower!
The reason I suggest adding the acid to the tank drain instead of just the bowl is that it might contact some build-up that would otherwise rest above the water line in the toilet. It's just pouring it in at the highest point.
I agree with your analysis of water to acid and not the other way around. Pouring in acid takes the water pH down gradually, eliminating sputtering from going the other way.
I was the building electrician at our married student housing complex during my University days. Unfortunately, they discovered I also did plumbing and I became the "man on call" 24/7 for plumbing emergencies. I didn't fight, since the pay was terrific for a student when making those emergency calls. However, the things I saw and pulled out of toilets should have never been seen by humans. There were always the feminine items, but for some reason there were also frequently male or female underpants filled to the brim, so to speak. Dunno why, but even in an apartment where some married couple lived, NOBODY had any idea how that loaded set of Haines got into the toilet. The strangest one was a sock filled with sh*t found in one of the public toilets off the lobby. I'm sure there was a story behind that one.
FWIW, the best snake to remove that type of plug was an electrical fish tape with the end tightly bent and made into a hook. I sacrificed about 4' of my fish tape and it became my first line of defense against those clogs.
See:
On Wed, 5 May 2010 19:50:12 -0700 (PDT), brit wrote Re toilet issues:
Is this an "issue" for you or a "problem". Since it seems to be an issue rather than a problem, don't worry about it.
"We" but not the person I replied to.
No, right from the start. You have one particular acid which you say is viscous. I gave a general rule for the mixing of acid and water. Add the acid to the water, not the other way around.** Your acid is no exception.
And how do you know the stratification problem you talk about isn't a problem because of the concentation ratios at the boundary betweeen layers?
**Why are so many usenet posters so eager to label someone else wrong, even when the first person is right and even when none of their information contradicts what the first person said? Just say, Okay, and then give your additional information.
Back when I was taking Chem Reactions I, the mantra was: "Do it like you oughtta; add the acid to the watah."
Always worked for me....
Jay
How old is the toilet in question ?
Have you installed a new float valve or tank baffles to reduce the toilet's water consumption...
Older toilets are designed to use more water when they flush and they NEED that water to start the siphon to clear the bowl...
Trying to adapt an older toilet to use less water without the right parts will mean an underfilled bowl (which means not enough water is in the bowl to start with) and not releasing enough water from the tank into the bowl during the flushing process...
You should either replace the toilet with a newer one if you are trying to reduce your water consumption OR seek out a plumber with the required skills and experience in converting older toilets to low consumption...
~~ Evan
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