A month ago (8/30/05) I posted the following message. I had a few replies, all good suggestions, thank you very much. The problem is resolved. See below the message for the summary. Starting a new thread so maybe it can be read by the people that helped me.
Here in our condo we own the toilet because it is not "original". We do > not
> own the plumbing behind the wall or under the floor. Condo maintenance's
> main job is to insure that all problems are the owner's problem only, > never
> theirs.
>
> This is an ongoing problem for weeks now. The toilet will seem fine then
> be plugged. Usually what happens is I use it in the morning before work,
> errrrrr use it kina "heavily". One or two flushes later it seems fine.
> Off I go to work, wife goes to use it & WHAM it's plugged & requires
> vigorous plunging.
>
> Once when it was "slow" I rented a closet auger & reamed it for a while,
> feeling no obstructions & it had no effect on the problem. Our Condo
> maintenance guy claims it is the toilet. We called in a company that
> quoted 24/7 service at reasonable prices. The guy did not seem to be a
> plumber to me, just a hard worker. For surprisingly cheap $130.00 he > spent
> about 30 minutes using a closet auger & a plunger & got it flushing > normally
> again. I am unsure if the reaming did anything as he also plunged like a > maniac.
>
> The toilet became plugged a few days later.
>
> All the reaming I do does nothing. Only plunging seems to help. When > it
> is working, it flushes well, swirls & everything goes down in a single
> flush. After "heavy use" a plug does not show for a couple flushes. >
> Question:
> In a professional plumber's opinion, is this some sort of toilet issue or > an
> obstruction downstream?
>
The main thing was to pull the toilet. So I got my wax ring & "a no-burst braided supply line" as recommended. I got one of them "polymer braided" hoses from Home Depot. I am surprised to see the stainless steel braided hoses as I have seen what chlorine can do to stainless steel. My wife is a bit of a germaphobe & uses lots of bleach on the bathroom floor (& a whole lot of other places). Hard to believe that they are using stainless in this application.
Had to replace the guts on the water stop, 35 years old & frozen on. Pulled the toilet. Poured 5 gals of water down the hole. No problem. Damned if it ain't the toilet. Wife tells me she wants a new toilet. So this time I go to Lowe's as it was closer & they got one on sale. I get it all out of the box & take the tank off the old one & toss it, pour what water was left in the old bowl down the hole.. Then & only then do I actually LOOK up into the outlet hole on the old bowl. There, right there stuck at the outlet, is what looks like an old black flapper thing from the inside of a toilet tank. Must of been there since we moved in. Obviously, the closet auger was able to push right past it then it would re-seat itself just enough to slow the flow down to a crawl.
I decided to just go ahead with the new toilet rather than trying to get it all back into the tore up packaging & return it. I could have saved the $100 by re-installing the old throne, but what the hell, as long as my wife is happy. New toilet is not bad at all, a surprisingly good flush for a low water throne. The way the tank could rock with only the 2 bolts holding it was scary but once it filled with water it was solid.
Anyhow, thanks all for your suggestions.