Blocked toilet (oh no, not again - sorry!)

[Jennie]

Apologies if you're just having your tea!

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet - it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets stuck in the 'throat' or bottom of the pan and doesn't get round the bend unless encouraged, ie by shoving the toilet brush at it, when it disappears with no problem. I've checked the following - what else?

Pressure of water entering the pan when it's flushed is slightly lower than average possibly, but not enough to make a difference, it still blocks when I throw a bucket of hot water in from a height too, it breaks the solids up a bit but doesn't shove them round.

I've prodded and pushed round the bend with my hand and with one of those corkscrew things on the end of a long cable (is this an augur?) There seems to be nothing there to cause a jam.

And surely a toilet pan couldn't have been made with an exit too small to allow normal human waste through it? It's called a Trent if that makes any difference.

What else could I check that might be preventing this from rounding the bend? As I said, once round the bend it disappears with no problem and the water level returns to normal, until the next time.

Ideas please someone

Thanks

[mcbrien410]

Perhaps your waste pipe is pressurising when the toilet is flushed. Are you on mains sewerage or a Septic tank? Do you have a vent pipe running up the side of the house? Is that blocked?

Once the toilet is clear can you put a hose pipe into the bowl and fill it or does it run away quickly without any increase in the height of water in the bowl?

Chris

[Rob Morley]

I've had that problem with a severely limescale-encrusted toilet - the limescale remover wasn't working properly around the bend, with the result that it was rough and slightly reduced in diameter. I bailed out the water, filled it with brick acid and left for a few hours, then flushed a couple of times before scrubbing around the bend with a scouring pad and a long-handled brush. I now occasionally stick a cup of brick acid in the water and leave it for a few hours before flushing, and the problem hasn't recurred.

[Andy Pandy]

I would suggest that there is no alternative but to remove the pan from the waste pipe and examine the pan and connector from the other direction.

If there is no ' artificial ' restriction that can be removed and the waste pipe is completely clear and correctly vented, then the only conclusion can be a poorly designed pan.

Andy

[Stuart Millington]

I get the same thing on occasion, but for a short term fix one of those "compressed air canisters with a foam rubber flange" fixes it when it happens (once every few months).

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Your checking the inside but what about the pipe outside. I had this problem some years ago with toilet constantly blocking up, turns out it was the toilet design was at fault, it was one of those altogther jobbies where the cistern sat directly on the loo and the flushing system was a bismal in force. Changed the system and hey-ho a problem solved. :-) The Viccy's had the right design with cistern half way up the wall. :-)

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Jennie]

Oh excellent, thank you so much for these replies, lots to try here. We're on septic tank so would rather not throw acid down, though limescale could be the problem. To answer Chris, once it's clear the water runs away fine, doesn't fill up at all when I use the shower (without rose) to hose it down etc. Unfortunately, unlike Stuart it happens a couple of times a week, if it was only occasionally it would be fine, but virtually every time it's used for solids it blocks. Sometimes it clears itself within an hour or so, otherwise it has to be assisted. Without assistance the longest I've left it blocked is 3 days as a trial. Then a quick shove cleared it and it was immediately free running again. We've only lived here a short while and it was like this from the beginning. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

[Al]

I know of a Trent Line toilet. It is not the common type, but a siphon type, which means the contents of the bowl get siphoned out at each flush, with the water-line going momentarily below its normal level under the influence of the siphon.

In order to get this siphon effect, the toilet output pipe has to be made with a part of it narrower than normal, making it more difficult for waste to get round the bend because of this narrowing. If there is a problem with flushing, one answer is to flush the toilet frequently when in use, so that a blockage in the narrow part does not happen, i.e. don't let a blockage build up.

I wonder if your toilet is of this design?

[<me9]

A problem with modern low flush toilets. If the throat is reduced to enable a smaller flush to work, *all* users of the facility need to be on a high fibre diet to enable stools to be 3 or higher on a bristol stool chart.

Is this why the govt. are encouraging a high fibre diet, so that two jag's building regs can work?

[Peter Stockdale]

Now you have mentioned you have a septic tank, I wonder if the problem does not lie further down the system. Could be worth a wee peep down your interceptor cover to check all is passing through properly. Ours blocks up every couplamonths and I have to rod it to clear. The tell tale sign with my system that things are going to need attention shortly, is an ominous gurgling noise from the downstairs looo, when the upstairs one is flushed.

Pete

[xscope]

Sorry - I had to do a google on "Bristol Stool Chart". I presumed it was something you'd made up on the spot.

But low and behold, it's a real deal medical reference.

Can you imagine the research that went into devising that??

= hard lumps likw nuts

2 = lumpy sausage 3 = sausage with cracked surface 4 = sausage with smooth surface 5 = soft blobs with well defined margins 6 = fluffy with ragged edges 7 = watery, no solid pieces

[Dave Fawthrop]

| On 11 Oct 2005 12:25:19 -0700, "Jennie" wrote: | | >Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet - | >it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets | | I get the same thing on occasion, but for a short term fix one of | those "compressed air canisters with a foam rubber flange" fixes it | when it happens (once every few months).

Plunger is cheaper and IME works just as well.

[Alan]

So, which one is the British Standard jobbie used for testing toilets then?

I have to agree with the flush often comment above, our previous homebase 'cheapie' toilet had a narrow outlet, combined with a plastic right-angle connector made the outlet even narrower. 'Flush before you wipe' is the best advice, a mass of wet toilet paper combined with a lot of 'solids' is probably the problem.

[Matt]

......and some thought Dr Drivel had an exclusive licence to talk shit in here.

[Tony Bryer]

and not called The Thunderer or Niagara for nothing

[Geo]

Think mine would too if I only used it twice a week.

Geo

[Phil]

Use cheaper toilet paper - breaks down faster in water.

[Steve Walker]

Don't forget the famous "Barium Variant" :

0 = 12" section of concrete post

[mcbrien410]

If you are running out of ideas and ways to prove things, are you able to drill say a 1/16th. inch diameter hole in the soil pipe, preferably near the ground and see if air rushes out before the water and waste reaches that hole. This may help to locate a section of pipe where the blockage is. Plug the hole afterwards with a small screw or mastic.

Chris.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "xscope" saying something like:

Hmmm... Normally 3 and 4 for me, but I had a 5 this morning.