quick toilet tip

[Goalpost]

In this case, it was my parent's toilet. They are in their 80s, and my dad used to fix a lot of things, but it's tougher now. So sometimes I get the call.

Their toilet could flush, but the water filled the bowl, and then emptied real slow. Plunger really didn't help much. The water just filled, and several minutes later it eventually slowly drained down. My mom was just going to get another toilet, call a plumber, etc but I said let me look at it first.

I went on-line. I frequently do this to get info on a DIY

What I found was to fix.....Things needed were a bucket, some hot water, and some Palmolive. That's it.

So I poured some HOT water out of the bucket into the toilet. And the bowl filled up, and didn't drain fast, but slowly drained down. Since I didn't flush it, the bowl didn't refill, the water level just got to low eventually

I took out some Palmolive and sprayed about 6 to 8 ounces into it. Then filled another bucket of hot water, poured it in, and to my surprise, it drained much faster. I let it sit for about 15 minutes where the hot water and Palmolive could just settle in the toilet's apparent snake design in there. Then poured about 4 or 5 more buckets of hot water down it. I think what's going on is the Palmolive is slippery and the hot water is loosening things. Have some patience to let the hot water sit in there, between adding new buckets...but this works. No plumber called, no toilet replaced. Toilet flushes fine now.

[masonbengals fan]

Internet & u-tube are powerful tools.

[SunsetBengal]

Was is hard water build up?

[HarleyDog]

Interesting to know. We have a toilet that clogs quite frequently. Plunger always does the trick, but may go ahead and use Palmolive as a preventative maintenance tool. I hate snaking. Scratches the bowl and always fear it will take a chink out of the donut and make it leak.

[jfkbengals]

Gravity makes the water through the trap, and the pressure of the water both pushes and siphons the waster through the trap with it. What I think is happening in your fix is two fold. First, the the surfactants in the soap are grabbing hold of the waste and water molecules. Now, instead of the water passing through/around the clogged and wedged waste, the water actually has hold of the waste and bits are broken free from the clog and are pulled down the drain. This is making the build up smaller. Secondly, I would think the hot water is causing thermal expansion of the pipe diameter, allowing more room for the water to do it's job and push the build up through the trap into the larger waste pipe These two actions together are combining for a quick, easy solution. The next time I develop a slow flush, I'm definitely going to try it out.

[Goalpost]

(10-29-2017, 01:37 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Was is hard water build up?

I don't know.  Could be.  Parent's house was built in the 30's.  I think the original toilet is still there.  But it is in good shape, clean and shiny with brass hardware that matches the sink.
I kind of hated to go the replacement route, although the hardware might have been swapped.  But yea, it could have been a symptom like that.  

[SunsetBengal]

(10-29-2017, 02:14 PM)Goalpost Wrote: I don't know.  Could be.  Parent's house was built in the 30's.  I think the original toilet is still there.  But it is in good shape, clean and shiny with brass hardware that matches the sink.
I kind of hated to go the replacement route, although the hardware might have been swapped.  But yea, it could have been a symptom like that.  

There is a cleaning product call "The Works", and it really does work well at removing hard water build up.  It's cheap, like a buck at Walmart.

Put half the bottle in the tank, the other half in the bowl, let it do it's magic.

[reuben.ahmed]

I thought this was going to be a tip of how to get to the toilet quicker when the need calls.