any plumber's?

lchmb

Any plumber's here who can help me with a plumbing issue?

Steve_35

We do some but don't generally admit it.

What's the problem? Perhaps I can help.

oil-2-4-6-gas

#@it flows downhill and don't bite your fingernails

jim lockard

??

Indoor or Outdoor??

Sweet

??

Both,one just finds its destination a little sooner.Dont forget pay days on friday.

Weezbo

*~/:)

Pay days runs down hill and Oh! Sh*%#! Its THursday.! Well i never did Trust anyone who knew what day it is.

Mark Eatherton1

Pay day's are on the first and the fifteenth....

and that's NEVER a Friday, and we've got pumps that will pump $4!T up any hill you got mister...

Wathcer qwestion...

ME

lchmb

sorry

posted this then ended up out all night on call's..sorry..Problem is with a toilet. Not plugged but when it flush's the bowl fill's almost to the top with water? Seem's like their's nothing to drive the water down? I do heating system's so maybe I should just call a plumber....Although my kid's about knocked the toilet off the wall in a wrestling match so I think they messed something up...

Jon_2

Venting problem

Check the vent on the roof. If it is blocked or plugged it won't let gravity do it's task. Jon

Mark Hunt

Sounds like


there is something stuck in there.

The water in the bowl rises to a point where it has to go down and a syphon is formed. Unless something is blocking it, I can't think of another reason why it would do that. Might not be enough to cause it to overflow, but enough to slow the flow down.

I installed a Toto toilet in my home a few years ago. You can flush 12 golf balls down it and it won't clog.( we had an operating display at a homeshow once. The kids loved it!) Well, I can say that while 12 golf balls won't clog a Toto, one 9" tall spiderman doll will. My then 5 year old proved it.

Hope this helps.

Mark H

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Sweet

Toilet

Ah the anticipation was killing me.Depending on type of toilet you have Im guessing the siphon jet hole or the little holes up under the under side of bowl might be plugged with something,(hard water chlorine tablet). Take inspection mirror and put an eye on er. Does the toilet eventually empty part or all of water in bowl If left alone?If so check main line.

lchmb

ok...

The thing that confuses me is if I dump two gallon's of water into it she take's right off. I did check the venting like someone mentioned and that's clear. I'll get a snake and see if I can run it through. I feel sorry for the spiderman doll...what a way to go..LOL

Mellow_2

Look for the big white mint

If you put the round bleach pucks into the back of the toylet it can block the bowl hole. In the bowl there is a hole in the front that helps push and as the bleach tab disolves it can get sucked in to that hole. The bowl will flush sometimes but not others. You can try to clean the hole and see if it improves. I know of a bowl that still has a coin in it and it can block the hole sometimes. good luck

Steve_35

Is this a new problem?

If it is, could they have moved it enough so the toilet hole isn't lined up with the drain hole? Has the wax ring moved in the way?

If it's been a bit slow but gotten worse do you have hard water? All the water comes in through the small holes under the rim. They start blocking off with minerals slowing the flow of water into the toilet giving the symptom you're describing. A couple quarts of acid down the overflow, about 1/2 cup at a time & wait 10 minutes between putting each 1/2 cup in, will clear them out. Make sure you have decent ventilation and wear some protection.

You've either got some sort of blockage or plugged holes. My guess would be the plugged holes. That's why the toilet flushes when you dump water directly into it.

Leo

Mine did something similar

My wife had to open the tank because the mechanism stuck. After that it didn't flush right, same symptoms as yours. It ended up being a tube came out of place inside the tank. Given yours was a victim of a wrestling match something similar could have happened.

Leo

jackchips_2

I've pulled

round covers from jars out of the bottom of toilets that would not go through and then act as revolving baffles. They'll stay there until taken out.

I won't go into the "other" things that could cause the same thing. You probably have to pull the toilet and turn it upside down to correct the problem.

Good luck

Mad Dog

Yes, also toilet bank tank deodorizes

and minerals in the water can clog of the ports where the water enters the bowl - clean them with a thin wire. Mad Dog

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Kal Row

get yourself a new wax seal.. and take it off..only way

you can talk and guess until your blue in the face, just do it, it it's not an old problem then something is stuck there, all it takes is a Qtip stuck on the wax seal and a bunch of tissues hanging on it

- tips:

have new tank bolts handy as you might have to hacksaw through the old ones

have tub/time calk handy

have toilet shimms handy

have towles handy

if you have a shopvac - do vacum out the thank and bowl, you will be glad you did,

if there is no shutoff at the toilet - now is a good time to install one

if the valve is bad, take the guts from a new valve and put it in to the old body - it's easiest

do install a flexi feed hose



when you reinstall, keep rocking the toilet back and forth to seat it as you tighten the bolts - DONT OVERTIGHTEN!!!

if you have to cut down the new bolts - then first put the nuts on past the cut point so that you can uncrew and repair the cut threads

buy the bolts with the slotted plastic washers to hold them in place

peice of cake - but time consuming - unless the plumber gets in and out in less than 1 hr or charges ther full 140 per hour spent, he is loosing money - thats why we are so hard to get for this

rich pickering

If you dump the water in and it works, odds are the problem is between the tank and the bowl.
A full tank of water, which means water to the top of the overflow, is needed to get the water flowing fast enough to start the siphon and the full volume of the tank is needed to clear the bowl properly.

John Shea

I agree with rich

a certain amount of water is required. Especially on those 1.6 gallon jobs. Make sure the float on the ballcock is letting the tank fill completely. There's usually a water line marked inside the tank.

Canuck

Geeze Louise

I've heard it all - I've seen it all. CD's, cassettes, wood caps from old English Leather cologne bottles, toothpicks, pens, pencils, Q-Tips, feminine products (white mice), fish from the aquarium, false teeth, bowel movements that could sink a battleship - it was my wife.... no it wasn't....yes it was, see, you had Doritos last night, combs, brushes, razors, toothbrushes (is it OK to still use this?), catlitter, yesterdays dinner scraps, apples (ooooh I hate apples in the hopper), too much paper, waaaay too much paper, diapers, watches (look honey - it's still ticking), rags, water bottles, Grandma used it last and she needs more fiber in her diet, Hobo turds, hair, potting soil, the water's real hard around here - there used to be this little hole but now it's gone, cigarette butts, make-up cases, drywall compound, grout, wood (yeah - and we just had the bathroom renovated too), grease, toys, toys, and more toys, decks of cards, the TV remote control, hand towels, notebooks, lighters, matches, zip lock bags, blahblahblahblahblahblahblah.

Let me let you in on a little secret. The best way for you to get a good night's sleep and have the comfort of knowing that you'll have a user friendly toilet in the morning is to take the one you've got, throw it out the window, buy yourself a new one along with a new key lock for the washroom door, install both, and announce to the household that only you can use the new crapper! That way you will always know what's gone into the unit and why it might not be working right.

Have a safe and happy holiday everyone!

Mark Eatherton1

On older 3.5 GPF units...

like mine, if the fill level is not correct, the bowl doesn't refill to a proper level, and it won't siphon the bowl empty every time. Whoda thunk something so simple could be so delicate and complicated...

When I was still doing service plumbing (a hundred or so years ago..) we had a miracle formula that we poured into the overflow tube of the tank that cleared the lime from the rim and jet ways. I think it was called Lime-a-way or something like that. Mild muriatic acid if I recall correctly. Don't quote me though, it's been a hundred years.

ME

ScottMP

Thats just what I was going to say ..

> My wife had to open the tank because the

> mechanism stuck. After that it didn't flush

> right, same symptoms as yours. It ended up being

> a tube came out of place inside the tank. Given

> yours was a victim of a wrestling match something

> similar could have happened.

>

> Leo





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ScottMP

Thats just what I was going to say ..

> My wife had to open the tank because the

> mechanism stuck. After that it didn't flush

> right, same symptoms as yours. It ended up being

> a tube came out of place inside the tank. Given

> yours was a victim of a wrestling match something

> similar could have happened.

>

> Leo





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ScottMP

Thats just what I was going to say ..

Before you go pulling the WC , check the refill tube in the tank. This is the small tube that goes from the Ballcock to the over flow tube.

Scott

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jerry scharf_2

And it wasn't even Friday

what a crew. I laughed way too hard.

jerry

Plumdog

Emergency callout; guy dropped $325.00 prescription wire rim sunglasses in while the thing was flushing. Got them out without a scratch or bend, guy washes em off, puts em on his face and says thanks a whole lot. Your welcome.

Tom_41

toilet

If the toilet flushes with water poured into the bowl, the problem is usually the delivery system to the bowl from the tank. Does it flush with no load? If not, the bowl water system is clogged. Is this a wall mount? Should not make a difference if a tank and bowl type. Have replaced many with this problem over the years.
Hope this helps.
Tom

Mark Hunt

Plumbing calls


Well as long as we're going down this road.

Got a call once for a backed-up toilet. Arrived at the house and the teenage son answers the door. He was cleaning the auarium and a very expensive and rather large fish fell into the bowl. The fish swam in further and he couldn't reach it so...........he flushed. The fish got caught sideways and was jammed. I told him that there was no way I could save the fish, He said he didn;t care, he just wanted the toilet fixed. So I fixed it. Whne I gave him the bill, he counted out what he had in cash and then went upstairs. I hear "SMASH!!!!!!" Kid comes down with the rest in quarters, dimes, and nickles. He REALLY didn't want his folks to know what happened, so he busted his piggy bank!!!!

Oh what fun!

Mark H

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John Shea

He's not heavy, he's just my tenant.

One particular tenant (a couple) in our apartment building has a combined weight of probably 650-700lbs. Needless to say, no matter what we do, we are replacing the wax ring on this toilet at least twice a year!!

I guess it's true what a study showed about our wonderful city of Detroit. We are the 'fattest' city in the nation.

Fortunately we almost never have any other problems, since these are old SLOAN valve-type toilets.

soot_seeker_2

i had this exact problem

i had this exact problem a few years ago.

ran the snake in there and lo & behold pulled out a child's toothbrush.

my guess is something fell in.

ss

ScottMP

False Teeth

O.K. since we started down this road.

My elderly next door nieghbor, who enjoyed his drink. called that he had flushed his false teeth down the drain and thier were caught.

I came over and pulled the toilet and there thier where, caught on the horn of the bowl. I got my channellocks (the plumbers third hand ) and got them out.

He took them in his hand and as I started to clean off the flange for the new wax ring, he started to washing them off in the lav. I thought " No he is'nt going to, he would'nt, should I say something ".

I watched in horror as he popped them back in ......



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Constantin

Have you tried waxless rings?

I'm reading about them and wonder if they don't make a lot more sense. Removable, reusable, not affected by heat, etc.

Maine doug_3

Waxless rings

I used them so we could put pex all around the base to keep feet warm during the middle of the night trips. On the main floor, without floor heat, the wax ring toilet was the only one that leaked.

lchmb

To all

I thank you all for your information. Having today off I decided to fix the (*&#@%$#^%# thing...:) I had what I thought I would need, ring and tank gasket, replacement bolt's and all. Took it all apart and found absolutely nothing. I have to admit, frustration at this point got the best of me and my 5 lb sledge hammer did a very nasty job on the poor thing....:( Having gone to my local supply house and purchased a toilet (boy they are not cheap) I now have a very shiny new toilet!! Now if I could just get my wife to stop laughing....Happy holiday's to everyone. As to you plumber's out there, my god you can keep that job!!!!

Kal Row

ok, is it ok now?

Kal Row

lchmb

sure is

push that nice new handle and all my troubles go away!! Couldn't do that job for a living....:(

ScottMP

You should have been with me

The first time I was an apprentice and we pulled a toilet.

He looked at the old brown wax gasket and said "scrape that off ".

I said " what is it ? "

Realizing I had never done this before he said with a smile " What do you Think it is ? "

I said " EEEEUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHH, I'm not touching that "

Live and learn.

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lchmb

was kinda thinking

I was thinking along the same line when I pulled it off. Thing that kill's me is a new toilet doesn't fit in the same shoe print as the old. Now I have to redo all of the wood trim around the toilet....Yay, does it ever end. New one ended up 1" away from the wall, old one set tight to it...go figure...Thank's for all the help though!!