My main toilet was 100% clogged for about 3 days. I tried plunging it, but to no avail. I let the water in the bowl sit for a whole day and it didn't drain a single inch. I went to the store to buy Drano, but the back of the bottle says that it's not for use in toilets. The problem with using Drano in toilets is that the Drano can't get to the clog due to the trap design; I knew that if I could find a way to deliver the Drano to the clog, I'd be home free.
Note the winding path that the water has to follow when the toilet is flushed.What to do? I thought of 3 options:
1. Pour in lots of Drano. If I could fill the bowl with Drano it would overflow into the trap below. This would probably take quite a bit of Drano, and I only bought one bottle.
2. Use a length of rubber hose to get the Drano through the trap. By pushing the hose down into the drain of the toilet and through the trap, I would be able to then pour the Drano down directly into the pipes. I expect that this would have worked quite handily, but I didn't have a suitable hose.
3. Apply the one bottle of Drano that I already had, and then plunge it down to the clog. I knew this would be the easiest method, but also the most dangerous. Drano's active ingredient is sodium hydroxide and it has a pH of around 13; if you've got enough to fill a bathtub, you can dissolve a whole human body in a few hours and it'll go right down the drain.
I decided to go with option 3. Normally when you plunge a toilet you want to try to pull the clog towards you (i.e., you use more force pulling the plunger up than pushing it down), but since I wanted to move the Drano to the trap I did the opposite. Insert Drano; plunge plunge plunge. Within a few minutes, the drain was clear! Huzzah!
As an added bonus, my toilet was incredibly clean from all the Drano sloshing around inside. In the future, I may use Drano to clean all my hard surfaces.
Honestly, this is one of the best blog entries I have ever seen.
Minus option #4. Eat less Mexican food.
Ever? Seriously? Wow, maybe I've found my niche... I can write about all the minor repairs I perform on my house!
And eating less Mexican food is never an option.
Yeah, seriously, this is California! We pay a heavy price for living here, so don't deprive us of the cuisines that make up our major benefits package!
Dude that is awesome. hooray for practicality! I'm gonna print this out.
i can't believe i actually looked up plugged toilets but it is a big deal when you have one. now i can't believe someone took the time to post this information but i'm so glad you did - after spending $25 on snakes we're headed to the store for drano. thanks.
WOW, Betty summed up my feelings 2-a-T! :)
Who has time to think about clogged crappers when there are so many things to worry and think about during the day? No one...no one that doesn't have a clogged toilet that is. I'm amazing how quickly my toilet has managed to jump to my mental foreground.
Thanks for the advice Mike, very helpful! :)
i have a basement toilet old american standard the bowl water turns black like dirty car oil this occurs in 3-4 days with out using ,i ve had 2 plumbers out they snaked the pipes and checked the flow ,said it was good ,the last fellow said the black junk is not sewer waste but some reaction with the toilet.the water in the tank is clear ,if i add some bleach to tank and bowl after a flush the process is delayed a few more days .plumber said replace toilet ,any idea wasup? thanks john
john: I have no idea. I think it's likely that there's a monster in your toilet.
hi mike;thanks for posting my question about the monster in my toilet---anyway i like the new site makeover --im gonna be all over the place -but here go's--can you imagine the money the us will make selling the iraqs computers -cell phones-and cars and cable? --as far as your gun rights ,fight it all the way ! im a ccw here in phila ,at least the city knew that the cops would take forever to get to any one,so your kinda on your own out here,need any gun or ammo advice please feel free to e mail me as iv'e been shooting for 40yrs now--as far as cds if you want my favorites try [evil roy slade] [only released on tape] the[ producers ]- [pope of greenwhich village ]-[history of the world]-[snatch]-[lock stock and two barrels smoking][the end] thanks for you open forum john
Whoa, thanks for the tip. God willing, my toilet will run free again.
The water in my toilet bowl slowly runs out, leaving about 1/2 of the water in the bowl. What could be causing this problem?
Thanks!!
Ha, nice page.
I won't tell you I got here by searching Google for 'dissolve body bathtub drano'. Heh heh. Sickos.
:)
I have tried just about everything. I plunged, I snaked, I even took off the toilet and snaked the other direction (found a toy, a ballon and I don't know what!). I unclogged it that way for a day. Now same problem. I will try the draino, thanks. If that doen't work I will have to call a plumber. :(
The draino worked...hurray! Now it just isn't flushing as powerful...any ideas? Thanks
Brilliant! I just Googled onto this page after dumping a bottle of Draino into the mother of all toilet clogs (think Saddam is happy that, even though he's been deposed and his sons killed and he'll be swinging from a democratic noose soon enough, at least he contributed the "mother of all X" phrase to American slang? Me neither). Over three days the clog had resisted the plunger, auger, and (passive-aggressive mode) enough time that it should have gotten saturated and fallen apart by itself. Anyway, you nailed it. A bottle of Draino, some added water, and lots of plunging, and away go troubles down the drain. I thought I was going to have to get a plumber in here, which would have been cause to lose my Tim Taylor Fan Club card. Thank you!!!
PS, just from looking around the rest of your site - CCW rules. And, the lesser of two evils is still evil - vote libertarian!
Oh my ... Thank you .. It worked...
I wonder
Is there an EPA reason I should not have poured the entire bottle into my septic tank? I guess it all goes down the drain somewhere.
Andy
great Tip, thanks, I gooogled on to here. Trying it as we speak. Will let you know if it works.
I woke up to a clogged toilet, got online found this website, read your tip, went out bought the draino. It took less than 15 minutes for my toilet to be clog free! Thanks a million.
I have a toilet that has warm to hot water in it.I know that can't be good for it. It was fine for the first 8 years and now all of a sudden I have bath water in my toilet??? I don't get I hope you do.
I had a major clog, the forced drano pluger tactic with about 2 gallons of boiling water
was the only thing to break it up.
It was about 1-2 lbs of moldy chicken breast that was lost in the back of the fridge, and a lot of cooked peppers.
Note to self, do not flush chicken.
The best part was when the woman flushed the toilet at 2:45am and it overflowed.... you get the picture
Thanks again,
Autvincere
Thanks for the Draino tip- going out to get some now. Stupid toilet has been blocked on and off since some crap-head used my toilet at a party I had last week.
I'm glad the Drano thing worked for you guys, but I want to mention something that everyone should consider when using Drano in a clogged toilet. Like everyone else I had a clogged toilet, I poured Drano in ( even though it said not to use for a clogged toilet ) I went to get a plunger.....and guess what happened? The toilet bowl cracked! I called a plumber friend and he says "what did you expect?". Apparently Drano gets extremely hot when it starts working and I guess that is what caused the bowl to crack. Now, this happened about 10 years ago, maybe Drano isn't as powerful as it used to be or maybe if I had plunged it right away as soon as I poured it in, the bowl might not have cracked. I don't know, but I have never used Drano to unclog a toilet since. Something to be aware of.
Hi, I would like to tell your reader that if they wanted a new idea in opening the drain on toilets, come to my web site. I would also encourage you to tell your reader about this new tool that uses a different principal then the plunger. It will not damage the china, nor will it melt the wax seals. Toiletta also will pick up itesm as small as a dime. Sanitizes in seconds and come with matching hanger that attaches to the toilet. Toiletta saves water and chemicals while preventing overflows and property damage. it comes in 20 colors, and ask about our free shipping. Your people will never know unless you tell them. Sincerely Nancy
My son flushed a plastic hippo down our toilet last night. we have tried the plugger, snake, dish liquid, and have even taken the toilet out of the bathroom and tried everything in reverse. so far no good. does anyone have any suggestions on how to help. This is a farly new toilet and I just don't have the money to replace it now.
Thanks
Items that fall into the toilet always pose a damage problem. This is especially true when a plunger is used to force the object through.
Toilet removal requires wax seal replacement so make sure you have one on hand. The rubber seals on the supply line and tank may be age hardened and also require replacement. Toilets are designed to plug at the opening, with the passage narrower after the initial opening. This helps major line obstructions that can occur out of visible range. Forcing an obstruction through from top to bottom could damage your new toilet.
Toiletta should be your first choice should be to remove item dropped into the toilet before they get lodged in the drain. This process is quick and easy if it has not been wedged by force into the drain. Toiletta is able to remove dime size items up to air fresheners’ cell phone and children’s toys.
When something is wedged into the toilet, the object is best removed by placing a small cord around the object. This can be done with skill and a Toiletta to get it started around, and then retrieve the cord end back to tie around the object. This will give you a noose around the lodged item. Make sure you have a good knot. Make sure the cord is long enough to wrap it around a broom handle to provide the force needed to move the object. With the knot secured, and enough wraps on the broom handle to make a good force full pull with both hands with added detergent to the toilet. That is a problem we hear about all the time, and why we recommend having a Toiletta on hand. Have faith.
Hey! I just wanted to thank you for the advice! I had already went out and bought drano and poured it on in, before thinking maybe that was a bad, bad thing. But it worked, a little hot water and a couple of plunges, and it's better than it had been before. I feel like I've accomplished something great! LOL! Thanks again!
It worked! I was skeptical b/c I tried just plunging and the pouring water trick but after reading and desperate-I tried it- I poured a bottle of draino and plunged for what seemed like forever (although I'd never really used a plunger but I've seen someone use one) and I flushed and it didn't work so I plunged some more and flushed and it still didn't work but after plunging about 100x's more and trying to flush just one more time it actually worked perfectly! Yea! I hope it lasts for awhile.
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can anyone help toilet upstairs full to brim with dirty water from urine wont flush tryed plunging it any ideas please would it be the manhole out side there seems to be water gushing out of seam behind toilet when i flush out side toilet no problems thanks