Sluggish toilet mystery, round 2, expert help needed.

[Gary Fowler]

I had one that would flush slow and sometimes stop up. I ran a rotor rooter thru the line (after removing the toilet), poured buckets of water thru the drain, no problem. Put the toilet back on and it would flush ok with water but then after use it would stop up. After a couple if days of fighting this, I took the toilet bowl outside and using a hose to back flush it and prod into the S turn, I found some wax particles floating out.. I got about a cup of wax out of the commode by pushing a hose in from top and bottom and prodding around to break up the wax.
Found out that mother in law had poured a bunch of hot wax into the commode while it was flushing and it had solidified in the s turn. I would flush ok with water but any paper and it would clog.

 

[Loadstar]

There are valves within the toilet you cannot see without taking the toilet apart.

Dooo what?

 

[paulharvey]

Forty years is REALLY OLD for any gravity feed mechanical device with multiple organic rubber seals and gaskets.

Buy a new toilet.

Display the old toilet in your yard.

Strongly disagree. Any new toilet is going to be a low water use toilet. I would pull toilet and rod out drain. While it's off, CLR the old toilet and reinstall.

 

[orezok]

Being a licensed contractor for 35+ years, I agree that there typically no valves in the waste portion of the toilet, but I have built a sub-division where we had to install backflow valves at the P/L of each house lateral. The mains in that area would get overloaded and cause a backup into the individual residences. Talk about a mess.

 

[paulharvey]

Being a licensed contractor for 35+ years, I agree that there typically no valves in the waste portion of the toilet, but I have built a sub-division where we had to install backflow valves at the P/L of each house lateral. The mains in that area would get overloaded and cause a backup into the individual residences. Talk about a mess.

Yeah, if the home is less than 6" higher than the rim of the closest down stream man hole (edit: might be any home with a slab lower than UP stream man hole rim, been a while, and may vary between utilitys). They frequently cause problems, and are on the home owners side: ie call a plumber not the city. I assume this doesn't effect the OP because he said cabin; doubt a cabin is hooked up to a public waste water collection system

 

[N80]

Okay, lots of good thought here. Just to clarify, there is no problem with water from the tank making it into the bowl. Even when it is flushing slow the water from the tank fills the bowl quickly. So it has to be something within the S turn or in the drain line immediately below the toilet.

Mineral deposits are a big problem in this house. Water heater literally filling up with large rock like mineral accumulations. The toilet bowl is crusted with mineral deposits until my wife scours it out. So here is my theory: The S turn is getting coated with these deposits. Plain water can usually flush easily but just paper will slow it down, probably from the drag of the rough mineral deposits in the S turn.

Regardless, I see no alternative to removing the toilet. If it is an obstruction in the S pipe, I'll get it out. If it is an obstruction below the toilet in the main down pipe, I'll get it out. If the S pipe is crusted with minerals I'll probably ditch the toilet and get a new one unless I can get it clear with CLR or whatever.

If I can't find anything I may just replace to toilet and see what happens. If none of this works I may just burn the place down for the insurance.

Question: If I put in a new low flow toilet is the existing DWV system adequate? In other words, does the pitch of the main line down to the septic tank need to be altered since less water will be carrying...the load, so to speak....down the pipe?

 

[SPIKER]

It depends, I posted above how my old place was like yours, calcium and lime would build up in the toilets AS WELL AS filling the lines below the fixtures. ALL of the DWV lines that were WET would fill up not so much with SLUDGE but MINERALS like stalagmites inside of the lines. some 15 years ago now (I sold the place) we cut it all loose and knocked the calcium out of the lines filled 3 or 4ea 5 gallon buckets full of it the thickest stuff was 1"+ thick and tapered up the sides of the horizontal lines. The one down stairs toilet that wasn't flushing it's line was 2/3 of what it SHOULD have been in inside dia due to this.
FYI we dropped the lines on the concrete to break up the buildup, then tipped it up into bucket. Really odd how the minerals condensed and built up on the inside of the wet lines.


Mark

 

[pmsmechanic]

Okay, lots of good thought here. Just to clarify, there is no problem with water from the tank making it into the bowl. Even when it is flushing slow the water from the tank fills the bowl quickly. So it has to be something within the S turn or in the drain line immediately below the toilet.

Mineral deposits are a big problem in this house. Water heater literally filling up with large rock like mineral accumulations. The toilet bowl is crusted with mineral deposits until my wife scours it out. So here is my theory: The S turn is getting coated with these deposits. Plain water can usually flush easily but just paper will slow it down, probably from the drag of the rough mineral deposits in the S turn.

Regardless, I see no alternative to removing the toilet. If it is an obstruction in the S pipe, I'll get it out. If it is an obstruction below the toilet in the main down pipe, I'll get it out. If the S pipe is crusted with minerals I'll probably ditch the toilet and get a new one unless I can get it clear with CLR or whatever.

If I can't find anything I may just replace to toilet and see what happens. If none of this works I may just burn the place down for the insurance.

Question: If I put in a new low flow toilet is the existing DWV system adequate? In other words, does the pitch of the main line down to the septic tank need to be altered since less water will be carrying...the load, so to speak....down the pipe?

This is the same problem we have with our water. Honestly just save your self a lot of work and buy a gallon of muriatic acid and let it sit in the bowl for a few hours. As it works you will notice the "water level" in the toilet dropping as the acid eats away at the mineral deposits in the S pipe. It took several times doing this over a year before the toilet flushed like new but after the first time you will notice a big improvement if indeed your problem is minerals in the S pipe.

 

[TomSeller]

Lots of years of hard living and solid waste disposal being expanded upon here. A lot of well thought out ideas developed after serious hours of sitting and contemplating.

 

[Boiler74]

I own and manage about 100 student rental units. Lots of toilets. We had a toilet mystery once. Toilet would clog with any solid material but would pass water well when flushed with only liquid. Snaked it many times. No joy. We finally pulled the dang thing, put on the long gloves and explored. Pulled out lots of Q-tips. The tenant threw them in the toilet each day and they caught just right in the trap. The snake would punch right through them, water would flow right through, but solids got stopped.

I've pulled lots of things out of toilets. If it isn't mineral deposits, it's a foreign object. Just pull it and you'll find your problem.