Sluggish toilet mystery, round 2, expert help needed.

[EddieWalker]

My current favorite brand for toilets is the Jacuzzi brand. This is the only brand that I've installed that I never hear any complaints from my clients, and I install quite a few toilets every year. I have a Crane commercial toilet in my house and it's nothing to brag about. One day I'll replace it with a Jacuzzi one. I've read great reviews of Toto, especially about their glazing process and how nothing sticks to it, but the few that I've seen in higher end homes haven't impressed me.

Eddie

 

[N80]

I went to the cabin yesterday. Toilet flushing a little sluggish but everything going down. I plunge it a few times and then go into the attic with the shop vac with the hose on the vacuum outlet and blow out the vent stack. Toilet flushes fine all day long. Yee ha. Get up this morning and it would barely flush. The dang thing has got a demon. I think an exorcist would be more handy than a plumber.

Anyway, next weekend I'm going to buy a new toilet and take it down there. Pull the old one and see what I can find. If I find a clear cut cause I'll put the old one back and return the new one. If I find nothing, I'll put the new one in.

If everything between the hole and the floor and the septic tank is normal and the new one does not flush right I'm out of ideas.

 

[SPIKER]

Have you checked the level of the pipes running away from it.? Just a small drop is all that is needed but sometimes the floor sag (imperceptible to most) can cause this too. Or just a bit of build up in the lines etc.


Mansfield Brand of toilets also has 100% glazed traps and updated low flush or pressure flush designs along with dual flush units. I worked there for 4 years, got a couple stashed for NEW installs when I need them

Mark

 

[MossRoad]

You could have a water pool blocking your vent?

I know when we bought this house, the toilet worked fine, but the bathroom sink and tub would not drain very fast in the winter. I finally figured out that the main vent for the sink and tub had not been secured very well and had slipped down about 2", which caused a pool of water to form in the pipe at the bend where it turned to go up. In winter, cold air would freeze the pool of water, blocking the vent. In summer, air could gurgle past the pool. I had to make a screw jack of sorts, and slowly lift the vent stack up over the course of a few week, so as not to crack the pipe. I'd just give it half a turn every day in the summer for a few weeks until it was raised back to a proper slope so water would run down the pipe instead of pooling in it.

Anyhow, just one more thing to think about.... check the slope of your pipes.

 

[MossRoad]

Have you checked the level of the pipes running away from it.? Just a small drop is all that is needed but sometimes the floor sag (imperceptible to most) can cause this too. Or just a bit of build up in the lines etc.


Mansfield Brand of toilets also has 100% glazed traps and updated low flush or pressure flush designs along with dual flush units. I worked there for 4 years, got a couple stashed for NEW installs when I need them

Mark

Well, it appears I was typing while you were replying! :laughing:

 

[Don H]

Standard pipe pitch for drains is 1/8" per foot of run. So a 12' length of run should drop a total of 1-1/2" (1/8" X 12").

 

[Pixguy]

Standard pipe pitch for drains is 1/8" per foot of run. So a 12' length of run should drop a total of 1-1/2" (1/8" X 12").

Don't you mean 12/16ths or 3/4's " ?

 

[N80]

I got the pitch of the main right. As mentioned, I put a full sized clean out at the end and I checked it, twice. Main line is clean as a whistle. The cabin is 10 years old now and other than the single episode with the Studor vent, all plumbing has worked perfectly until this. I'm not a plumber and I do not like plumbing but I spent a lot of time sketching, mocking up and then installing the DWV system. It was much harder than the supply side of the plumbing and I've been sort of proud that it worked at all, much less 10 years.

(Of course it seemed difficult to someone with no previous plumbing experience, but it is a very simple system: well, tank, water heater, one bathtub, one toilet, one bathroom sink, one kitchen sink.)

 

[PILOON]

Blocked stack vents also can cause problems.
Once found a vent that employed a lengthy lateral run that sloped wrong way and accumulated enough water that froze and prevented sink draining and toilet flushing.
Also found stack vents full of pine needles leaves etc.
When a toilet flushes it takes a big gulp of air for it to function properly. In winter the vent occasionally frosts itself closed.
Code actually calls for 2 stack vents in some areas.

 

[Don H]

Don't you mean 12/16ths or 3/4's " ?

Yep, you are correct!