Toilet clogs easily—when is it time to call a plumber?

One toilet in the house acts differently than the rest. It bogs down and clogs/flushes slowly with little provocation. Sometimes it just takes a second flush to slowly clear the lines, sometimes we need to wait a while, then try the second flush, and occasionally it needs a couple quick plunges to clear it (by ‘quick plunges’ I mean it never takes real effort, just a little push).
I’ve changed the flapper valve to make sure there is sufficient water entering the bowl, and looked at the jets on the underside to make sure water is coming in fast enough. I’ve used a toilet auger several times as deep as it will go (and auged along the auger’s length), but there has been no change. I made an appointment to empty the septic tank early next week (it was last pumped six years ago, but for four years there were only two of us in a 3-bedroom house). Lastly, I’ve made sure everyone increased their fibre intake.

Other toilets have the typical temperament of a 1.5gpf unit, but this one is a little more sensitive.

Anything else to try before calling in a plumber? Wait until after the tank has been emptied?

Is it the same brand as all the other toilets? How level is it? I installed a low flow toilet in a room where the floor was sloped. It caused the bowl to have too little water in it and the flushes were ineffective. Once I leveled the toilet, everything was back to normal.

I knew something was immediately wrong because this was the 3rd one I had installed and it was acting strange. I switched from normal 4 gallon to Toto Eco Drake 1.6 gallon. All the other replacements were working better than the original. I think low-flow toilets are much more sensitive to bowl levels or something because they depend on strong siphons.

Another issue is usage. Is this a toilet located in a part of the house where it gets more often than the other toilets or gets used by different family members?

Unless the toilet’s the lowest fixture in the house, the septic’s not it.

Get a full bucket of water and dump it all at once into the toilet. If the toilet swallows it happily, then you have a problem with the toilet or flushing mechanism somewhere. If the toilet won’t deal with the slug of water in a timely fashion, then you have issues in the pipes.

We had one basement toilet we could never train to behave and finally found that it emptied through a 3" PVC which penetrated a block wall. A tree root had found the entrance hole and had squashed the PVC until it was almost flat, always letting the water through and not the products.

Iron pipe will do the same thing from internal corrosion.

If the toilet is the last fixture of the house it could be the sespit overfull depending on adnys point also on the height above the drain pipe, I had an issue with a triplex where the septic tank was full and starting to come towards the apartments through the connection pipe. the nearest apt had a flushing issue and the other two further away were fine. cesspit was sucked dry and the flushing was fine.
I assume the toilet wash flushing fine before? I had an issue also where the metal wire from the scent things had got stuck down there , and things would become trapped around it, you plunge and it cleared the debris but the wire remained to collect more debris and the clog repeated. hth
vyVY

Obviously you need to eliminate the possibility of any issues with your sewer lines. Once you’re convinced the problem is specific to that toilet or it’s location, I would highly recommend a power flush toilet.

I’m not sure what the generic designation is, but the principle is this. They have 2 plastic tanks in the “reservoir” area that hold both water and air under pressure. The pressure is created from water pressure. When you flush, a burst of water and air is forced into the toilet trap to push debris down the drain.

It is extremely effective. I won’t go into graphic detail except to say that a T Rex could drop a load in my power flush and I’m pretty sure it could handle it.

OP- are you missing any toothbrushes, toy soldiers, boxes of dental floss, or similar things that may have been dropped into the toilet?

Any of those may be stuck in the bend, and be just enough of an impediment that things sometimes slip by and sometimes get snagged.

Toilet is level and water pretty much goes down according to schedule.

It’s on the second floor, last in line from the water source.

All toy soldiers accounted for, though it’s always been a bit slow, ever since we moved in. It seems that it’s been getting worse lately.

It’s in the master bath, so though it gets a bit more usage, when we have guests using the guest bath (or one of us is travelling throughout the house) there doesn’t seem to be a problem.

I don’t care if it solves the problem or not, but I [del]want[/del]need a “power flush” toilet on general principle. T-Rex is a bonus.

In a nice coincidence, I got a call from the septic company today–they’re now coming on Monday morning.

So if anything, it sounds like I’ve done just about all I can do on my own. If it’s a seven-year-old wire or toothbrush (what’s the warranty on those?), does Home Depot et al sell larger augers for home use or should I have the plumber come out and do his thing?

I once stayed in a hotel that had power flush toilets. They are NOISY NOISY NOISY. I was greatly startled from a deep sleep when my wife flushed the toilet in the middle of the night. I suggest you get a demonstration of the power flush toilet before you buy it.

J.

We installed one at work. As nice as it is to basically be able to throw away the plunger, I don’t think I’d want something that loud in my house.

If this toilet is in a bathroom where people use dental floss? I’d make sure no one is tossing their used floss in there. I didn’t think that was a thing until I heard (coincidentally) from two plumbers that putting dental floss in a toilet is about the worst thing you can do to it. Apparently, somewhere between the toilet and the sewer pipe the floss has a habit of hanging up and collecting. Once enough of it collects, you’ll start to have problems.

I don’t think it’s that loud but I suppose I’m used to it - and I’m also in love. :o:D

But even if you think it is loud, the noise only last for maybe 3 seconds. Personally I think that’s a very small price to pay. And I’m sure that can be substantially attenuated by just putting down the lid before flushing.

edit: the only thing I would pay attention to is whatever room adjoins the bathroom on the wall to the back of the toilet since the noise will propagate most freely in that direction.

A long time ago, I rented a house that had a chronic slow flush problem in the second floor loo - it turned out part of the drainage pipe had too long of a horizontal span and anything, including TP, would quickly back it up. It was a rental installing a new toilet or paying for a plumber really wasn’t an option.

A plumber turned me onto Scott TP, which is designed to break down much quicker than many other brands. I’ve used it ever since the 1980s in several houses, including some very much older ones with older toilets and never had a problem. Ask the plumbers on Monday about it.

Wait and see how it goes after you pump the septic tank. It really changed how my toilet worked. (although I had gone 10 years, rather than 6)

tampons are worse. strings to snag and knot and fat to catch anything passing. iron pipes hold on to it like glue.

either these or floss could make a yards long obstruction.

A couple of months ago my parents had an issue with their plumbing system. Turned out someone at their house was flushing their tampon wrappers. Okay, I can understand wanting to flush the tampon, but the wrapper?

Anyways, here’s what can happen with dental floss.
Three foot long floss beast by Eldata
Head of the beast by Eldata

If you have hard water it may have built up in the throat of the toilet where you cannot see it. My last toilet was about 7 years old when I had to change it. It was a top of the line tank type toilet. I took a hamer and broke it apart to see what the problem was and could not believe the amount of clay like lime that had built up on the roof of the throat. If I would have known that I could have easily dislodged it with a wire or something.

[quote=“andyleonard, post:4, topic:647621”]

Unless the toilet’s the lowest fixture in the house, the septic’s not it.

Get a full bucket of water and dump it all at once into the toilet. If the toilet swallows it happily, then you have a problem with the toilet or flushing mechanism somewhere. If the toilet won’t deal with the slug of water in a timely fashion, then you have issues in the pipes.

So…is it the toilet or the pipes?

If you do get a new toilet, don’t bother with the power flush models. Get a Toto Drake. You will be happy with it.

Ah ha!

Septic was pumped on Monday; problem persisted; plumber was here today.

In about two seconds he found the cause–there was some small bit of something stuck inside the siphon jet, the port that shoots water directly at the trap to break things up and help things move along.

The downside is that he says it’s all but impossible to clear the jet out, particularly given how narrow the opening is. His advice is to buy a new toilet, which means there’s likely an IMHO thread on its way~