I flush it and the level in the bowl gets real high and doesn’t flush. The tank fills up and then the water in the bowl leaks down the drain slowly until it’s almost empty. Isn’t that defying gravity?
I tried using a toilet auger on it and it doesn’t seem to be clogged. Another thing that makes me think there’s something going on besides a clog, is that after the tank is done filling, you can hear and see the water level going down in the bowl. Doesn’t the water have to go uphill to leave the bowl?
Anyone have any ideas as to what’s wrong? Any help would be much appreciated as if I don’t fix it soon, my wife’s going to make me call a plumber.
Welcome to the SDMB turbopower!
You have a clog.
The way a toilet works is the water in the bowl is below the top part of the trap. If you get down on your knees and look at the side of the bowl, and you can see the trap go up and then down.
Anyway when everything is working normally when you flush the water rises above the trap and starts to flow down the drain. This creates a siphon that empties the bowl, and its contents. However when the trap is obstructed, the water does not flow out fast enough to create a siphon. Instead the bowl fills up and drains very, very slowly.
I have never used a toilet auger, I have always been able to clean the problem with a good plunger. Since you have tried the auger, you might go buy a good plunger and give that as shot before you call a plumber.
If this works, you consider joining our little happy band here when your guest membership is up. At $15 US it is a lot cheaper than any plumber I have ever come across.
If it’s not emptying, you have a clog. Trying to figure out the physics of the situation will only confuse you.
With any toilet clog, you really only have four options: (1) auger; (2) plunger; (3) time; and (4) plumber. Since the auger didn’t clear the clog, you now ought to try a plunger. Stick it down there, try to cover the whole drain hole with it, and plunge it up and down. For best results, do this while the toilet is flushing, but be ready to abandon the effort and dive for the wall valve if it looks like the toilet is about to overflow.
Third: If plunging doesn’t clear the clog, wait a few hours and try again. Sometimes your first attempt will have shaken up the situation such that the clog “erodes” in the interim. You can also try augering again.
Fourth: If neither repeated augering nor repeated plunging clears the clog, call a plumber.
Are you missing any small hard items like dental floss boxes or toy cars?
If plunging doesn’t help, and you’re feeling up to the task, (and it is quite a task, especially if you’ve never done it before) you may need to dismount the toilet and poke from below with the auger, with hopes of dislodging the foreign object.
Note that if you dismount the toilet as gotpasswords suggested, you should replace the wax ring that fits between the toilet bowl & the flange mounted on the floor. This is cheap insurance against leaks.
Right if the plunger doesn’t work, that’s the next thing to try. The wax ring costs under $2, and learning to take a toilet apart will save you lots of money in plumbers bills.
The last time this happened to us, my wife’s reaction was “oh, so that’s where the car keys disappeared to.”
Well, I wish I took the time to wait to read your replies before hastily removing the toilet. It’s my tenant’s toilet upstairs and I wanted to get it done before she got home. If the toilet plunger route would have worked, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.
I removed the toilet and there was a load of hard crap at the bottom of the outlet. I guess she eats a lot of cheese? She got home while I was still working on it and I’m sure she heard me dry-heaving after I got a nice whif while removing the obstruction with a paint stirrer and tying it up in a plastic bag.
I can’t get the nut tight on one side because the bolt keeps spinning along with it, but I guess she’ll have to deal with a wobbly toilet. I’m done for the day. Thanks guys.
While this problem was solved by removing the clog from the toilet; I’ve also seen this problem from a blockage in the vent stack above the toilet (out the roof). My current rules for removing clogs are.
1)blame the wife
2) use the plunger agressively
3) swear at the wife
4) blame the daughter
5) take the toilet off the floor
6) blame the wife and daughter
7) go up on the roof and clean the vent pipe of birds nests, wasp nests, etc.
8) apologize to the wife
9) sleep on the couch.
Yet it usually is the women folk’s fault; the size of the…well that’s another thread that undoubtably has been done before.
Whatever you do, DON’T use liquid drain cleaners in a toilet. If the toilet has to be augured, the caustic acid can splash onto the plumber and contents of the bathroom.
Many plumbers refuse to work on a toilet where drain cleaner has been recently used.
The reason the bolts are spinning? You might need new bolts. They are usually referred to as “Johnny Bolts”. The head of the bolt slips into a keyhole-shaped slot on the toilet flange. If the toilet has been loose for some time, the flange may no longer grip the bolt.
You don’t want to leave the toilet loose. A gap will form between the wax seal and the toilet. Without an airtight seal, you lose flushing power - and shit (known as “solids” in the trade) don’t get pushed down. Also, a rocking toilet can crack.
If you have to pull a toilet, always have a new wax seal and johnny bolts. Both are cheap. Clean all the old wax off the flange and the bottom of the toilet before putting on the new seal.