I encounter toilets like this from time to time. Unfortunately, we have a toilet with this problem in our home.
Let’s get one thing straight: I’m talking about flushing a toilet with nothing more than pee in it.
Sometimes when we flush, the water simply stirs around a bit. Ok. Wait for the tank to fill and give it a second shot. This might be enough, but then again it might not. Ok. Wait again and give it a third flush. Suddenly, all of the water goes down with great force and we can finally leave the bathroom.
I am fairly certain that there is some underlying mechanical cause to this. I don’t think there is any blockage because the toilet is quite capable of disposing of substantial solids.
The toilet has exhibited this behavior for several years. It’s a model from the late Fifties, so it has a full-sized tank.
Why, it’s Your Good Government At Work, my friend!
I refer you to the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which became Public Law 102-486. You can look it up at www.congress.gov :
and
As you can see, Congress wanted to reduce the amount of water being used by toilets. The old standard used to be 3.5 gallons. Congress didn’t want to be accused of wasting more water by requiring a double-flush, so they set the non-commercial standard at 1.6 gallons so that a double-flush would still use less water than a single decent toilet uses.
Since your toilet is specitically not a modern, 1.6gpf model I’d look at a defective flush valve or manybe mineral deposits in the water passages. The blockage may not be in the trapway from the bowl to the sewer but the flush passages from the tank to the bowl. I’d look at the flapper valve first.
I agree. Somebody replaced a cracked bowl on our other toilet with a post-Conspiracy bowl, but the illicit oversized tank remains. Boy does that sucker rip when you flush it!
Back to the subject of our sluggish toilet. I’m going to observe the flapper valve in the next few flush cycles to see if that’s the cause. I’m inclined to say no simply because the toilet runs sluggishly two out of three times, but the third time it performs perfectly, and in all cases, the tank empties at about the same rate (I think. I need to verify this).
There might be a little “blockage” left over from a previous toilet use. The first extra flushes clear it out. Do you get a proper flush and then a weak flush back to back? (Be aware that with multiple toilets, the blockage could have come from another toilet and be after the drain lines join.)
Off the OP topic but not all post conspiracy toilets are poor flushers. I installed an American Standard 1.6gpf model for my folks, a high seat ADA compliant model, Cadet I think, and it’s a turd flushing mo-fo.
Good idea on checking the flapper valve, minor7flat5; it’s a lot less effort than the alternatives suggested by others in this thread.
I have a 10-year-old house, with 3 3.5 gallon toilets. I spend more time and money keeping those running than on anything else. I find that I have to replace flappers at least once a year, and I’ve replaced each fill valve at least once – just this week, one that I replaced 3 years ago broke off at the base rather explosively, with enough force to dislocate the lid (it was in the master bathroom, and failed at 2AM – scared the crap outta me).
Why I have such toilet trouble is a mystery to me – the water is quite soft, treated with ozone instead of chlorine for purification, and I don’t use in-tank chlorine tablets, which can turn plastic components brittle. Over the last several years, I’ve also kept the valves on the toilet inflow almost closed (1/3 turn from full off) in an apparently vain effort to keep the inflow rate low enough to prevent the explosive failure mentioned above – takes forever to refill after a flush, but minimizes the waste of water when something eventually goes wrong when I’m not around (it’s happened – the fill valve on one broke when I was away on vacation; came back to a $400 water bill).
Look in the tank & see how much water is flushing. Chances are it’s probably below where it should be, which is usually marked on the back of the tank in the inside.
handy, I peeked in the tank and found that the level was about a quarter inch low, so I calibrated the float to get things straight. Maybe this will do the trick.
ftg, I have never observed a weak flush after a proper flush because the task is already complete after the proper flush. I did try three successive flushes a minute ago and they all went quite well.
The funny thing is, it seems to be some weird kind of backpressure thing. It happens even when I know that I was the last user, a few hours before, flushing only liquids.
The best way I can describe it is that the water doesn’t seem to develop the proper vortex; it all spins around and drains, but no serious suction happens. Then, after a couple flushes, things change dramatically: I get great vortex action and huge solids are swept away with no leavings.
3waygeek, I did the flapper about a year ago. It seems to still be ok. The biggest problem I ever have with flappers is that they begin to leak, causing constantly-running toilets.
About that broken fill valve you described… I have nightmares about that kind of stuff. I always shut off all water valves to toilets, hot water heater, washer, and anything else like that when I go on vacation, and even then I worry. We had the hot water heater go out in our church a few weeks ago and I discovered the true reality of such an event: no, you don’t just get forty gallons of water on the floor… you get forty gallons and then it keeps trying to fill itself up.
I had to fetch my 300gal/hour pool cover pump with a garden hose to empty their basement.
I’m thinking maybe a venting problem? If the toilet was installed in the fifties, or before, maybe they weren’t as scrupulous in making sure that the vent stack is located close enough to the waste line. That, and some calcification in the pipes might mean that the system has to “burp” a bit before water will flow .
I’ll second a vent theory. At my old place of employment, a worker tarring the roof stuffed a rag in the vent pipe so tar wouldn’t drip in. Somebody below flushed, and the rag got sucked in beyond his reach. For the month that it took the landlord to get a plumber out there, a pee was an automatic two flusher. Salad shooters could be up to eight. Thankfully it was a tankless system, so we could rapid fire.
I was gleeful the day the plumber came, it was sooooo obvious, and I just happened to be soooo hungover…
