Clogged toilets are a fairly common problem. It can be encountered in a city apartment, and in a country house and in a country house equipped with a sewer drain system. This problem usually requires a quick solution. If you wait for a leisurely plumber, then the scale of the spill of fecal water can lead to another repair and large budget expenditures. Meanwhile, the solution to the problem of how to eliminate blockage in the toilet is accessible even for an ordinary person. This does not require special technological skills, but rather minimal knowledge and the presence of available tools in the pulp, which are sold in every hardware store.
What clogs our toilets
In order to master the technology of cleaning the toilet bowl and the sewer pipes adjacent to it, first of all, you need to familiarize yourself with its design.
The toilet bowl is a sanitary device, inside of which there is a sewage receiver, turning into a curved pipe, the outlet of which is connected to the sewer system. The bend of the pipes in the toilet is designed to create a water seal, which is designed to prevent the penetration of unpleasant sewer odors into the apartment.
As a rule, various large water-insoluble objects fall into this bend and get stuck. It can be scraps of thick paper, rags and other rags, bags and polyethylene, and so on. Mostly such things get into your toilet due to the actions of your own household, but in a separate case, in apartment buildings, such items can get into your section of the sewer system due to the activities of your upstairs neighbors.
Ways to clean toilets
In general, the methods for cleaning toilet bowls are the same as those for removing blockages in other sanitary devices. Conventionally, they can be divided into two large groups:
- Mechanical methods - consist in the destruction or extraction of the blockage by mechanical solid devices.
- Chemical methods - consist in the destruction, dissolution of obstructions with aggressive chemical liquids.
Chemical way to clear blockage in the toilet
This is the easiest way to clear blockages. In order to carry it out, it is necessary to purchase a special liquid or powder in hardware stores, which are poured or poured directly into the toilet bowl. Powder or liquid creates an aggressive solution, on an alkaline or acid basis, which dissolves all obstacles in its path.
But such methods must be treated with some caution. When using such aggressive solutions, there is always the possibility of damage to both the plumbing equipment itself and the sewer pipelines adjacent to it. So before using such substances, carefully read their composition and instructions for use and correlate the knowledge gained with the composition of the materials used in your sewer system.
Cleaning the toilet with soda - an easy way
A significant disadvantage of using chemically aggressive fluids is their inability to deal with certain types of blockages, such as stuck solid objects.
Mechanical ways to clean toilets - plunger
A plunger is a very popular plumbing tool that should be present in every home. Its design is extremely simple - a rubber hemisphere placed on the mounting handle.
Working with such a tool is extremely simple: place a rubber hemisphere over the drain and push the water deep into the drain with sharp pressure. Water pressure is transmitted to the site of the blockage, destroys it or pushes it deep into the sewer system up to the main sewer riser.
Use improvised tools for emergency cleaning
In emergency situations, in the absence of a plunger, you can also use improvised devices. To do this, take a plastic bottle of a suitable size, cut off the bottom from it and lower this design into the drain hole. As well as with a plunger, make sharp pushes that should destroy the blockage in the sewer or in the bend of the inner pipe of the toilet.
Also, a blockage in the toilet bowl or in an adjacent pipe can be simply poured into it with a bucket of water heated to a hot temperature. Be careful. Firstly, you can burn yourself with such boiling water, and secondly, the faience of the toilet bowl can crack from excessively hot water. Therefore, it is better to first pour a small amount of hot water into the toilet so that its surface warms up. In general, heating the toilet at the bend in the pipe with a hair dryer can also help push the blockage towards the main riser.
You can also make your own chemical cleaning fluid. To do this, find half a pack of ordinary household soda. Dissolve it in water and pour it down the toilet. Such an alkaline solution is great for removing certain types of blockages.
We use a plumbing cable
An excellent device for removing blockages in the toilet bowl and in the sewer is a plumbing cable. It allows not only to destroy the blockage or push its source towards the main jamb, but also to remove large objects (for example, rags) that have accidentally entered the sewer system.
Plumbing cable for cleaning the toilet - photo
The plumbing cable is equipped with an L-shaped handle on one side and a sharp nozzle or spiral on the other side. The spiral nozzle can be used as a kind of hook, which removes an object that clogs the sewer.
The procedure for working with a plumbing cable is very simple:
Dip the tip of the rope into a toilet bowl drain or into a sink or bathtub drain. For the convenience of working in the sink, you can remove the drain grate, it rests on just one bolt. Also, the end of the cable can be inserted directly into the sewer pipe by disconnecting the siphon from the sink, which is cleaned and washed under running water.
Holding the cable with one hand, tuck its tip as deep as possible. Then, by rotating the L-shaped handle, push the tip of the cable closer to the blockage. The hardened object can either be pushed into the main riser, or removed by hooking it with a spiral nozzle.
A home-made tool called pumping also helps to effectively deal with blockages in the toilet bowl and in sewer pipes.
It is made in the following way:
- Find a steel rod and cut a thread at one end,
- Cut out two plates from steel and rubber, make a hole in their center.
- Screw a nut onto the tip of the rod, then fasten the plates and fix them with another nut.
- At the opposite end of the rod, make a handle for ease of use. It can be formed by simply wrapping the end with electrical tape.
The manufactured tool can effectively eliminate blockages. Place the plates in the toilet drain hole and with sharp jerks, similar to using a plunger, push the mass of water into the sewer pipes.
Blocked toilet in an apartment building
While clearing a clogged toilet in an apartment building is easy enough, since you have access to the entire sewer system, from the toilet to the septic tank, clearing blockages in an apartment building can be problematic.
Due to the chaotic movement of sewer drains, a blockage, whether it be a rag or a plastic bag, can enter your system from the upper floors. In order to avoid such problems, it is necessary to place a check valve at the junction of the sewer system of your apartment and the main riser.
We eliminate the blockage with a corrugation worker
If the toilet is clogged, a situation may also arise when you have to disconnect the sewer pipe from the toilet. Using this method, you can not only effectively clear the blockage that may form in the bend of the toilet, but also get direct access to the sewer pipes. In this case, the plumbing cable can be guided directly into the pipe, which will facilitate the troubleshooting work. However, such work must be done with caution and with the warning of neighbors in order to ensure that there is no new portion of wastewater.
We carry out preventive work
In order to avoid the occurrence of emergency troubles, certain rules must be observed when operating toilet bowls. Remember that the toilet is not designed to dump large and water-insoluble objects into it. Even a small rag that gets into the toilet drain can become an anchor for smaller items and form a solid blockage.
Be careful with liquids poured into the toilet. Some of them may, in contact with cold sewage, form insoluble compounds and clog pipelines.
To prevent clogging, regular cleaning of the toilet bowls with special cleaning products should be carried out.
In order to learn more about the process of cleaning a blockage in the toilet, check out the video tutorial.
