Apologies if you're just having your tea!

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets
stuck in the 'throat' or bottom of the pan and doesn't get round
the bend unless encouraged, ie by shoving the toilet brush at it, when
it disappears with no problem. I've checked the following - what
else?

Pressure of water entering the pan when it's flushed is slightly
lower than average possibly, but not enough to make a difference, it
still blocks when I throw a bucket of hot water in from a height too,
it breaks the solids up a bit but doesn't shove them round.

I've prodded and pushed round the bend with my hand and with one of
those corkscrew things on the end of a long cable (is this an augur?)
There seems to be nothing there to cause a jam.

And surely a toilet pan couldn't have been made with an exit too
small to allow normal human waste through it? It's called a Trent if
that makes any difference.

What else could I check that might be preventing this from rounding the
bend? As I said, once round the bend it disappears with no problem and
the water level returns to normal, until the next time.

Ideas please someone

Thanks

Perhaps your waste pipe is pressurising when the toilet is flushed. Are
you on mains sewerage or a Septic tank? Do you have a vent pipe
running up the side of the house? Is that blocked?

Once the toilet is clear can you put a hose pipe into the bowl and fill
it or does it run away quickly without any increase in the height of
water in the bowl?

Chris

In article .com,
says...
Apologies if you're just having your tea!

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets
stuck in the 'throat' or bottom of the pan and doesn't get round
the bend unless encouraged, ie by shoving the toilet brush at it, when
it disappears with no problem.

I've had that problem with a severely limescale-encrusted toilet - the
limescale remover wasn't working properly around the bend, with the
result that it was rough and slightly reduced in diameter. I bailed out
the water, filled it with brick acid and left for a few hours, then
flushed a couple of times before scrubbing around the bend with a
scouring pad and a long-handled brush. I now occasionally stick a cup
of brick acid in the water and leave it for a few hours before flushing,
and the problem hasn't recurred.

On 11 Oct 2005 12:25:19 -0700, "Jennie" wrote:

Apologies if you're just having your tea!

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets
stuck in the 'throat' or bottom of the pan and doesn't get round
the bend unless encouraged, ie by shoving the toilet brush at it, when
it disappears with no problem. I've checked the following - what
else?

Pressure of water entering the pan when it's flushed is slightly
lower than average possibly, but not enough to make a difference, it
still blocks when I throw a bucket of hot water in from a height too,
it breaks the solids up a bit but doesn't shove them round.

I've prodded and pushed round the bend with my hand and with one of
those corkscrew things on the end of a long cable (is this an augur?)
There seems to be nothing there to cause a jam.

And surely a toilet pan couldn't have been made with an exit too
small to allow normal human waste through it? It's called a Trent if
that makes any difference.

What else could I check that might be preventing this from rounding the
bend? As I said, once round the bend it disappears with no problem and
the water level returns to normal, until the next time.

Ideas please someone

Thanks

I would suggest that there is no alternative but to remove the pan
from the waste pipe and examine the pan and connector from the other
direction.

If there is no ' artificial ' restriction that can be removed and the
waste pipe is completely clear and correctly vented, then the only
conclusion can be a poorly designed pan.

Andy

On 11 Oct 2005 12:25:19 -0700, "Jennie" wrote:

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets

I get the same thing on occasion, but for a short term fix one of
those "compressed air canisters with a foam rubber flange" fixes it
when it happens (once every few months).

--
------------------------------------------------------------------
- Stuart Millington ALL HTML e-mail rejected -
- mailtohttp://w3.z-add.co.uk/ -

Jennie wrote:
Apologies if you're just having your tea!

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets
stuck in the 'throat' or bottom of the pan and doesn't get round
the bend unless encouraged, ie by shoving the toilet brush at it, when
it disappears with no problem. I've checked the following - what
else?

Pressure of water entering the pan when it's flushed is slightly
lower than average possibly, but not enough to make a difference, it
still blocks when I throw a bucket of hot water in from a height too,
it breaks the solids up a bit but doesn't shove them round.

I've prodded and pushed round the bend with my hand and with one of
those corkscrew things on the end of a long cable (is this an augur?)
There seems to be nothing there to cause a jam.

And surely a toilet pan couldn't have been made with an exit too
small to allow normal human waste through it? It's called a Trent if
that makes any difference.

What else could I check that might be preventing this from rounding
the bend? As I said, once round the bend it disappears with no
problem and the water level returns to normal, until the next time.

Ideas please someone

Thanks

Your checking the inside but what about the pipe outside.
I had this problem some years ago with toilet constantly blocking up, turns
out it was the toilet design was at fault, it was one of those altogther
jobbies where the cistern sat directly on the loo and the flushing system
was a bismal in force.
Changed the system and hey-ho a problem solved. :-)
The Viccy's had the right design with cistern half way up the wall. :-)

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Oh excellent, thank you so much for these replies, lots to try here.
We're on septic tank so would rather not throw acid down, though
limescale could be the problem. To answer Chris, once it's clear the
water runs away fine, doesn't fill up at all when I use the shower
(without rose) to hose it down etc. Unfortunately, unlike Stuart it
happens a couple of times a week, if it was only occasionally it would
be fine, but virtually every time it's used for solids it blocks.
Sometimes it clears itself within an hour or so, otherwise it has to be
assisted. Without assistance the longest I've left it blocked is 3
days as a trial. Then a quick shove cleared it and it was immediately
free running again. We've only lived here a short while and it was
like this from the beginning. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

"Jennie" wrote in message
oups.com...
Apologies if you're just having your tea!

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
it's forever getting blocked. It's called a Trent if
that makes any difference.


Ideas please someone

Thanks


I know of a Trent Line toilet. It is not the common type, but a siphon
type, which means the contents of the bowl get siphoned out at each flush,
with the water-line going momentarily below its normal level under the
influence of the siphon.



In order to get this siphon effect, the toilet output pipe has to be made
with a part of it narrower than normal, making it more difficult for waste
to get round the bend because of this narrowing. If there is a problem with
flushing, one answer is to flush the toilet frequently when in use, so that
a blockage in the narrow part does not happen, i.e. don't let a blockage
build up.



I wonder if your toilet is of this design?

"Al" wrote in message
...

"Jennie" wrote in message
oups.com...
Apologies if you're just having your tea!

Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
it's forever getting blocked. It's called a Trent if
that makes any difference.


Ideas please someone

Thanks


Now you have mentioned you have a septic tank, I wonder if the problem does
not lie further down the system.
Could be worth a wee peep down your interceptor cover to check all is
passing through properly.
Ours blocks up every couplamonths and I have to rod it to clear.
The tell tale sign with my system that things are going to need attention
shortly, is an ominous gurgling noise from the downstairs looo, when the
upstairs one is flushed.

Pete
www.thecanalshop.com

Sorry - I had to do a google on "Bristol Stool Chart".
I presumed it was something you'd made up on the spot.

But low and behold, it's a real deal medical reference.

Can you imagine the research that went into devising that??

http://www.leeds.nhs.uk/attachment/0...Stool+Chart.pd

1 = hard lumps likw nuts
2 = lumpy sausage
3 = sausage with cracked surface
4 = sausage with smooth surface
5 = soft blobs with well defined margins
6 = fluffy with ragged edges
7 = watery, no solid pieces

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:38:01 +0100, Stuart Millington
wrote:

| On 11 Oct 2005 12:25:19 -0700, "Jennie" wrote:
|
| Could anyone give me a sort of check list for unblocking the toilet -
| it's forever getting blocked. It seems as though anything solid gets
|
| I get the same thing on occasion, but for a short term fix one of
| those "compressed air canisters with a foam rubber flange" fixes it
| when it happens (once every few months).

Plunger is cheaper and IME works just as well.

--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
The London suicide bombers killed innocent commuters.
Animal rights terrorists and activists kill innocent patients.

So, which one is the British Standard jobbie used for testing toilets
then?

I have to agree with the flush often comment above, our previous
homebase 'cheapie' toilet had a narrow outlet, combined with a plastic
right-angle connector made the outlet even narrower. 'Flush before you
wipe' is the best advice, a mass of wet toilet paper combined with a
lot of 'solids' is probably the problem.

wrote:


A problem with modern low flush toilets. If the throat is reduced to enable a
smaller flush to work, *all* users of the facility need to be on a high fibre
diet to enable stools to be 3 or higher on a bristol stool chart.

Is this why the govt. are encouraging a high fibre diet, so that two jag's
building regs can work?

.......and some thought Dr Drivel had an exclusive licence to talk ****
in here.


--

In article , The3rd Earl
Of Derby wrote:
The Viccy's had the right design with cistern half way up the wall. :-)

and not called The Thunderer or Niagara for nothing g

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.10 released 4 April 2005]

On 11 Oct 2005 14:58:57 -0700, "Jennie" wrote:

Unfortunately, unlike Stuart it
happens a couple of times a week, if it was only occasionally it would
be fine, but virtually every time it's used for solids it blocks.

Think mine would too if I only used it twice a week.

Geo

Use cheaper toilet paper - breaks down faster in water.

xscope wrote:



Don't forget the famous "Barium Variant" :

0 = 12" section of concrete post
1 = hard lumps likw nuts
2 = lumpy sausage
3 = sausage with cracked surface
4 = sausage with smooth surface
5 = soft blobs with well defined margins
6 = fluffy with ragged edges
7 = watery, no solid pieces

If you are running out of ideas and ways to prove things, are you able
to drill say a 1/16th. inch diameter hole in the soil pipe, preferably
near the ground and see if air rushes out before the water and waste
reaches that hole. This may help to locate a section of pipe where the
blockage is. Plug the hole afterwards with a small screw or mastic.

Chris.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "xscope"
saying something like:

1 = hard lumps likw nuts
2 = lumpy sausage
3 = sausage with cracked surface
4 = sausage with smooth surface
5 = soft blobs with well defined margins
6 = fluffy with ragged edges
7 = watery, no solid pieces

Hmmm... Normally 3 and 4 for me, but I had a 5 this morning.
--

Dave

xscope wrote:
Sorry - I had to do a google on "Bristol Stool Chart".
I presumed it was something you'd made up on the spot.

I did the same :-)