When a toilet and its drainpipe are seriously clogged, you can plunge until
exhaustion and all you will do is break the seal at the bottom of the
toilet. Been there, done that, replaced the ceiling and the light below.
Talk about gross cleanup.

Then there are the "closet augers". I own several attachments to the drill,
and have rented a few. Sorry, there's nothing easy or fun or clean trying
to wrestle a springy wire thing, or to clean it.

Give me the shop vac any day.

"Greg G" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 00:25:39 -0500, "Betsy" -0 wrote:

I'm not laughing, it was no joke. It works, it is cheap, and I'm
disgusted
by the vulgar responses a guy got to his honest question.

I hardly think my response was vulgar. Humorously worded, perhaps. I
am truly amazed at the odd things people will try for a problem that
has two well-known, inexpensive and effective solutions. So much so
that I really thought a couple of you were kidding.

Plumbers are expensive. The guy who cost me $600 to videotape my main
line
used a shop vac to clean it out. I could have done that myself. And what
he "discovered" with his expensive camera was nothing I couldn't have
predicted myself.

Plumbers ARE expensive, but plungers and closet augers are very
inexpensive. I've never considered calling a plumber for a clogged
toilet.

The shop vac works. It also works for clogged kitchen and bathtub drains.

It doesn't particularly surprise me that a shop vac might be able to
pull out a toilet clog. But I am quite sure that I can plunge almost
any clog in less time than it would take you to to just get your shop
vac into the bathroom. The few clogs serious enough to require a
toilet auger take another minute or two.

Neither one of these methods requires cleaning out a hose, bucket, and
attachments or replacing a filter. I don't think my sensibilities are
overly delicate, but I can't imagine how to clean out a corrugated
hose that's had the contents of a toilet run through it. I'm betting
it's done outdoors and is less than completely effective. Could the
whole process take any less than a half hour?

My answer to the original poster's "honest question" was simple and
obvious and I stick by it: Use a plunger first; it almost always
works. Use a closet auger in the rare occasions when that fails.

Greg Guarino