"ScrubsFan" wrote in message
nk.net...
I'm stumped! I have two IDENTICAL Kohler toilets; they're about 3 years
old. Let's call them "good toilet" and "bad toilet" since one is working
and the other is stopped up.

I tried plunging bad toilet, which didn't help. I tried liquid drain
unclogger (guaranteed to dissolve ANY organic material!--I guess we'll
see).

So now I want to flush it, but I'm afraid! Why? Because the toilet this
one replaced overflowed once...and flooded nearly my entire house before
it could be stopped. So I'm a bit gun shy.

I turned off the water supply to the toilet--or at least I THOUGHT I
did--as I want to flush it with a controlled (i.e., LIMITED) amount of
water. Then I started emptying water from the tank, thinking I'd only
leave about 1/3 or so, again just to make SURE it can't overflow if
there's really something blocking the drain. But as the water level in
the tank got down to a certain point, it started filling up again. Huh?!
How can it do that if I've turned the valve off?

I went to good toilet and tried the exact same motions--turning the valve
all the way to my right. Then I flushed it, flushed it again, and the
tank emptied almost all the way. Period. It didn't start refilling until
I started turning the valve to the left. So WHY is bad toilet refilling?
There's nothing else I can do--I've turned the valve as far to the right
as I can.

Your shut off valve may be stuck.
Spray your shut off valve stem with WD40 and let it set for an hour or so.

You should check your valves several times a year to make certain the
handles turns easily and turns all the way on and off.