The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put
anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into
the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent. From
the plumbing diagrams on the web, there are no traps other than the one
in the toilet. Should I be concerned that there is a blockage further
down the drain?

The house is 15 years old and built on a slab.

Thanks,

R1

On 9/21/2014 7:03 PM, Rebel1 wrote:
The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put
anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into
the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent. From
the plumbing diagrams on the web, there are no traps other than the one
in the toilet. Should I be concerned that there is a blockage further
down the drain?

The house is 15 years old and built on a slab.

Thanks,

R1

I'd pour some water in, and see what happens.
See if the stack pipe fills.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

If I had to guess, I'd guess it was because the vent stack that toilet empties into is on the downwind side of your house.

I'm thinking that if the wind across North America is generally in a west to east direction, if your vent stack opens up on the east side of your roof, the wind blowing over your roof could be causing an low pressure area on the east side of the roof, possibly causing air to be sucked up the vent stack.

Test the idea. Light a cotton shoe lace until it's burning under it's own steam, and then blow out the flame so that the cotton is smoldering, releasing a steady stream of smoke as it burns. You now have a poor man's smoke pencil. Hold the smoldering end of the shoe lace over your floor flange (or what's left of it) and see if the smoke gets sucked into the toilet waste pipe or blown out of it. If it gets blown out, then it could be that the prevailing wind is pushing air down your vent stack, and preventing sewer gas from coming up. If it gets sucked into the toilet waste pipe, it's probably due to the wind blowing over your roof.

You should have the main drain line from your house to the city sewer cleared by a plumber with a snake (or jetter) every 10 to 15 years to ensure good drainage. But, if you weren't having any problems with your drains until now, I wouldn't believe there's a problem now.

Rebel1 wrote in :

The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put
anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into
the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent. From
the plumbing diagrams on the web, there are no traps other than the one
in the toilet. Should I be concerned that there is a blockage further
down the drain?

Rather than worrying about a blockage in the drain line, I think I'd take that as an indication that
there is *not* a blockage in your vent stack, and that the sewer line is venting properly through
it. If you like, go up on the roof on a calm day and sniff the top of the vent stack. I bet you smell
sewer gases there!

On 9/21/2014 7:58 PM, nestork wrote:
Test the idea. Light a cotton shoe lace until it's burning under it's
own steam, and then blow out the flame so that the cotton is smoldering,
releasing a steady stream of smoke as it burns. You now have a poor
man's smoke pencil. Hold the smoldering end of the shoe lace over your
floor flange (or what's left of it) and see if the smoke gets sucked
into the toilet waste pipe or blown out of it. If it gets blown out,
then it could be that the prevailing wind is pushing air down your vent
stack, and preventing sewer gas from coming up. If it gets sucked into
the toilet waste pipe, it's probably due to the wind blowing over your
roof.

What happens if the glowing end drops into the
methane and blammo?



..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 9/21/2014 7:03 PM, Rebel1 wrote:
The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put
anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into
the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent.


Could be your personal habits. When I leave the bathroom it smells like
strawberries. If we have cabbage at dinner, it will be like spring flowers.

On 9/21/2014 8:33 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
Could be your personal habits. When I leave the bathroom it smells like
strawberries. If we have cabbage at dinner, it will be like spring
flowers.


My toilet usually smells like Nestle Toll
House cookies, original recipe.


..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...
On 9/21/2014 8:33 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
Could be your personal habits. When I leave the bathroom it smells like
strawberries. If we have cabbage at dinner, it will be like spring
flowers.


My toilet usually smells like Nestle Toll
House cookies, original recipe.



TMI, guys!

On 9/21/2014 8:59 PM, Pico Rico wrote:
"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
My toilet usually smells like Nestle Toll
House cookies, original recipe.



TMI, guys!



I wrote toll house cookies, not three
mile island nuclear power plant.


..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 01:58:56 +0200, nestork
wrote:


Rebel1;3286867 Wrote:
The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put

anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into

the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent. From

the plumbing diagrams on the web, there are no traps other than the one

in the toilet. Should I be concerned that there is a blockage further
down the drain?

The house is 15 years old and built on a slab.

Thanks,

R1

If I had to guess, I'd guess it was because the vent stack that toilet
empties into is on the downwind side of your house.

I'm thinking that if the wind across North America is generally in a
west to east direction, if your vent stack opens up on the east side of
your roof, the wind blowing over your roof could be causing an low
pressure area on the east side of the roof, possibly causing air to be
sucked up the vent stack.

Test the idea. Light a cotton shoe lace until it's burning under it's
own steam, and then blow out the flame so that the cotton is smoldering,
releasing a steady stream of smoke as it burns. You now have a poor
man's smoke pencil. Hold the smoldering end of the shoe lace over your
floor flange (or what's left of it) and see if the smoke gets sucked
into the toilet waste pipe or blown out of it. If it gets blown out,
then it could be that the prevailing wind is pushing air down your vent
stack, and preventing sewer gas from coming up. If it gets sucked into
the toilet waste pipe, it's probably due to the wind blowing over your
roof.

So up or down, in or out, you're blaming the stack vent.

You should be a lawyer.

Do the shoelace test to find out where the smoke goes.
That will at least tell you what's happening.
Why it's happening is a matter of speculation.

Vent stacks act like chimneys in cold weather (or at night) because the warmer air inside them wants to rise, and that updraft could be drawing air out of your house through the open floor flange.

On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:40:52 +0200, nestork
wrote:


micky;3286926 Wrote:

So up or down, in or out, you're blaming the stack vent.
You should be a lawyer.

I should have had a smiley here.

Do the shoelace test and let us know where the smoke goes.
That'll shine more light on it than speculation.

On 9/21/2014 7:58 PM, nestork wrote:
Rebel1;3286867 Wrote:
The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put

anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into

the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent. From

the plumbing diagrams on the web, there are no traps other than the one

in the toilet. Should I be concerned that there is a blockage further
down the drain?

The house is 15 years old and built on a slab.

Thanks,

R1

If I had to guess, I'd guess it was because the vent stack that toilet
empties into is on the downwind side of your house.

I'm thinking that if the wind across North America is generally in a
west to east direction, if your vent stack opens up on the east side of
your roof, the wind blowing over your roof could be causing an low
pressure area on the east side of the roof, possibly causing air to be
sucked up the vent stack.

Test the idea. Light a cotton shoe lace until it's burning under it's
own steam, and then blow out the flame so that the cotton is smoldering,
releasing a steady stream of smoke as it burns. You now have a poor
man's smoke pencil. Hold the smoldering end of the shoe lace over your
floor flange (or what's left of it) and see if the smoke gets sucked
into the toilet waste pipe or blown out of it. If it gets blown out,
then it could be that the prevailing wind is pushing air down your vent
stack, and preventing sewer gas from coming up. If it gets sucked into
the toilet waste pipe, it's probably due to the wind blowing over your
roof.

Interesting theory, but the toilet has been off the flange for a week.
During that time the winds have varied from zero to fairly high. I can't
state that the winds/gusts have always been from the same direction.

Test the idea. Light a cotton shoe lace until it's burning under it's
own steam, and then blow out the flame so that the cotton is smoldering,
releasing a steady stream of smoke as it burns. You now have a poor
man's smoke pencil. Hold the smoldering end of the shoe lace over your
floor flange (or what's left of it) and see if the smoke gets sucked
into the toilet waste pipe or blown out of it. If it gets blown out,
then it could be that the prevailing wind is pushing air down your vent
stack, and preventing sewer gas from coming up. If it gets sucked into
the toilet waste pipe, it's probably due to the wind blowing over your
roof.

I used a length of twine. (Shoelaces still packed somewhere in my moving
boxes.) Produced black smoke with the flame present, then white after I
blew the flame out. The smoke rose, but that's its natural tendency
anyway. It didn't rise fast when I held the string over the opening.

I then cut a thin strip, 1/4" by 3" of single-ply facial tissue and held
it over the opening. Wasn't sucked down or blown upward.

I dumped about a gallon of water down the drain. It simply went away. If
there is a blockage farther down the drain pipe, this test wouldn't
detect it. Maybe I should run a garden hose down the drain for five minutes.

R1

"Rebel1" wrote in message ...
The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put
anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into
the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent. From
the plumbing diagrams on the web, there are no traps other than the one
in the toilet. Should I be concerned that there is a blockage further
down the drain?

The house is 15 years old and built on a slab.

The gases are probably seeping out into the room and you don't notice them. Try covering up the drain for a day and then removing and see what it smells like.

So, the smoke test shows there's no flow of air either into or out of the toilet drain pipe. That is the reason why there's no smell. Now, we have to ask ourselves whether there should or shouldn't be air flow into or out of that toilet drain pipe.

I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that a 7-11 Super Big Gulp cup is the perfect size to act as a stopper on a 4 inch toilet drain pipe IF you wanted to stopper it up.

Just be happy that water goes down and gasses don't seem to be coming out.
On a slab, unless you want to rent a sewer camera or hire a plumber that has one, all we can do is speculate, and there are bigger problems than "no smell" that are on this site.

On 9/23/2014 11:34 PM, nestork wrote:

I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that a 7-11
Super Big Gulp cup is the perfect size to act as a stopper on a 4 inch
toilet drain pipe IF you wanted to stopper it up.

I talked to a worker, years ago. We were having
a candid moment, after I made a mistayke on
one of his machines. He tells me that a foam
coffee cup works nicely. He says that if you
leave the foam cup in, and put the toilet back,
that the water overflows the bowl and goes on
the floor.


..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Wed, 24 Sep 2014 07:55:08 -0400, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

On 9/23/2014 11:34 PM, nestork wrote:

I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that a 7-11
Super Big Gulp cup is the perfect size to act as a stopper on a 4 inch
toilet drain pipe IF you wanted to stopper it up.

I talked to a worker, years ago. We were having
a candid moment, after I made a mistayke on
one of his machines. He tells me that a foam
coffee cup works nicely. He says that if you
leave the foam cup in, and put the toilet back,
that the water overflows the bowl and goes on
the floor.


Convicts used to get a case of stink-eye, then flush foam coffee cups
down the toilet. It would flood the whole range of cells. On the
second tier, it really ****ed off crooks on the first tier. Some
crooks (Columbians) would flush T-shirts down the toilet just to ****
up somebody's day.
--
Somtimes you just have a bad day at the dungeon

On 9/23/2014 11:52 PM, wrote:
Just be happy that water goes down and gasses don't seem to be coming out.
On a slab, unless you want to rent a sewer camera or hire a plumber that has one, all we can do is speculate, and there are bigger problems than "no smell" that are on this site.

Earlier today, I filled three buckets with water and emptied them in
rapid succession into the drain pipe. All the water disappeared. There
was probably five gallons in the three buckets.

On 9/24/2014 1:08 PM, Oren wrote:
Convicts used to get a case of stink-eye, then flush foam coffee cups
down the toilet. It would flood the whole range of cells. On the
second tier, it really ****ed off crooks on the first tier. Some
crooks (Columbians) would flush T-shirts down the toilet just to ****
up somebody's day.


Do you ever think there is a REASON why they
are not allowed out with the rest of the
people?


..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:47:39 -0400, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

On 9/24/2014 1:08 PM, Oren wrote:
Convicts used to get a case of stink-eye, then flush foam coffee cups
down the toilet. It would flood the whole range of cells. On the
second tier, it really ****ed off crooks on the first tier. Some
crooks (Columbians) would flush T-shirts down the toilet just to ****
up somebody's day.


Do you ever think there is a REASON why they
are not allowed out with the rest of the
people?


My best guess is they are democrats. I've thought about it for years.

On 9/24/2014 3:26 PM, Oren wrote:
On Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:47:39 -0400, Stormin Mormon
Do you ever think there is a REASON why they
are not allowed out with the rest of the
people?


My best guess is they are democrats. I've thought about it for years.


Makes more sense than anything I've heard this
week.


..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..