We once paid a plumber $350 to plunge a clogged toilet on New Year's Day. Since then we've learned how to deal with it ourselves.
Toilets clog. It's a fact of toilet life. But there are things you can do short of calling for help.
Prevention is key: as we've said before, don't use harsh chemicals like Draino, even in the toilet. Instead, pour a half cup of baking soda down the drain once a month followed by the same amount of white distilled vinegar. Let sit 15 minutes and then flush with boiling water. Or, as reader Kristin recommends, get into the habit of pouring the leftover boiling water from tea-making down the toilet.
When all else fails, here's a funny primer on plunging like you mean it from ToolGirl.
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Comments (4)
Never pour boiling water into a toilet. The porcelain most toilets are made out of can't handle dramatic temperature changes, and can crack if you dump in a bunch of boiling water (especially if the bowl has had icy cold water sitting in it for a few minutes).
Trust me, the last thing you want is for your toilet bowl to crack in half, fall apart and unleash a torrent of toilet water into your bathroom.
I was told by the handyman in our old apartment that Drano would dissolve the wax ring that sealed the toilet to the floor drain and let the (filthy) water in the bowl seep out the bottom and onto the floor. Maybe he was just making that up, but if true it would be a real frying pan into the fire scenario. We always plunge or snake, which is time consuming but effective.
I can't see how baking soda could possibly clear a toilet though. A baking soda and vinegar combo can sometimes clear a sink or bath drain, but that's because the chemical reaction exerts force against the clog if the other end is blocked. In a clogged toilet there's so much water that there wouldn't be much of a fizz, plus there's no way to stopper up the other end. The boiling water advice seems pretty dumb too. Advice about clearing sink and tub drains doesn't translate wholesale to toilets; they're different systems.
boomer, Drano contains sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, which indiscriminately dissolves organic material and causes corrosion. In short, Drano and its cousins can dissolve plastic (PVC) and older metal pipes, or the soldering at the joins of older pipes, causing leaks in the building that can be quite difficult to repair. It's often included in your lease (especially if you live in an older building like I do) that you are prohibited from using chemical means to clear blocked drains.
It sounds like the toilet suggestions came straight from the clogged sink suggestions, and while similar beasts, I can see why the same stuff doesn't work. Although I've never had icy-cold water in my toilet, I'd think there would be too much water in the bowl/pipes for the boiling water to be effective in the toilet. And like Dot pointed out, would the baking soda thing really work?
I guess I am looking for some more viable suggestions to keep my toilet "healthy", so I don't have a mental breakdown when it overflows!