primitive (no, not the sparkling husband primitive) has problem with commode

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=287x7273

Oh my.

likesmountains 52  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-31-08 11:36 AM
Original message
 
Is this a simple plumbing problem that I can fix? One of my toilets is not filling the bowl with water after I flush, only fills up about half way. Then when I flush it fills up with water from the tank to the rim of the bowl and instead of going down the drain with a whoosh it just dwindles down over 5 minutes or so. I guess I'm asking if this is a problem with the toilet itself..or do I need Roto_Rooter?

Sounds like "indoor plumbing" that occasionally existed in the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants with free medical care for all, wherever indoor plumbing existed at all, which was damned little.

yy4me  (1000+ posts)        Wed Dec-31-08 12:13 PM
Response to Original message

1. You probably have a clog of some sort in the lines. This same thing happened to us years ago and my husband went to the hardware store and bought a strange looking device that looks like a long handled vacuum stick with a crank on the end. The business end is a long flexible rod with a small, single eggbeater type end. It was shoved down the hopper as far as it would go and then the fun starts. You crank the handle causing the long snake type end to rotate and break up whatever was in the way. When removed, you might find some interesting debris. Our end came out tangled with dental floss. Yes, I now know that floss does not get dropped in the bowl. It has been used a couple of other times, never know what will drop in the bowl besides what is intended.

Then the expert on such matters, the sparkling husband primitive, gives a clue, but the comment's nearly all just a couple of photographs of a plumbing tool, so no quote.

mopinko  (1000+ posts)        Wed Dec-31-08 06:05 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
7. be patient.

i had a pricey toilet that clogged all the time. i spent a lot of time on the business end of one of those things, and i eventually beat the toilet to death. i have never been so happy to break something!

if you use more muscle than patience, you can take a bite out of the porcelain. i presume you like your toilet. so, go slow.

In case anybody's forgotten, the mostinko primitive's the rich primitive always trying to remodel her house, using non-union labor where one pays cash under the table, and is never satisfied.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Wed Dec-31-08 02:21 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
6. It also works reasonably well on other drains like the kitchen sink.

My dad used to get up on the roof and run it down the vent pipe once in a blue moon to clear clogs farther down the stack.

Just realize the business end is not going to be pretty when you retrieve it.

[LC EFA]

If it's a non-septic system, I'd start by dumping a pound of granular Sodium Hydroxide in the bowl and following that up 5-10 minutes later with a 5 gal bucket of very hot water poured in slowly at first and then faster as the bucket depleted.
 
I'm not taking into account frozen pipes here though.

[Eupher]

If it's a non-septic system, I'd start by dumping a pound of granular Sodium Hydroxide in the bowl and following that up 5-10 minutes later with a 5 gal bucket of very hot water poured in slowly at first and then faster as the bucket depleted.
 
I'm not taking into account frozen pipes here though.

Wow, that's a LOT of NAOH. That much caustic can do a real number on pipes, methinks, unless they're PVC. Even then....

I'm no plumber and I'm not a chemist, but I have seen what NAOH can do. It's a very, very powerful base that burns the hell out of whatever it touches.

[LC EFA]

Wow, that's a LOT of NAOH. That much caustic can do a real number on pipes, methinks, unless they're PVC. Even then....

I'm no plumber and I'm not a chemist, but I have seen what NAOH can do. It's a very, very powerful base that burns the hell out of whatever it touches.

Well the recommended dilution is 60g/L , so technically when you dump 15 liters of water in on top it brings the concentration down to a acceptable range.

All my outbound plumbing is PVC.

[franksolich]

The primitive probably has socialist plumbing.

There was a time during the Brezhnev era (1964-1982) in the Soviet Union that the socialists boasted that "98.5%" of all homes in the Soviet Union had indoor plumbing.

That was correct, but then and again, it wasn't correct.

When I was wandering around the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants during the mid-1990s, I was intrigued that so many peasant cottages had indoor plumbing--the bathtub, the sink, the commode--and doubly intrigued that no one used them, instead always going to that little shack in the back.

The peasants put potatoes in the bathtub, onions in the sink, beets in the bowl of the commode, and hung herbs and spices to dry in the tank of the commode.

I learned that there had been much resentment about this indoor plumbing.  Peasant cottages are very tiny, and the socialists made them even more cramped, by stealing one part of each cottage so as to install this indoor plumbing.

And then after all was installed, the socialists forgot to put in water and sewer lines leading to the indoor plumbing.  Such indoor plumbing wasn't being used for the intended purpose, because it couldn't be used for the intended purpose.

No water incoming, no way for water to outgo.

Ah, how wonderful life, under socialism with free medical care for all!

[Wineslob]

Sounds like the crapper has taken a crap.








 

[Thor]

I would suspect a clogged or non-existent vent pipe. The bathroom tubs in my last house weren't draining very well and the toilet didn't flush quite right. Turns out that there was a cap on the vent pipe that the plumbers had installed and didn't remove prior to us moving in.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

Wow, that's a LOT of NAOH. That much caustic can do a real number on pipes, methinks, unless they're PVC. Even then....

I'm no plumber and I'm not a chemist, but I have seen what NAOH can do. It's a very, very powerful base that burns the hell out of whatever it touches.

Actually Euph it comes in a plastic container,it really does a number on organic material! they use NAOH in drain cleaners and oven cleaners.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

If it's a non-septic system, I'd start by dumping a pound of granular Sodium Hydroxide in the bowl and following that up 5-10 minutes later with a 5 gal bucket of very hot water poured in slowly at first and then faster as the bucket depleted.
 
I'm not taking into account frozen pipes here though.

Yes very slowly...unless you aren't too attached to your eyes or the skin on your face and hands!

[Eupher]

Actually Euph it comes in a plastic container,it really does a number on organic material! they use NAOH in drain cleaners and oven cleaners.

Yes, I'm aware of that. But the commercially-obtained NAOH is generally cut with other inert materials to make it less dangerous.

If someone actually uses >99% pure NAOH, better put on a space suit for PPE!

For the really pure stuff, I've actually seen it in cardboard boxes. And even cardboard breaks down after awhile.

[LC EFA]

Yes, I'm aware of that. But the commercially-obtained NAOH is generally cut with other inert materials to make it less dangerous.

If someone actually uses >99% pure NAOH, better put on a space suit for PPE!

For the really pure stuff, I've actually seen it in cardboard boxes. And even cardboard breaks down after awhile.

Bottle says 98%.

I've seriously never had a problem doing it that way. There is a fair old bit of exothermic activity but that's fairly rapidly sent down into the pipe where it's not really a spatter hazard.

This isn't something that one should not do unless more conventional methods have failed to shift the blockage.

[Thor]

Well, when y'all can plug up a Toto toilet, come talk to me. Until then, y'all are rookies......

[Eupher]

Well, when y'all can plug up a Toto toilet, come talk to me. Until then, y'all are rookies......

Uh....Thor? What does THAT mean? That you're full of shit??          

[Thor]

Uh....Thor? What does THAT mean? That you're full of shit??