Dirt in toilet bowl

[charlesm1950]

I was visiting my daughter on Christmas when she brought up a problem with her toilet having dirt in the bowl. She was right, it looked like about a cup of dirt had been scouped up out of the yard and dumped in. She doesn't have any dirt or stains in the tub and nothing settles out of a glass of water in the kitchen. Any idea where the dirt is coming from? Should she put a tee in the cold water line under her sink and use that for the toilet?
Thanks,
Charles

 

[Plumber1]

No tee in line, but I would take the dirt out with my hand and look inside the tank and watch to see if more dirt comes in.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Markts30]

Does she have a dog or kids?
I had a similar problem till I found my dog was "washing" his toys in the WC...
He would bring them in from the backyard, drop them in the bowl, Pick them back up (now clean and dripping) and take them back out...
I guess he liked them wet...
He did not do that to his water bowl though - probably did not want the dirt in it...LOL

 

[Cass]

Is she on a well?

 

[hj]

dirt

The water in the toilet makes a stop in the toilet tank where any sediment will settle out, if there is dirt in the water there will be even more dirt settled in the tank, so look there first.

 

[Daughter]

help with dirty potty reply

im the daughter with the dirty toilet bowl. i have a dog but thank goodness she keeps out of the bathroom. i do not have a well and am on city water. the toilet tank does not accumulate dirt. after cleaning the bowl the dirt will add and by the end of a week it looks like a half cup of dirt has been poured into the bowl. if the bowl is not cleaned every few days a weird odor starts that smells kinda moldy.

i was afraid that i had sediment coming into the pipes and had a plumber come out and take a look. he said (only from looking at it) that he thought that the sediment was from corroding pipes (the house was built in mid 1960s) and that i would have to replace all the pipes in the house or just live with it. i was and still am concerned that the sediment is coming in from a break in the line somewhere. i bought the house a little over a year ago and the previous owners did some massive foundation work and i have a huge oak tree that has a canopy that spans the roof of the house and into the neighbors yards---> the root system probably spans the house and leveling the house could have effected the pipes. the sediment is not rusty colored like hard water or what i've typically seen from corroded pipes in old houses. it literally looks like dirt and does not stick to the bowl when lightly brushed.

is it possible that the sediment is from corroded pipes not a leak in the line somewhere?

should i wait to replace the toilet until ive solved the dirt problem?

thanks!

 

[Pewterpower]

If there isn't any dirt in the tank, then I don't see how it could be a pipe/supply line issue.
How often does this toilet get flushed? Is it used regularly?
Does the "dirt" flush away, or stay in the bottom of the bowl, even after flushing?
Is the seat lid always up, or down?
Is there anything thing from above that could possibly be falling into the toilet?

 

[Randyj]

If you have this dirt in the bowl but no sediment in the tank then it is possibly bacteria or fungi growing. Simple way to solve this is to flush and hold the float up in the tank to stop it from filling....while pouring in a quart or so of bleach...then let it fill the rest of the way up...then flush and brush to scrub the bowl. If there is no more dirt in a few days then you'll know that was the problem....otherwise you have a very well sanitized bowl.

 

[Cass]

Do you have a water softner?

 

[Randyj]

Yep...didn't think about that... other than ONE water softener installation my experience with a softener is...ZIPP-O

 

[stairclimber]

Dear 'Daughter',
Did you ever find out what caused the dirt in the toilet bowl? My late Father-in-law's condo has a toilet bowl with the same problem. Tank is clean but bowl contains what looks like dirt. I'm wondering if it is being caused by lack of use. Maybe fungus. I'll have to try the bleach thing. I'm praying its fungus and not an expen$ive plumbing repair. The condo was probably built in the 60's or 70's so I suppose corroded pipes could be the cause.