thomas neverdone
New Member
Hello all-
I have an issue about my toilet bowl not filling after flushing. I know this forum has many good discussions of similar problems but believe me, I did my homework and read them all before posting but none help explain or solve my dilemma.
Background: About 2-years ago I had to replace my bathtub and in so doing, needed to pull up the toilet and later reinstall it. When I reinstalled the toilet, I found that the bowl would not fill. As the tank filled, the bowl supply water just flowed out and over the weir. When tank was done filling, the bowl was left with a small puddle no higher than the height of the bowl outlet. Clever handy man that I am, I checked fore-aft level on the rim and discovered a significant out of level condition (house is very old, maybe 150-years or so and plumbing improvements may have been done ~1960's), so I proceeded to loosen the floor bolts and shim the toilet to level perfection and the bowl filling problem vanished. I enjoyed happy flushing with a full bowl for about a year and half, when I noticed quite suddenly that my newly painted living room ceiling started to blister and bubble and the area of blistering spread far and wide. Evidently, in my smartness when I leveled the toilet back a year or so ago, I must have broken the wax seal which allowed small amounts of water to spit out and saturate the wooden floor (beneath the linoleum) and this went undetected by anyone until the below ceiling slowly turned to suspended oatmeal. Breaking the wax seal also (evidently) allowed air to enter and break the siphon action, thereby allowing the bowl to fill properly every time.
After pulling the toilet and blowing fans on the saturated underlayment, beams and sheetrock I reinstalled the toilet with a new wax ring after carefully shimming/checking level in all directions before squishing the wax and tightening down. Once again level perfection had been achieved however, now once again the bowl refuses to fill !!
Tried to figure this all out for weeks when I noticed that approximately 2-minutes after flushing, a certain amount of gurgling can be heard somewhere in the system, at which time I can slowly add water manually to fill the bowl. I have snaked the waste pipe - no obstructions felt; I have dropped a chain down the stack - no obstructions felt; also added an AAV to the adjacent sink drain hoping to break any vacuum that may be created; installed a new toilet (Kohler Wellworth) - no improvement; also just finished running an 1-1/2" line from the 3-inch waste pipe (attached to a glue-on saddle) through the wall to an attic space (the saddle is located adjacent to the elbow attached to the toilet floor flange). Had high hopes for the saddle mounted vent line - but it made NO difference in the bowl filling situation.
I am totally lost and hope someone might explain WHY my toilet bowl water is being drained away as fast as it enters.
Any ideas?? and thanks for any input.
Tom
I have an issue about my toilet bowl not filling after flushing. I know this forum has many good discussions of similar problems but believe me, I did my homework and read them all before posting but none help explain or solve my dilemma.
Background: About 2-years ago I had to replace my bathtub and in so doing, needed to pull up the toilet and later reinstall it. When I reinstalled the toilet, I found that the bowl would not fill. As the tank filled, the bowl supply water just flowed out and over the weir. When tank was done filling, the bowl was left with a small puddle no higher than the height of the bowl outlet. Clever handy man that I am, I checked fore-aft level on the rim and discovered a significant out of level condition (house is very old, maybe 150-years or so and plumbing improvements may have been done ~1960's), so I proceeded to loosen the floor bolts and shim the toilet to level perfection and the bowl filling problem vanished. I enjoyed happy flushing with a full bowl for about a year and half, when I noticed quite suddenly that my newly painted living room ceiling started to blister and bubble and the area of blistering spread far and wide. Evidently, in my smartness when I leveled the toilet back a year or so ago, I must have broken the wax seal which allowed small amounts of water to spit out and saturate the wooden floor (beneath the linoleum) and this went undetected by anyone until the below ceiling slowly turned to suspended oatmeal. Breaking the wax seal also (evidently) allowed air to enter and break the siphon action, thereby allowing the bowl to fill properly every time.
After pulling the toilet and blowing fans on the saturated underlayment, beams and sheetrock I reinstalled the toilet with a new wax ring after carefully shimming/checking level in all directions before squishing the wax and tightening down. Once again level perfection had been achieved however, now once again the bowl refuses to fill !!
Tried to figure this all out for weeks when I noticed that approximately 2-minutes after flushing, a certain amount of gurgling can be heard somewhere in the system, at which time I can slowly add water manually to fill the bowl. I have snaked the waste pipe - no obstructions felt; I have dropped a chain down the stack - no obstructions felt; also added an AAV to the adjacent sink drain hoping to break any vacuum that may be created; installed a new toilet (Kohler Wellworth) - no improvement; also just finished running an 1-1/2" line from the 3-inch waste pipe (attached to a glue-on saddle) through the wall to an attic space (the saddle is located adjacent to the elbow attached to the toilet floor flange). Had high hopes for the saddle mounted vent line - but it made NO difference in the bowl filling situation.
I am totally lost and hope someone might explain WHY my toilet bowl water is being drained away as fast as it enters.
Any ideas?? and thanks for any input.
Tom