slow toilet flushing

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I've got three toilets in the house that require you to pretty much hold the handle down through most of the flush or they will stop flushing (bowl will stop swirling). We've replaced the insides of the toilets, but am wondering if a total toilet replacement will solve this? Sometimes it takes a couple times of flushing to get them to work or complete the full flush cycle. (worse on some toilets vs. others). I have different toilet in my basement that is about 3 years old on a new basement remodel, and it is like a rocket it flushes so good, so I will often use that one out of convenience.

If this is the problem, can you suggest what type of toilet or parameters I should be looking for? I purchased my basement toilet from a big box store and the only thing I seem to remember is that they called it a "high flow."
 

Gary Swart

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"High flow?" The only legal toilets today are low flow and I can only guess what was meant by high flow. Big box stores typically sell what is commonly called, builder grade toilets. These are cheap and professional plumbers make a pretty good living replacing them. It is not a matter of repairing, these things are poorly designed. If you have been around this forum very long, you would know that most of the plumbers here prefer the Toto toilets. These can not be purchased at a discount store, but they are often sold at less than MSRP by plumbing shops. Not all shops carry them in stock, but can order them for you. It is not recommended that you purchase them on-line as toilets shipped individually by freight or USP frequently can arrive broken. A properly functioning toilet needs only to have the handle tripped, not held. Only about 1/2 of the water in the tank is use per flush. The latest designs only use 1.28 gallons per flush. Previous models use 1.6 gallons. Believe it or not, a well designed toilet will flush very well with these small amounts of water. Unfortunately, many of the well known brand names are not designed well and do not perform well.
 

Jadnashua

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Older toilets often would fill up the bowl, swirl around a bit, then empty. The new ones do not work that way. If an older toilet takes forever for the water level to drop, there is likely a clog somewhere. Same is true with a newer, low-flow toilet. Most of the newer low-flow toilets rely on a jet of water to force the waste out of the bowl, and the siphon is broken shortly after and then the thing fills back up for the next time; they do NOT fill up, then swirl, then empty...they jet the stuff out in one action. There may be a secondary swirl to help clean the bowl, but that isn't the primary 'push' to get it emptied.
 
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So when you guys say a clog somewhere can be slowing the flow, you mean in the actual toilet correct, and not down line? And can that clog be un-clogged, or is it more effective to go with new toilets. I was briefly looking at the under $200 Toto Dalton posts.
 

Jadnashua

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A clog could be in the toilet itself, but could easily be down the line some. that clog could be a pen, pencil, comb, toy, or other stuff.
 

Jadnashua

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Some workmen just seem to consider a toilet drain a trash bin...you can find all sorts of stuff down there sometimes. So, on a new or recently remodeled place debris in the drain could be an issue. Sometimes they'll rinse out their thinset or grout buckets, or other stuff in the toilet. It can really mess things up a bit. But, if they are builder's grade toilets, they often don't work all that well.
 

Jerome2877

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It can sometimes be a build up of sediment in the outlet holes from the tank to the bowl, try taking a bucket full of water and dumping it in the bowl. If it flushes fine use a coat hanger or something like it and go through all the holes around the bowl.
 
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Just following up. I purchased a American Standard Cadet 3 as looking at the tank code, this seems to be the one I had downstairs, but it was the 1.6 downstairs that I really like, and only found the 1.28 at the big blue place. Anyway, I did read some of the reviews, and figured I would still go with it. I had broke my toilet flange, and had to add a repair bracket (you can see my other post on that), but now that its in, it seems to work pretty good. I do see the complaints of splash up are well warranted. I have been playing with it and find I need to push the handled down slowly to not let the full gush of water go in, or its geiser time (to the behind). I also see the yellow float thing that others have said could cause a problem. Seems level and doesn't move or rock at all. The tank is like the one in my basement, and has plenty of movement with that big rubber seal. I also ended up using a Fernco waxless ring because of the increased tile height and that seems to be working well. This one has rings on, of which I used the fatter one, but it looks like now they make the thing as a one piece design and with adhesive. (I've flushed it about 20 times already so we'll see but no problems that I can tell). I'll try to update this post sometime at a later date with an update on performance. This one is in our master bath, and will get light use, with no children.

One other thing on the tank. The right tank bolt was pressed up against the overflow tube (I assume that's what that tall thing is), and was not seated correctly into the tank. Was easy to fix, but worth noting another quaility issue for anyone else looking at these toilets.
 
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