Water not going down toilet but goes down drain fine

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jmiller5580

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We have taken our toilet off and poured about 10 gallons of water down the pipe through the floor and it never comes back up but when we flush the toilet it just fills up in the bowl. We snaked the pipe anyway and the toilet thinking a clog or possibly an airlock but still no relief. We even bought a new toilet and put it on but it still does the same thing and just fills up the bowl but won't go down. The water can be forced down the bowl of the toilet but won't go on its own. If there is an airlock in the pipe somehow, how can we burp the system to get rid of it? Or keep it from happening?
 

hj

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if it happened with two DIFFERENT toilets, then the conclusion has to be that the toilet is installed over a "P" trap under the floor. If so, NO MODERN toilet has the ability to overcome it, even though some of the older ones could.
 

jmiller5580

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After digging up the septic tanks last night and seeing that no water is coming out through the end of the pipe into the tank, we believe the pipe may not have enough slope to the tank and therefore we are getting buildup in the pipe and the water went down fine because it is backing up into our bathtub grease trap but not coming out where it should. We are going to try to roto-rooter the pipe tinight to see if we can get some of the build up out. Then our next step is trying to figure out the slope of the pipe so we can try to fix that so this doesn't keep happening as this is not our first time down this road. Thank you for your advice!
 

hj

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I believe your diagnosis may be faulty. UNLESS the pipe is already full of water, or partially full without ANY vents, the toilet should flush at least a couple of times before failing. Depending on how much water you ran down the drain, it should have filled the pipe and overflowed onto the floor before entering the bathtub.
 

jmiller5580

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So what are you suggesting we do then? We poured at least 10 gallons of water down the pipe through the floor under the toilet the night before last and we flushed it at least 2-3 times last night as well as running the hose strisght down the pipe through the floor and no water came out the other end of the pipe into the septic tank...not sure where else the water could be going. We have a grease trap outside that room in the ground where the water from the bathtub runs through and my husband saw water backing up into there so we are assuming that's where it is going for now. We do have one vent pipe and we checked it last night by shininga flash light down it and poured some water down it and got no evidence of a clog there either. When we snaked the pipe starting at the tank end last night it seemed as though we got a little grudge build up and very small amounts of water out but not much but the water would still not run down it and out when we watched it. Not sure where else it could be going...
 

Cwhyu2

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Is it a septic tank system or a cavatet? It may be time to have the line checked with a camera.

Or professinally rodded out.
 

hj

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IF you have a "grease trap outside" for the bathtub, you have a VERY UNUSUAL installation, because bathtubs, normally, do NOT need a grease trap. From here, we cannot diagnose your problem just based on your information.
 
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