When toilet's clogged, flapper won't close

[foxcorner]

We have an upstairs toilet that occasionally gets clogged. That's a nuisance, but it can be dealt with. The trouble is that if someone flushes when it's clogged and it overflows, the flapper doesn't close so the tank never fills so the valve never closes so water flows indefinitely. Yes, we're still sorting out the carpets...

Is there such a product as a toilet that's guaranteed not to keep the flapper open if the bowl overflows? Presumably it would need an air break or something to separate the water column?

Am I even making sense?

Thanks!
Dan

 

[Reach4]

Weird symptom.

It sounds drastic, but have you considered a new toilet? Less prone to clogging, and would not come with that weird symptom of continuing to fill if the toilet clogs.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Gary Swart]

Get a Toto

 

[foxcorner]

Weird symptom.

It sounds drastic, but have you considered a new toilet? Less prone to clogging, and would not come with that weird symptom of continuing to fill if the toilet clogs.

Yes, getting a new toilet is something we're planning to do. What I'm looking for is something that tells me for sure that a new toilet won't have the same problem. In other words, what technology feature ensures that an uninterrupted water path won't keep the flapper open?

 

[foxcorner]

Get a Toto

Is there something special about Toto toilets?

 

[Terry]

First thing, you need to fix the flapper, and perhaps the fill valve. For sure the flapper so that the tank holds water.
But sometimes even with a good flapper in place, if the fill valve keeps running, it will overfill the tank and fill the bowl through the overflow tube. The fill valve also needs to be in good working order.

Fluidmaster makes a fill valve that is supposed to shut off after a normal refill.
http://www.fluidmaster.com/toilet-fill-valve-with-leak-sentry.html

Thirdly, if you are plugging the bowl often, then maybe you also have a very poor toilet for your needs. I would think that cleaning carpets and water damage to the home is worse than fixing the toilet issues.

 

[foxcorner]

Thanks, Terry! We'd be happy to replace the toilet as it came with the house when we bought it last year. I did put in a modern valve, which works very well - as long as the flapper goes down...

I'm open to recommendations for a (not-expensive!) modern toilet that's less likely to clog and which isn't going to overflow indefinitely like this one does.

We did put a modern low water usage toilet in the downstairs bathroom, but that clogs too (bad drains here), and it's hard to use a plunger on it because the channel at the bottom of the bowl isn't circular, so it's hard to make a good seal. So... circular channel is another requirement for a new toilet.

Any recommendations?

 

[Terry]

You won't find may good bowls with a circular channel.
Let's start with what you have now. The most recent one. Knowing what that one is will help me figure out where we're headed on this.

 

[Reach4]

I'm open to recommendations for a (not-expensive!) modern toilet that's less likely to clog and which isn't going to overflow indefinitely like this one does.

Something in the $200 to $250 range? Toto Entrada is often recommended for bang for the buck.

We did put a modern low water usage toilet in the downstairs bathroom, but that clogs too (bad drains here), and it's hard to use a plunger on it because the channel at the bottom of the bowl isn't circular, so it's hard to make a good seal. So... circular channel is another requirement for a new toilet.

Better yet, get a plunger shaped for a good toilet. It may stay unused, however.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/plunging-a-toto-drake.65713/#post-487859

 

[foxcorner]

The new toilet in the downstairs bathroom is a dual-flush slimline Glacier Bay unit from home depot. It's OK, but not our favorite. Firstly, there's that plunger issue, and then it doesn't actually rinse the bowl very well when it flushes.

I'm interested in suggestions for the upstairs bathroom, which doesn't need to match what we have downstairs.

 

[foxcorner]

Something in the $200 to $250 range? Toto Entrada is often recommended for bang for the buck.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take a look.

Better yet, get a plunger shaped for a good toilet. It may stay unused, however.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/plunging-a-toto-drake.65713/#post-487859

Lol - thanks for the pointer to the plnger. We may invest in a couple.