Toilet flushing woes

[Rmelo99]

So I rent my old Single Family house out now. Currently to 3 college students(females)

The first floor half bathroom toilet is acting up. Slow to flush water down the bowl. I plunged and not much luck water goes down just slow. This bathroom has it's own 4" line that joins with the other vertical stack on it's way out of the house. That bathroom is fine.

The drain for the toilet is a straight shot down from the flange, takes a long sweep 90 and then runs about 15' horizontally with a generous slope before it joins the other and exits the house.

The "vent" for this toilet is on the right side of the 4" line about 4-6" below the subfloor and is 1.5" pipe that runs on the horizontal for about 10' and then hangs a turn and goes up(to the roof).

I pulled the toilet and ran the sink which dumps into this 4" pipe further down and it takes all the water. I poured about 15 buckets of hot water down through the flange and it took all that without issue. I'm fairly certain I have no blockage in the drain.

I don't know if I'm having a vent issue or toilet issue. I asked OVER AND OVER if there was any possibilty that something could have "accidentaly" fallen in. I was told 100% no way.

I reinstalled the toilet 2x and same slow to drain each time. I took the toilet out onto the deck and peaked thru the bottom and didn't see any blockage. I also reached in from the bowl and underside but didn't find anything.

I'm having deja vu to when one of my nephews dropped a comb into the toilet. That I finally found after 20mins or so of messing with a coat hanger.

My gut tells me something is stuck in the toilet trap but I'm at a loss.
Other than the sink "s-trap" that drains below the vent, nothing uses the "vent" line from this toilet.

 

[Dunbar Plumbing]

Run a closet auger through the toilet,


DONE.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Doherty Plumbing]

So I rent my old Single Family house out now. Currently to 3 college students(females)

The first floor half bathroom toilet is acting up. Slow to flush water down the bowl. I plunged and not much luck water goes down just slow. This bathroom has it's own 4" line that joins with the other vertical stack on it's way out of the house. That bathroom is fine.

The drain for the toilet is a straight shot down from the flange, takes a long sweep 90 and then runs about 15' horizontally with a generous slope before it joins the other and exits the house.

The "vent" for this toilet is on the right side of the 4" line about 4-6" below the subfloor and is 1.5" pipe that runs on the horizontal for about 10' and then hangs a turn and goes up(to the roof).

I pulled the toilet and ran the sink which dumps into this 4" pipe further down and it takes all the water. I poured about 15 buckets of hot water down through the flange and it took all that without issue. I'm fairly certain I have no blockage in the drain.

I don't know if I'm having a vent issue or toilet issue. I asked OVER AND OVER if there was any possibilty that something could have "accidentaly" fallen in. I was told 100% no way.

I reinstalled the toilet 2x and same slow to drain each time. I took the toilet out onto the deck and peaked thru the bottom and didn't see any blockage. I also reached in from the bowl and underside but didn't find anything.

I'm having deja vu to when one of my nephews dropped a comb into the toilet. That I finally found after 20mins or so of messing with a coat hanger.

My gut tells me something is stuck in the toilet trap but I'm at a loss.
Other than the sink "s-trap" that drains below the vent, nothing uses the "vent" line from this toilet.

If you took 15 buckets of water and dumped them through the flange and everything went ok I would make 1 suggestion:

Reinstall the toilet and dump buckets of water through the toilet. I am talking like 3-4 gallons of water each time. If everything is going fine then add toilet paper into the bowl and dump more water in with a bucket. If you do this a few times and everything goes fine you need a new toilet

 

[Rmelo99]

Never used one but was looking at them at the depot. Guess it wouldn't hurt to add this to my tool collection, they are $30+. Sucks because I will probably use it this once. Much rather spend money on cooler tools!

Should I "auger" it with the toilet off? Does this clear the clog down the drain or pull back whatever the blockage is? How effective? 100%

 

[Rmelo99]

Sorry forgot to mention that I did the bucket trick with the toilet on. No gulp as I would expect. I was using hot water then remembered hearing somewhere that you can crack the bowl doing that so I stopped and switched to cold water.

I know what a toilet is suposed to do when u dump a bucket of water into it but it didn't.

If I add a bit of paper it certainly gets worse and I'm talking one wad. I was there flushing for over 1 hr to get a feel for the behavior, then I had to leave b4 I exploded...freakin toilet.

I wasn't sure if dumping buckets was conclusive as it being an issue with the toilet itself or if some issue with the vent line could cause similar symptoms.

I had a buddy who had a rental and they had to smash the toilet to find the "toy" so the tenant could be back charged. I'd like to not try and stick it to these girls if it really isn't their doing. The toilet that is there isn't a good one by any means. I'd still prefer to not have to replace it.

 

[Doherty Plumbing]

Sorry forgot to mention that I did the bucket trick with the toilet on. No gulp as I would expect. I was using hot water then remembered hearing somewhere that you can crack the bowl doing that so I stopped and switched to cold water.

I know what a toilet is suposed to do when u dump a bucket of water into it but it didn't.

If I add a bit of paper it certainly gets worse and I'm talking one wad. I was there flushing for over 1 hr to get a feel for the behavior, then I had to leave b4 I exploded...freakin toilet.

Oh ok great. Then yeah you need to run a toilet auger through it with the toilet on so you can flush the toilet. I usually run the auger through and spin it around a few times. Then while the auger is still in the toilet flush the toilet and pull the auger back at the same time.

You might have to do this a couple of times.

 

[Dcelite]

Sure sounds like something is stuck in the trap. You can usually see it with the toilet upside down with an inspection mirror and a flash light.

 

[Rmelo99]

So just to give you guys an update, the toilet continued to not flush right. Instead of paying $300-400 to have someone snake the line from the Toilet Flange(no cleanout on this section) I decided to replace the 20' or so of 4" Cast Iron Drain pipe from this toilet. PVC is cheap and my labor is FREE!

Since 1/2 of line is up against the wall it wouldn't be easy to get the snap cutter around it. I decided to start on the part that is away from the wall. Knowing how heavy cast iron is (and working alone) I decided I would remove it in 18" sections. I picked an section and made my 2 snap cuts. Once I pulled the first section of pipe and tried looking through, it was blocked completly. I brought it outside and tried pushing out the clog using a broom handle. Turned out there were 2 broken pieces of "porcelain" and gobs of paper behind it(some of which was paper towels).

I don't have any idea how those shards of porcelain got in there but they were wedged in a way to obstruct the 4" pipe. That coupled with paper made for the perfect clog. I was LUCKY to just happen to cut out the right 18" of pipe out of about 20 feet or so.

I replaced the section with 4" pvc and a couple of banded couplings. Toilet flushes good as NEW!

 

[Terry]

We went to a job on Lake Sammamish, all brand new tile in the bathroom.

The tile setter had put his broken tile down the toilet drain.
Of course, the toilet wasn't usable with broken tile filling the waste line.
Dooh!