Slow flush -- possible causes?

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bree

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I have a 30 yo toilet was working well but now flushes slowly after water comes up rather high in the bowl. Cleaned mainline -- no difference. Poured 3 gal water in bowl -- goes down perfectly! Yes, there is a black ring under the rim of the bowl.
I have been told problem is mineral deposits in the holes under the rim and I need to either clean out holes with a wire, which may have to be redone, or install new toilet.
Can anyone think of any other possible cause before I buy a new toilet? We haven't changed the internal mechanism in the tank in quite a while. Last thing was replacing a leaking wax ring. Thanks for your help!
 

Jadnashua

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There's likely a toy, pencil, pen, toothbrush, etc. or something caught in the trapway of the toilet. Water will go by easily, but add paper or anything else, and it gets clogged up.
 

Redwood

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You may do well to go through the toilets to make sure they are in optimum working order before giving up on them.

Auger the toilet to make sure the trapway is clear. Use a 3' General or, Ridgid closet auger with a drop head that has a retriever hook. About $40 at most supply houses. If you see the $10 econo auger save your money! IMHO they would be a waste of $0.01 to buy one if they set the price that low.

Set the tank water level to the full line or, 5/8" below the top of the overflow tube. Make sure that water sprays out of the bowl refill tube and down the overflow tube when the tank is refilling.

Replace the flapper with a proper new one. The Korky #2991BP should fit in many cases, make sure you cut the ring off if you are using the hooks to mount the flapper.

Take a piece of coat hanger wire and push it into each of the holes inside the bowl under the rim. Make sure that the siphon jet hole in the bottom of the bowl is clear as well.

More than likely... It's Time!

If you use an in tank bowl cleaner like the blue smurf glop that sits in the corner of the tank remove it and don't use it again.

If the flush does not improve after all this then you can be pretty sure it's time for a nice new Toto toilet to repace them.
 

Redwood

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This was sent to me in a PM. Please in the future ask these questions in the open forum so that others may read the comments and benefit from the discussion.


Re: Blue glop and cleaning the holes

bree said:
Thanks, Redwood, for your response to my post about the slow flush toilet that works fine when you dump 3 gallons of water into the bowl. 2 questions:
1) Could the blue glop cleaner cause this problem? My tenant who uses this toilet apparently dumped some in about 2 weeks ago, and it is a very deep blue color. I can't see a container hanging in the tank; it must be sitting on the bottom. It must be gloppy stuff if you can't even see the container.
2) If you wire-clean the holes under the rim, the plugs will not fall into the bowl, where it would flush out. they will go back in. Do the plugs have any OTHER way to get out of the system, or are they just waiting for a flush to carry them back into the holes? Someone at Home Depot told me about this hole cleaning alternative, but he said it only lasts a while and then has to be redone.
Thanks from Bree.

That is the infamous blue glop that ruins toilets! Take a wet/dry shop vac and suck all of it out of the tank. Remove the flapper and see if any large chunks of the stuff are directly under the flapper blocking the internal passages of the toilet.

Take a piece of coat hanger wire and push it into each of the holes in the bowl up under the rim of the toilet. Wiggle it around and hopefully dislodge any of the glop in there.

In the bottom of the bowl there may be a siphon jet hole. Take a longer piece of coathanger wire about 1 1/2' long and curve it slightly. The siphon jet bassage will run from the bottom of the bowl up the front of the toilet to the rim at the front edge of the toilet. You are going to try to push the wire all the way up to that point. Keep flushing while you work the wire and try to break up and clumps that are blocking the flow.

This stuff is the ultimate in nasty and hopefully you can get enough out so the toilet starts working again. If you can't the toilet will require replacement.

I would encourage any landlord to put wording in the lease/rental agreement that prohibits the use of in tank bowl cleaners. They are very detrimental to the operation of a toilet. Most toilet manufacturers state that the use of in tank bowl cleaners will void the warrantee on the toilet.
 

bree

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THANKS, REDWOOD! Removing the infamous blue glop solved the whole problem instantly. We ladled it from tank directly into bowl then wiped out tank before allowing fresh water in, flushed twice, and voila -- a well-functioning toilet My tenant said he was expecting blue grit at the bottom of the tank, but it was thick, gummy glop, which of course, sitting next to the exit hole, was being pushed out with the water to clog the small toilet holes. (By the way, had we removed the blue water with a vac, we would still have had the problem of where to dispose of the vacuum contents.)
 

Redwood

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Glad to hear you saved the toilet...
I've had a few that I couldn't get cleared out again...

I usually just dump the shop vac in the bowl...
It goes out...
 
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