SugarHollow
New Member
So, my son's toilet backed up. While trying to unclog it by conventional means, I heard a rattle that sounded like ceramic or metal rattling inside the toilet pathway. Asked my son if he dropped anything in there. He said he dropped a ceramic cereal bowl on the adjacent vanity, which shattered. So I pulled the toilet and found three large fragments of the bowl surrounded by an exquisite wad of toilet paper, lodged at the very end of the pathway. I then excised the clog and reset the toilet. Ran OK until the first dump. Then I heard water backing up in the bathtub when my son was taking a shower. Concluded some pieces of the bowl must have lodged further down stream. So I pulled toilet again. Toilet was clear of any debris. Snaked the drain 20+ feet and felt/heard ceramic fragments inside. Filled up the bathtub with several gallons of water, then had my wife open the drain while I listened to water flow in pipe on ground floor. I heard at least two pieces of bowl pass through to ground.
Questions:
Do I need to worry about these fragments that are still in the system? Is there a place in the typical pumping design where they may have been trapped and I can remove them? Have I created a new (worse) problem?
Also, I tried a waxless Sani Seal ring for the first time to seal this toilet. There is no indication that it did not create a water-tight seal. However, the funnel portion of the ring did not sit nicely against the inside surface of the drain pipe - there were wrinkles that extended into the lumen (see photo). I decided that given the flimsiness of the funnel, it would not provide any significant resistance to the flow of toilet discharge. Is this anything for me to worry about?
Questions:
Do I need to worry about these fragments that are still in the system? Is there a place in the typical pumping design where they may have been trapped and I can remove them? Have I created a new (worse) problem?
Also, I tried a waxless Sani Seal ring for the first time to seal this toilet. There is no indication that it did not create a water-tight seal. However, the funnel portion of the ring did not sit nicely against the inside surface of the drain pipe - there were wrinkles that extended into the lumen (see photo). I decided that given the flimsiness of the funnel, it would not provide any significant resistance to the flow of toilet discharge. Is this anything for me to worry about?