Plugged Toilet

I have a toilet that used to flush great, but in the last couple of months it has become very intermittent and now I have to have a plunger handy at every flush with solids involved. Any ideas as to the cause and solution?

Yes, it's plugged.
Use a closet auger on it, or pull the bowl if needed and remove whatever is plugging it from the bottom.

Are you missing any ball point pens?

Most likely there is something in there that shouldn't be. Things like toothbrushes, kid's toys, combs, make-up jars, are just a few of the kinds of things that can plug the toilet.

People always tell me that nobody put "anything" in the toilet.

It just stopped working!

Here is a bowl that I broke up, just to see. The homeowner swore up and down that the was really nothing wrong with the bowl, but he did want something with more push. This is what I found.

Terry said:

People always tell me that nobody put "anything" in the toilet.

It just stopped working!

Here is a bowl that I broke up, just to see. The homeowner swore up and down that the was really nothing wrong with the bowl, but he did want something with more push. This is what I found.

Click to expand...

Gee I wonder how that measuring cup got there! Our toilets have taken on quite a few random objects over the 3 decades us kids have been around (I've only been around 17 of those years haha) a 1990 Wellworth that used to be in the downstairs bathroom got some sort of baking related object stuck in it once, right at the trap outlet so it was retrievable. Or more recently one of the Drakes had gotten a piece of wire stuck in it causing paper to get trapped (even I don't know how a wire got flushed). I don't even remember what the old Eljer Emblem got stuck in it the one time it was pulled.

Great photo. Wonder what the client thought while you were smashing a toilet in his bathroom... Postal Plumber?

I've seen more than one toilet trap restricted by the "bowl sanitizing blocks" that go in the toilet or the tank. I always tell people the only thing they should be cleaning the toilet with is a toilet brush.

I think the bowl was "grouted" to the floor. Every once in a while you will see someone suggesting "grouting" a bowl to the floor. This is how you remove them.
By the way, the homeowner assured me it was a perfectly fine toilet bowl, but that the drain line wasn't working well. I told him it was likely in the trapway; which we may never have known, but since the bowl was "stuck" to his floor, and the only option was to break it off the floor, this is what I found. You have to be very careful with broken porcelain. Years ago I was going to do the STP, Seattle to Portland bicycle ride of 200 miles in two days. Friday morning before the weekend, I reached around a broken tank to get to the bolt, and sliced the side of my wrist and brushed the tendon. The slice in my arm was about 3" long and was dripping out red fluid all over the floor, which was puzzling because I didn't know where it was coming from. When I looked down at my arm I realized it was "my" red fluid.
That killed the 200 mile bike ride for me.