Household Tip: Fix for poorly flushing toilet

[Frederick Skelly]

Clean the siphon valve!

I'm bringing this up, because for me, it was nearly a miracle cure. Maybe it will help someone else. Here's the long story.

My toilet just would not fully empty. I made every adjustment, ran every test, cleaned out the jets with a coat hanger, etc. No improvement - there just wasnt enough water getting in there. When it got to the point that even multiple flushes wouldnt help, I was ready to just replace it. But this toilet is 22 months old. So what the heck?

Having nothing to lose, I went to YouTube to look for ideas before buying the replacement. I stumbled on to a vid that explained that there is a "siphon valve" at the bottom of the bowl in the front. Apparently this thing is crucial to getting enough flushing water into the bowl.

The vid said to put on a glove, stick your finger in the hole and scrape out the scale - various chemicals that condense out of tapwater as solids. Sure enough, there was literally a pile of this scale stuff filling much of that hole. This surprised me, because I dont have many hardwater problems with sinks, shower, etc. But anyway, I dug out that scale and then flushed. That toilet worked like new! Today I soaked the bowl in "heavy duty" vinegar (9% acetic acid) for a couple hours. The porcelain inside that hole is smooth and clean again. I'll be doing this with both toilets occasionally now.

There are several vids that explain how to do this if you want more info.

I hope this helps some other frustrated person.
Fred

[Mel Fulks]

Frederick, that sounds like an excellent fix for a GOOD toilet ! But it won’t do much for one of those ‘80’s “water saving” toilets! They didn’t
save water ....just flushed on the “installment plan” to use MORE water ! Beaurocrats failed at designing toilets ,but do deserve a chance to
clean them!

[Warren Lake]

One thing I noticed when I got a fancy Toto (not the Band though Steve Lukathur does have Toto toilets) the hole size from top bowl to the bottom is larger so more bang for the buck, flushing with more authority. Sort of like getting the SCM planer after the General planer, the General took the wood, the SCM rips it out of your hands. .

[Kev Williams]

Had that same problem in our mobile home some friends are renting. Identical toilets in the main bath and master bath, but the main bath wouldn't flush right. Turns out that section of sewer pipe was running slightly uphill. For 20 years there was no problem but seems the pipe finally accumulated enough standing water that the 1.2 gallon flush couldn't push past it...

A plumber with a camera figured that out for us :)

[Jim Koepke]

Today I soaked the bowl in "heavy duty" vinegar (9% acetic acid) for a couple hours.

Where can one find "heavy duty" vinegar?

jtk

[Dave Seng]

It's often referred to as "Cleaning Vinegar". Most hardware stores will carry it.

[Frederick Skelly]

Where can one find "heavy duty" vinegar?

jtk

Jim, I found it at my local grocery store. They call it "extra strength" vinegar, at 9% acetic acid. It's about $3 for a gallon. As Dave said, I also found some similar products online called "cleaning vinegar".

I like the idea of using something "natural" like vinegar rather than something stronger like Muratic Acid.

[Jim Koepke]

It's often referred to as "Cleaning Vinegar". Most hardware stores will carry it.


Jim, I found it at my local grocery store. They call it "extra strength" vinegar, at 9% acetic acid. It's about $3 for a gallon. As Dave said, I also found some similar products online called "cleaning vinegar".

I like the idea of using something "natural" like vinegar rather than something stronger like Muratic Acid.

Thanks for the replies. That is something to try for getting iron stains out of my toilets.

jtk

[Kev Williams]

Most vinegar is 5%, most cleaning vinegar I've seen is only 6%, never seen 9% before...

But I Have seen THIS stuff at HD--

453918

Since the water in the bowl is going to dilute it anyway, might as well get the GOOD stuff!

---wear gloves...

[Frederick Skelly]

Holy Moly Kev. 30%? That's some serious stuff!

[Bruce Wrenn]

DollarTree carries cleaning vinegar.

[Mike Henderson]

One thing I noticed when I got a fancy Toto (not the Band though Steve Lukathur does have Toto toilets) the hole size from top bowl to the bottom is larger so more bang for the buck, flushing with more authority. Sort of like getting the SCM planer after the General planer, the General took the wood, the SCM rips it out of your hands. .

I agree with that. I replaced several problem toilets with Toto toilets and never had a problem with them.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Most vinegar is 5%, most cleaning vinegar I've seen is only 6%, never seen 9% before...

But I Have seen THIS stuff at HD--

453918

Since the water in the bowl is going to dilute it anyway, might as well get the GOOD stuff!

---wear gloves...

Or try Glacial Acetic Acid. It's essentially strong vinegar.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

Photo supply stores used to have a very strong Acetic Acid used as a stop solution after the developing in an alkali solution.

When was the last time you saw a photo supply store for film cameras?

jtk

[Aaron Rosenthal]

There is one thing.....
I've been leery of strong cleaning solutions for years, because I once had the flapper valve of my Toto disintegrate after using a strong Acetic Acid solution;
I can't tell you of any other fixes (we have blessedly soft water here), but make sure you have a line on a new falpper valve.

[Mike Henderson]

Photo supply stores used to have a very strong Acetic Acid used as a stop solution after the developing in an alkali solution.

When was the last time you saw a photo supply store for film cameras?

jtk

Yep, that's how I know of glacial acetic acid - from my days long ago doing film photography (and developing the pictures). That really was a long time ago.

Mike

[Alan Rutherford]

I have no real comment on the cleaning solutions (although I'd think that anything you can do with maxi-vinegar you can do with the regular stuff - it would just take longer) but FWIW I do not recommend using fine sandpaper on a toilet bowl. Who would do that, you ask? The previous owner of my house. For several years I wondered why certain spots on one bowl were always the first to show a little mold if they weren't cleaned often enough. Then one day a neighbor commented that a former neighbor had suggested sandpaper and now her toilet bowls need to be replaced and I figured it out.

Not that anybody here would do that.

[Warren Lake]

good idea to do a dye test as well. Shut the water off at the floor over night, put food colouring in the top bowl and in the morning see any colour in the bottom bowl and or water level down.

Ive had the fancy toto get al leak iin a home that was empty. Different the new mechanisms (and Kory Replacement) to the old school stuff. Also bought the universal replacement for a Briggs and had a leak then called them after looking at it better that the part given to me big box as the right one for rhe briggs was not. There was a bevel on one of the gaskets and not on the replacement part. The original type gasket with the bevel centered the part in an oversize hole. The replacement didnt so since talking about toilets im blurting those two things out

[Dave Zellers]

Is this treatment safe for septic systems?

[Dave Zellers]

The internet says yes.

https://septicflusher.com/is-vinegar-safe-for-septic-systems/

[Frederick Skelly]

Is this treatment safe for septic systems?

I don't know. But you could forego the vinegar if you were in doubt, and just clean the scale out with your gloved finger or a toothbrush. The fix probably wont last quite as long but it will still make a big difference in performance. At least it did for me.

[Bill Dufour]

Fill a few plastic soda bottles with water and cap them. Put them in the bowl before adding the chemicals. This will displace some of the water and reduce the dilution of the chemicals.
Bill D.

[Kev Williams]

FWIW I do not recommend using fine sandpaper on a toilet bowl. Who would do that, you ask? The previous owner of my house. For several years I wondered why certain spots on one bowl were always the first to show a little mold if they weren't cleaned often enough. Then one day a neighbor commented that a former neighbor had suggested sandpaper and now her toilet bowls need to be replaced and I figured it out.

Not that anybody here would do that.

You CAN use a pumice stone-- on the mohs hardness scale pumice is a 6, porcelain is 6-7, and aluminum oxide sandpaper is 9; pumice will almost scratch porcelain, sandpaper will definitely scratch it...