How To Unblock Toilet
A blocked toilet is one of the most annoying things we ever have to deal with. For one thing it’s usually pretty gross, can be frustrating to unblock and always seems to happen when we are in a hurry. So how do you unblock toilet? Well there are any number of ways you can do so, some simple and some more time consuming. Let’s take a look at how it can be done.
Unblocking a toilet can be very messy in more ways than one so you want to make sure you are prepared for an overflow of water and whatever is backed up in the bowl. I would highly recommend you get something to clean up any spillage before you do anything. Towels, newspaper or anything absorbent would be good, but you don’t want to use anything you don’t want to eventually throw away.
One of the first things you can try is to dump a large pot of warm or boiling water in to the toilet. Obviously if the bowl is full already this is not an option, but if you have room to add water you can try this. Adding warm water attacks the clog in two ways. First, it ads pressure to whatever is causing the toilet blockage, and second the change in temperature can cause things to expand which may loosen up whatever is causing the plug.
If this doesn’t unblock the toilet, try using a plunger to remove the blockage. Using a plunger is really pretty simple, you push the head of the plunger down to the bottom of the bowl where the water drains. Press down hard so the head of the plunger creates a seal and forces air down in to the pipes. The theory behind this is that the air causes a pressure build up in the pipes which will loosen whatever is stuck. Typically when you do this any water remaining in the bowl will also be forced down. Repeat this until all or most of the water has been forced down and try flushing the toilet. If water doesn’t drain properly repeat the process a few times and test again.
If the hot water and plunger don’t work then you may have a particularly tricky plug in the toilet that may require a more advanced technique. For this you may need a plumber’s snake which is essentially a flexible metal rod that can bend and fit through a curving pipe. It really lives up to the “snake” name based on its shape.
Using a plumber’s snake, run it down the toilet until it reaches whatever is causing the toilet plug. Once you reach the cause of the plug maneuver the snake back and forth to try and dislodge whatever is causing it. Once you think you have the clog loosened try flushing the toilet and make sure that water flows normally. If it does you should test it by wadding up some toilet paper and make sure it can flow properly.
If the plumbers snake doesn’t unplug toilet then there is one last thing you can try to help remove the clog. You can try using a drain opening solution like drano that will slowly reach the plug and dissolve it. There are many of these on the market of varying strengths. If you’ve tried all of the above steps and still haven’t been able to unplug toilet then I would highly suggest consulting your hardware store and getting the strongest strength. Be careful though, many of these solutions are very caustic so you want to make sure you don’t get it on your skin.
If none of these solutions work then you have a really severe toilet plug and you should consult a professional plumber. If the plug is in deep enough in the pipes a plumber might have to take the toilet and/or the pipes apart. Regardless trying to unblock toilet is important and isn’t something you can just let sit until later, you need to fix it immediately, whatever the cost.
© How To Unblock Toilet
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