The owner of any home in which there is a bathroom, sooner or later faces the problem of a clogged toilet. Also drains can be clogged in the bathroom and in the kitchen sink. Some punching methods are equally good at eliminating clogging in any plumbing waste equipment. But some are only suitable for toilets. In our article, we will analyze in detail the answer to the question of how to break through the toilet at home, or, more precisely, how to eliminate the blockage that caused the blockage.
Where to start
Before you start work immediately, you should try to determine the location of the blockage. If the water does not leave not only in the toilet, but also in the bath, then the blockage is somewhere in the main sewer pipe. Since punching a toilet bowl at home in this case will be somewhat more difficult, then the method of elimination should be chosen more aggressive.
In old-type multi-storey buildings, it often happens that if a blockage is "organized" in the main sewer pipe somewhere in the basement, then all the liquid washed away by the tenants will escape through the toilet bowls of the residents of the first floor. This is a very unpleasant situation and there will be no need to mess with artisanal punching methods. In such cases, it is urgent to notify all residents of the riser living in the upper apartments.
If the blockage is located directly in the toilet sink system, then it will be possible to get rid of it yourself.
What tools can get rid of blockages?
So, how to break through the toilet at home? Several methods are used for this, namely:
- The hydraulic method, which involves the use of a conventional plunger or its high-pressure analogue.
- The physical method in which such devices as various types of cables with brushes on the end or without them are used.
- The method of chemical exposure is best suited for blockages formed by the accumulation in the sewer of various kinds of fats, washed into the sewer in the process of life.
We break through the blockage with a plunger
What to do if the toilet is clogged and the water categorically refuses to leave it or does it very slowly? First of all, open the faucet in the bathroom or shower and look. If the water leaves normally, the blockage is organized in the toilet itself.
For punching, we will use an ordinary plunger, which everyone should have on the farm. In appearance, this tool resembles a hefty suction cup. If you attach it to the surface with the lower rubber rim and press on the handle, pressure will create inside the rubber part of the plunger, which will tend to break out from under the pressed rim. We will use this.
Having located the rim of the rubber part of the plunger suction cup over the hole where sewage leaves so that its edges are pressed as tightly as possible to the drain, we begin to make down-up movements. It is not necessary to tear the plunger itself from the hole each time. The range of motion should not exceed the tension of the rubber part.
The pressure created inside the sewer will gradually push the blockage towards the main sewage system, or vice versa, it will suck it out. In any case, if the water began to leave - the job is done.
If the blockage is organized somewhere in the main pipe farther than the toilet, as evidenced by the non-leaving water from the bath, you can try to influence the blockage through the drain of the bath itself. The plunger fits denser to the surface of the bath and it will be easier to break through the blockage. Press, swing, everything, water went into the hole with a squishy sound, the blockage is eliminated.
If not, you have to act by other methods. And since it was not possible to break through the toilet bowl without a cable and without chemistry with pressure alone, we will try to take turns of them.
We break through the blockage with a cable
Punching cables are different. Almost all of them, on the one hand, have a kind of lever like a “crooked starter”, which old cars were manually wound up. How to punch a toilet with a cable with such a lever?
We insert the opposite end of the cable into the toilet and begin to gradually promote it along the drain system. Sometimes, the cable starts to rest against something (this may be a turn of the pipe or its junction). In order for the end of the device to overcome an obstacle, you can slightly scroll the “twist” (lever) on its opposite side.
Since it is a more laborious task to break a blockage in the toilet with a cable, you should be patient when once again the cable rests on something. But do not think about the fact that at some point, going out into the main pipe, the cable will go in the wrong direction. In a correctly mounted system, all pipes entering the main drainage system should be located at a gentle angle in its direction. Otherwise, cleaning with a cable will initially be a little feasible thing.
When the edge of the cable stumbles on a blockage, that is, it “refuses” to go further, you should again begin to crank the lever, thereby ripping open the cork. Such blockages, as a rule, are quickly amenable to mechanical stress and, after a couple of twists of the lever, the water will quickly leave. The punching process is over.
But how to break a blockage in the toilet with a cable if there is a brush on its end? In principle, everything happens the same way as with a simple cable. Only twist the lever will have to be more active. And when you get to the blockage, with the help of such a cable you can not only pierce it, but also clean the surface of the pipe from sewage, sticking to them, after a while the dirt can again form a blockage.
We break through the stock using chemicals
If you like pouring food debris, grease from pans and other waste into the toilet, you should be prepared for the fact that sooner or later fatty blockage will form in the drain of your toilet. Gradually, fat settles on the inside of the pipes. Over and over again, with subsequent flushing of liquids containing fat, its layer increases more and more until, at one fine moment, it completely covers the pipe cavity. Suppose, in exactly the same way the toilet clogged, how to clean such a blockage yourself without a plunger?
Here, special tools for cleaning the toilet will come to the rescue. Some of them are able to break down and dissolve in themselves not only fats. They can soften any organic matter, even human hair, without harming the ceramics or plastic, of which most of today's sewer pipes are made.
How is blocking done with toilet cleaners? Regardless of which means you stopped at, be it Domestos, Tiret, AntiZasor or Mole (there are a lot of them in specialized stores), each of them has its own instructions for use. Most likely, you will be asked to add so much liquid to the drain and wait. Sometimes a sufficiently large period of time is allocated to the process - up to 24 hours.
Therefore, it is best to “dress up” the toilet cleaner in the system in the evening. If, when you wake up in the morning, you find that the water is gone, and when washing off on duty, the liquid goes perfectly into the drain, congratulations! You managed to clean the toilet blockage with just one remedy, which is, to be honest, infrequently. Most often, housewives do not stand up to expectations, or they do not wait for a positive result and call plumbers.
Non-standard and little-known method
Increasingly, in our specialized stores they began to sell special polyethylene with an adhesive rim in size of the ceramic upper part of the toilet rim. This notion belongs to foreign "sages." How to clean the toilet if there is no plunger, chemistry or other tools at hand? It will be enough to go to the store and buy such a film.
The method of its use is as follows:
- Raise the plastic chair with a lid.
- We thoroughly wipe the surface of the rim so that it is completely dry, otherwise the glue applied to the film will not grip well, and the effect of its use will not have the desired result, plus the possibility of leakage through un-glued areas is not excluded.
- A plastic layer is separated from the special film to protect the adhesive applied to the surface itself.
- Then it is glued to the ceramic upper rim of the toilet. Inside the toilet bowl, an environment is created that is completely separated from the external atmosphere.
- Click on the toilet. When the inner container is filled with water, pressure is created in it. If you start to press on the layer of film protruding upward, the pressure will increase even more, which will break the blockage in the system.
- After the film is easily removed from the toilet and the punching process can be considered completed. Those interested can watch the video.
By means of a film glued to the upper rim, a kind of plunger is created, as it were, on the entire area of the toilet bowl. There is nothing new here, that is - we glue, swing, punch. As is the case with the plunger himself.
Vinegar and soda will not help
In the case of a toilet, improvised tools that we use in the kitchen to clean sewer pipes will not work. Many, for example, ask how to break a toilet bowl with soda and vinegar. The answer is no way. The very structure of the toilet flush is not conducive to this.
Theoretically, of course, this is possible, but the hassle is not worth it. In order for the solution of soda and vinegar to work, a complete blockage of the drain hole will be required, since without it the method will be completely ineffective. The reaction with the release of gas should occur inside the drain structure, and not splash out. The bends of the drain do not allow this to be done. In addition, the pipe is too wide, and much more soda and vinegar will be required.
The blockage is usually much farther than the toilet itself, and it’s not a fact that soda and vinegar can be reached there at all. The main reaction will still occur in the foreground. Well, in order to create at least some pressure in the system through the reaction that promotes cleaning, you will have to take care to properly plug the drain hole in the toilet itself. To do this, you have to scoop up the impurities accumulated in it - an unpleasant occupation. In addition, the cleaning itself, as a rule, is preceded by pouring boiling water over the sewer. From this an unpleasant smell will rise. And then again you have to scoop up the liquid.
In a word, vinegar and soda are not an option for a toilet. And there is no guarantee that even if everything is done correctly, the blockage will be broken, because, whatever one may say, this method has a very weak effect.
Plastic bottle
Often, some people like to flush cat litter into the toilet. The lion's share of cases of clogged toilets occurs precisely through his fault. What to do if a toilet clogged into which cat litter was recently flushed, and there is no plunger, chemistry or steel cable at hand?
In this case, you can resort to using a regular one and a half liter plastic bottle from under any soda. Moreover, the more wide it will fit the toilet drain, the more powerful the breakdown effect it will have. In order to begin to destroy the blockage, you must first cut off the bottom of the bottle in the place where the plastic stops bending and goes into a smooth cylindrical shape.
When the bottom is cut off (the lid on the neck should never be unscrewed), take the resulting device by the neck and lower it into the drain hole of the toilet bowl. Then raise and lower again. In general, we begin, so to speak, to pump water in the hole. Through these translational movements, the pressure in the drain design of the toilet bowl starts to jump and at one point the plug breaks through. You can also find out how to punch a toilet bowl at home with a plastic bottle by watching the following video.
Preventive measures
Clogs are not terrible for those who keep their plumbing fixtures clean and use them correctly. In order not to puzzle over how to clean the toilet at home, you should only follow a number of simple rules:
- Do not pour liquids containing fat into the toilet. Hoping that all of it will slip into the main sewer without a trace should not be. Since part of it will necessarily flop on the wall of the pipe and stick to it. And where there is an initial greasy "blot" there after a while there will be a blockage.
- Do not flush the toilet with liquids containing debris such as scraps of vegetables, tails from radishes, peels from apples, etc. All this can be the backbone to create a very persistent blockage.
- Do not flush cigarette butts and heavy newsprint into the toilet. The latter is an excellent sewer pipe sealer . A single sheet may not be so scary. But there are about ten sheets adhering to each other - a strong barrier even for a steel cable.
- You should also not flush cat litter into the toilet, especially one that does not say that it can really be poured there. Usually on such varieties there is a special icon. So, if it’s not there, then it’s better not to do this. Filler granules can get stuck on the ups and downs of the sewer. Moreover, they tend to swell very much. And therefore, even if the first and second time you suffered, in the future blockage can occur in such a remote place in the sewage system that it will be very difficult to get rid of it.
Rather than cleaning the toilet bowl from blockages, it is better to protect your devices from them at all, from time to time performing their preventive flushing with special chemicals to care for plumbing. Only then will the toilet in your house work like a clock.
Conclusion
These were tips on how to break through the toilet at home. Do not think that all of the above options are complex and require great experience with tools. The plunger was originally created specifically for housewives who “conjure” in the kitchen all alone. Therefore, any child can use it. The same can be said of the steel cable. The main thing is to start. And then everything will work out by itself.