# Toilet has my brain clogged!



## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

crojack said:


> So my problem is that my toilet bowl won't empty or completely flush. It will mostly get the waste out, but the water level never empties.
> 
> I have searched and found lots of answers and this is what I have tried.
> 
> ...


Could be:

a. The siphon jet (the small hole at the bottom of the bowl that's opposite of the bowl's main drain hole) is not providing enough additional water, in addition to the holes under the rim, to do a forcible flush. If the toilet has ever sat around uninstalled with the tank off, a leaf, small piece of paper or other small debris could have fallen into the rim flush path. That path goes inside the rim to feed the holes in the rim and also down to the small siphon jet hole. --- If you can't clear any small debris that may be partially blocking the siphon jet hole using a bent wire, you could try to reverse flush the siphon jet and rim path by removing the toilet, remove the tank, push a length of tubing that will just fit into the siphon jet hole, set the bowl upside down on two saw horses and reverse flush the rim path. Would be a good idea to do the reverse flush on concrete so you can see if a leaf or other small debris is flushed out. In the yard on grass, it might be impossible to see any debris that's flushed out. Might be a good idea too, to roll the bowl around to allow the reverse flush to flush the entire rim path. -- Regarding using a bent wire to clear the siphon jet hole, suggest using a clothes hanger that's plastic coated or a length of 14 or 12 gauge copper wire with the insulation still on to avoid scratching up the bowl with black scratch marks that a bare clothes hanger wire can leave.

b. If the rim and siphon jet path is clear but the toilet still won't flush with a whoosh, there might be a pen type object stuck in the bowl's trap. When you have the bowl upside down on the saw horses, check for that too. --- The symptom is that when toilet paper is not wrapped around the pen, #1 flushes will flush with a whoosh. But when #2 is done, the toilet paper wraps around the pen and the bowl won't flush completely with a whoosh.

HRG


----------



## crojack (May 26, 2012)

Well, I don't see a siphon jet. Only the flush hole in the bottom of the toilet. The toilet is probably the original to the house making it about 40 years old. 

I also just poured about 1/2 bottle of CLR into the overflow tube in the tank and it flushed just fine on the first flush. Second flush went back to not flushing the bowl all the way. 

I really don't want to have to pull the toilet. Should I try a snake down through there? 

Could it be that the tank stuff needs replaced. Seems like that has to be something to do with it since it will flush just fine after pouring CLR into the tank tube. :confused1:


----------



## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

Sounds like the toilet is all limed up---

If it flushes fine with a bucket of water--and flushed Okay after you delime it--then the toilet is shot---Get a new toilet or delime the thing again--but it sounds like a lost cause--

Keep a bucket of water handy until you can get that fixed--Mike----


----------



## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

crojack said:


> Well, I don't see a siphon jet. Only the flush hole in the bottom of the toilet. The toilet is probably the original to the house making it about 40 years old.
> 
> I also just poured about 1/2 bottle of CLR into the overflow tube in the tank and it flushed just fine on the first flush. Second flush went back to not flushing the bowl all the way.
> 
> ...


Regarding CLR, I personally think it's a useless product. I've tried it on calcium deposits and soaked the deposits with paper towels saturated with CLR for hours. The CLR did nothing. Vinegar did better than CLR.

As far as pouring CLR into the overflow tube, the volume is so small that I doubt that the CLR really saturated much of the rim path. I suspect that pouring the CLR into the overflow tube is just ending up filling the water level in the bowl to maximum height, which then allows the flush to work.

Maybe try this. 

..... 1. "Slowly" pour water directly into the bowl until the level won't rise any higher. 

..... 2. Then dump (quickly) 1.5 gallons of water into the bowl from a bucket. No need to use more than 1.5 gallons of water even in old toilets. Does it flush completely? If so, repeat step-1 but flush the toilet in place of step-2. Does it flush completely?

If both tests end up flushing the toilet completely, it could be that the fill tubing that goes from the fill valve to the overflow tube is not supplying enough water to completely fill the bowl with water, regardless of the height of the water level in the tank. In that case, you may have to replace the fill valve assembly.

FWIW, our 41 year old toilet flushes completely with a "small" whoosh when I dump 1 gallon of water into it. Dumping 1.5 gallons of water into the bowl flushes completely with a slightly bigger whoosh. But complete flushing with a whoosh "requires" that the water level in the bowl be at maximum height before the flush. (I use 1 gallon of water in a pitcher to evacuate the water in the bowl when I clean the toilet.)

Just some other tests to try,
HRG


----------



## Alan (Apr 12, 2006)

Siphon jet is toward the front of the bowl as shown in this picture. I've found lots with pennies lodged in there, and they just wont work anymore with that kind of situation going on.

http://www.terrylove.com/wc/toto/874cut.jpg


----------



## ben's plumbing (Oct 6, 2011)

yep 40 yr old commode should have a syphon jet in front at bottom to push water over the trap.....clean this opening up ....commode will flush fine...:yes:


----------

