Toilet Myths Uncovered Plus How Not To Get Flushed!

So for today's blog let's address five of the top taboos, fears and just plain mistruths about toilets and their use.

 1. All toilets are created the same.

 Absolutely False! Toilets are as different as cars or any other product you commonly buy on the market today. The basic breakdown of categories is as follows:

  A. Cheap:

 This is a toilet usually purchased at a hardware store and has a name you have never heard of. It usually will be packaged in plastic rather than cardboard and the whole toilet, tank and bowl is under $75. This kind of toilet is fine if you just don't care how long it will last or how well it will work. 

 B. Standard:

 This toilet is not fancy, you can see the outline of the pee trap on the bowl. The warranty is around 5 years and the cost is between $150-200.

 C. Above Average:

 This toilet may or may not have a visible pee trap, its assembly components are of a much higher standard, the flush capacity generated allows for less water used with more waste evacuated. The warranty can be up to 10 years and cost from $250-500.

 D. I like to call this group, "You just bought a toilet that the same money could've been used to buy a car!"

 These toilets are usually not worth the money spent, costing $750-5000. They won't make beds or do the dishes. That said, they are very, very nice and work exceptionally well. Their profile can be a work of art. There are a few specialty toilets that have a pumping station attached that differ from the "work of art" ones. They are necessary in that it is cheaper to use them then install a new sewer line to a location that prohibits it. 

  Each of these categories have dozens of sub-categories such as varying amounts of waste removal, water usage, size, color and footprint. Picking out the correct product needed requires more effort than just grabbing something off the shelf.

2. Plunging always works, or Plunging can't harm the toilet.

 Once again, absolutely false! Many times just allowing a toilet to sit undisturbed, the earths gravity will solve the problem for you. When it does not, a plunger can do more damage than you think. A toilet is sealed to the floor with a round wax ring, stop and think for a moment, a circle is strongest when pressure is applied from the outside in not the other way around. Wax rings are not designed to be a water tight pressure seal. Wax rings simply guide waste from the bottom of the toilet to and through the closet flange on the floor. They keep bugs, gases and waste from entering the underside of your toilet. When your stoppage is not in the pee trap of the toilet but in the pipe just below the toilet, you are usually damaging the wax ring when you place the plunger in the bottom of the toilet bowl and start pushing. Many times you will clear the stoppage and not realize you have damaged the seal until it stops up again and raw sewage begins to flow out from under your toilet, flooding the bathroom. 

  If you must use a plunger, place the bulb of the plunger on the side of the inner bowl, gently push down, then slide the plunger bulb over the bottom of the toilet and rapidly pull up, repeating this motion as necessary.

 3. I am saving money because I have a brick, bag, 2 liter bottle, bag of rocks, etc in my tank which displaces water. 

  Really, really bad idea! Toilet manufacturers do not, nor will they ever design a toilet with the thought in mind that you are going to stick a foreign object in their tank. Toilets are designed to use the exact amount of water they are designed to use. No more, no less. First, if you place something in your tank you will end up flushing it twice which defeats the whole purpose of saving water. Second, anything you place in your tank has the potential of ruining your toilet and flooding your house. So you may of saved $10 in year right up until you spend $10,000 on damage from a flood. Also, do not place anything like cleaning products in your tank. All the parts in your tank are designed to work with drinking water only! So if you wont put it in your mouth don't put it in your tank. If you just gotta have something, put it in the bowl.

 4. I'm a snow bird and I always wrap my toilet bowl with plastic wrap before I go back up north.

  First, I would not recommend doing this but if you just are compelled to do it then also take the lid off the tank and put wrap across the opening, then placing the lid back on. Located in the rim of the bowl are jet holes that connect to the tank through the open pipe you see next to the flapper. Wrapping your toilet may slow down some of the evaporation but nothing beats having someone come by your place and flushing all the toilets once a month. 

 5. I can flush anything I want down my toilet!

 By all means you are welcome to try lol! Flushing anything other than human waste and toilet paper is the same as a slot machine in Vegas. Someday if you pull the handle enough you will hit the jackpot! Although, I'm not sure that is the kind of jackpot you were hoping for. Let's hit the common bad ideas. Sanitary wipes, Feminine products (pads or tampons), kitty litter, grout or mortar mix. So many homes in Dunedin have cast iron pipes under their house and while cast iron is great, quiet and lasts a long time, they do rust and get rough on the inside. All the items listed above can and do get caught in piping on a regular basis, even if your piping is made of PVC. As your toilet gets older the inner lining can get rough also causing some of these items to catch and block it too. 

Well that's all for today, please feel free to share your thoughts and comments! 

Thanks Ed Harris

Oh yeah! here's the all important legal part: The ideas and advice contained above are in no way a substitute for having a licensed plumbing professional inspect your individual issue. Ed Harris, Harris Plumbing nor any plumbing professional can properly diagnose or solve your issue without inspection.