I've been in this apartment for a couple months and the toilet plumbing is crap, sometimes plugging and overflowing for no apparant reason. Now it's doing it again, but it's plugged with SHIT. Is there some way to prevent the toilet from overflowing, like turning off whatever mechanism that causes the bowl to fill up and overflow, while plunging? What the SHIT do I do? I don't want this SHIT on my bathroom floor.
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Any way to prevent toilet overflowing while using a plunger?
- Thread starter demon
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Well, lots of toilets are designed so they'd only overflow under extreme circumstances. Sounds like yours isn't one of them. I really don't know much about plumbing.. but there should be a knob underneath and behind the toilet. Close that off. Then in the back of the toilet, when you lift off the heavy cover, it's fully of dingy water. Scoop all that out.. and there's no water left for the bowl to fill with when you plunge.
Yeah, this toilet is really fucking crappy. So to speak.
Anyway, I'm plunging (not flushing tho) and it's kind of filling with with a water that has that shitty murkiness to it. Is that a bad sign, or what? Should I bother flushing?
Also, is plunging worhless if you're not flushing too?
Anyway, I'm plunging (not flushing tho) and it's kind of filling with with a water that has that shitty murkiness to it. Is that a bad sign, or what? Should I bother flushing?
Also, is plunging worhless if you're not flushing too?
And you can still flush when it's like that, with no water?
Why did I picture that and laugh? especially in my situation.
MrAngryFace
Banned
The OT is a fucking wealth of knowledge.
MrAngryFace
Banned
Hot water plus Shit = ShitSoup
I grew up in a house with a similar problem, and thus learned all about how to avoid toilet water on the floor.
What you might want to try is getting somewhat familiar with the insides of the tank. The standard toilet design has a large floater (looks like a big rubber ball) on the end of a long rod. This part of the plumbing controls when the water flow stops. Once the water in the tank gets to a certain level, it pushes the floater and rod up, cutting off the water. The fastest way to avoid toilet water on your floor is by taking the lid off the tank and lifting the rod. We actually rigged up a little hook out of paperclips and a small chain that hooked onto the back of the tank and we could set the rod in there to keep it held up, because as soon as you let it go, the water's gonna start again. This method can be a LOT faster than fiddling around behind the toilet for the water cutoff valve, not to mention that if you're too slow turning the water off, you're likely to get a whole lot messier when the thing overflows.
Of course, the above method requires that you get really good at taking the lid off the tank, putting it on the sink or something, and lifting that rod, so get some practice in. Make sure that you don't keep a whole lot of stuff on the back of the toilet. You don't want to rush through everything and accidentally drop the toilet tank lid, as it's likely to just shatter if it hits the floor hard.
Once you've got the immediate problem solved, you've just got to plunge. If the plunger you're using is one of the regular red ones that just looks like a half-sphere, get a different one. I find that the ones that look like this:
Work a whole lot better. I'm guessing that the little thing coming off the end really helps push water down the pipe or something.
What you might want to try is getting somewhat familiar with the insides of the tank. The standard toilet design has a large floater (looks like a big rubber ball) on the end of a long rod. This part of the plumbing controls when the water flow stops. Once the water in the tank gets to a certain level, it pushes the floater and rod up, cutting off the water. The fastest way to avoid toilet water on your floor is by taking the lid off the tank and lifting the rod. We actually rigged up a little hook out of paperclips and a small chain that hooked onto the back of the tank and we could set the rod in there to keep it held up, because as soon as you let it go, the water's gonna start again. This method can be a LOT faster than fiddling around behind the toilet for the water cutoff valve, not to mention that if you're too slow turning the water off, you're likely to get a whole lot messier when the thing overflows.
Of course, the above method requires that you get really good at taking the lid off the tank, putting it on the sink or something, and lifting that rod, so get some practice in. Make sure that you don't keep a whole lot of stuff on the back of the toilet. You don't want to rush through everything and accidentally drop the toilet tank lid, as it's likely to just shatter if it hits the floor hard.
Once you've got the immediate problem solved, you've just got to plunge. If the plunger you're using is one of the regular red ones that just looks like a half-sphere, get a different one. I find that the ones that look like this:
Work a whole lot better. I'm guessing that the little thing coming off the end really helps push water down the pipe or something.
Alex Anderson
Member
Flush after every wipe!
My toilet was clogged up earlier today and after trying for a while with the plunger, I was about to give up and call maintenance. But I remembered this thread for some reason and I tried the hot water theory posted above and OMG it worked immediately!
Thanks GA, you truly are a reservoir of information
Thanks GA, you truly are a reservoir of information
Indeed. GA is a latern on the dark and mysterious path that is life.Cloudy said:My toilet was clogged up earlier today and after trying for a while with the plunger, I was about to give up and call maintenance. But I remembered this thread for some reason and I tried the hot water theory posted above and OMG it worked immediately!
Thanks GA, you truly are a reservoir of information
Error Macro
Member
My toilet sucks. I'm looking forward to getting one of these bad boys in the near future:
http://www.totousa.com/toto/productpage.asp?PID=717
The Toto UltraMax, one-piece with SoftClose seat and SanaGloss glazing. It is the ultimate toilet. Rated the top toilet by professional plumbers, for being able to suck down practically anything in a single flush, and super quiet to boot.
http://www.totousa.com/toto/productpage.asp?PID=717
The Toto UltraMax, one-piece with SoftClose seat and SanaGloss glazing. It is the ultimate toilet. Rated the top toilet by professional plumbers, for being able to suck down practically anything in a single flush, and super quiet to boot.
Look for the water turn off valve on a tube coming out of the wall and connecting to the toilet. If for some reason that isnt there. Take the cover off of the toilet tank and there will be a float(big plastic bulb) and the tank fills it floats to the top and seals off the flow of water. Just pull it up yourself and the water will stop flowing.
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