How To Unclog A Toilet | The Plunger

2009-05-06T23:33:00.000-07:00

This post is about how to unclog a toilet. OK to in our first post about the process of clearing your toilet of any blockages, we discussed the fact that the most likely place for the blockage to be will be the bend in the pipe as it leaves the toilet.

In addition we suggested you make appropriate preparations. Such preparations would include ensuring that the floor is appropriately covered with some form of plastic sheeting, and that on top of the sheeting we place some newspaper. The reason for the newspaper is that the process of unclogging or unblocking your toilet can be quite a physically strenuous event. It may be that there is some considerable force having to be applied when attempting to clear any blockage in the toilet. So, the newspaper is there to ensure any splashes are properly soaked up, should they fall outside the toilet bowl.

The other matters mentioned in the preparation post was to wear gloves. Ordinary kitchen gloves are probably the most appropriate as they are waterproof, cheap and disposable. In the event that you do end up having to put your hands into the clogged up toilet bowl, I'm only guessing but you may not want to use the gloves again, especially not doing the washing up later that day.

Finally, it is worth wearing some form of protective eye covering. I can think of few worse things than getting raw sewage in your eyes, and I don't know, I'm only guessing but I reckon you will feel similar.

OK. The plunger. You can buy a typical plunger for unclogging your toilet from almost any hardware store or DIY chain. There are usually two types, one similar to that in the picture, which is a traditional toilet plunger, very simple in design, but equally very effective in getting the job done. Such plungers, specifically designed for unclogging toilets are in fact perfectly up to the job of howto unclog a toilet. However, these days, the various plumbing supplies manufacturers have come up with intriging new designs in toilet unblocking plungers. They have designed plungers that act like a syringe, drawing some of the blocked toilet fluid into a tube, with a syringe type mechanism and then you forcibly eject the fluid, into the blockage with the hope that the force of the fluid being expelled from the syringe part of the plunger is sufficient to dislodge the item that is clogging your toilet.

The choice of type of plunger is yours. The first type is almost certainly cheaper but probably slightly messier due to the physical effort required to push the blocked fluids into the soil pipe of the clogged toilet. The second, or syringe type plunger will be more expensive, but due to the relatively efficient manner in which the water is almost injected into the toilet pipe there is likely to be less mess involved. Cleaning the syringe type plunger after the event is however likely to be less satisfying than cleaning the normal rubber traditional shaped plunger.

The choice is yours as to which plunger you select. On balance I prefer the syringe type.

Right, so we've selected which plunger to use to unclog a toilet, what next.

Fistly, if you know that there is something hard, like a small toy that is blocking up the toilet then the plunger route is not the one to follow. You may just drive the blockage deeper and make it more difficult to access later.

Next, insert the plunger into the water until it is a covered as possible. It may be necessary, if there is insufficient water that you add water at this stage in order to ensure the plunger acts properly. This is to avoid splashes. Once submerged, firmly push the plunger down into the toilet and draw sharply up. This action has the effect of pushing then pulling the blockage in and out of the pipe with the objective of dislodging the blockage until it clears out and can be flushed away properly.

Don't be disheartened if you have to go through this process a number of times before you are successful. Remember your objective is to clear the toilet and if at first you don't succeed remember the old saying try, try again. You may have to refill the bowl with water in order to ensure the plunger is properly submerged throughout the process. Don't worry about this, it can happen.

Anyway, at some point, hopefully quite quickly, you should have succeeded in unclogging your toilet and you can then flush the toilet normally. It is best to flush several times before clearing up as this just ensures that you have indeed been successful.

Well done! You are beginning to understand how to unclog a toilet.

You can now wash out the plunger, clear up the floor covering and remove you gloves and hope that you don't have to undertake this unpleasant job again soon.

How To Unclog A Toilet | First Steps

2009-05-06T23:30:00.001-07:00

If you have ever wondered how to unclog a toilet then you have come to the right place. There can be few things worse than having to unclog your toilet. The main reason for toilets getting clogged is due to large amounts of toilet paper being deposited into the bowl and then attempting to flush the paper and any other items in the bowl away.

At this point probably the best advice would be to not flush your clogged toilet as flushing will only increase the amount of water in the bowl which will make the unclogging process more difficult. In fact if the toilet has been flushed multiple times before you manage to intervene the best initial course of action would be to let it stand for a few minutes before attempting any unclogging or unblocking manoeuvres.

It is also advisable to wear gloves before commencing the process of unclogging your toilet. Probably the best type of glove to wear would just your basic kitchen rubber gloves that you would normally use for cleaning the cooker. They are waterproof and generally quite disposable so if afterwards you feel a little cautious in using the gloves elsewhere in your house you can actually just throw the gloves away.

Generally speaking, the usual cause of a clogged or blocked toilet is a build up of toilet paper in the pipe underneath the toilet. This is called the soil pipe and as it leaves the toilet it bends. The bend is in order to trap unpleasant smells inside the pipe and not allow them to escape through the toilet, but it is the bend in the pipe that usually traps the excess paper and prevents the toilet from flushing properly.

The basic principal behind the unclogging or unblocking of your toilet is to force water on your side of the pipe onto the blockage with the intention of dislodging or pushing through the excess paper through the area which is trapping it and allow it to escape out of the building through the soil pipe. The method used in order to achieve is really down to whatever tools you have available, personal preference and previous experience.

As you may imagine, the water within the toilet may not be clean, and you are going to try to force the water down through the soil pipe. This is likely to require a reasonable level of exertion. You should therefore take steps to ensure that should any water get splashed around whilst unclogging the toilet that it does not do any damage, or stain, the toilet floor. It is best therefore to put some form of waterproof covering on the toilet floor and place some old newspapers on top of that in order to soak up any splashes that do escape the toilet bowl quickly.

And finally, before starting the unclogging process it might also be sensible to wear some form of eye protection. Catching water from the toilet bowl in your eye when the toilet was clean would not be very nice, so having it splash into your eye when the toilet is clogged is likely to be extremely unpleasant

The next article will discuss how to unclog a toilet with a plunger.