Plunging and toilet clogging are very often considered side by side. Toilet clogging can be stressful, but there’s no escape; it seems inevitable once you have installed a toilet in your house or business setting.
However, if you adopt the right plunging technique, you can fix your toilet issues if they are under plunging control. This guide will help you plunge your toilet in the right way.
How to Plunge Toilet with Plunger? Step-by-step Guide
Prepare yourself with the necessary materials and tools that come in handy when plunging your toilet. Below-mentioned elements should be by your side to plunge your toilet in the right way:
Flange toilet plunger
Rubber gloves
Towels
Duct tape
Once the above-mentioned materials and tools are arranged, you can begin to plunge your toilet. We’ve provided a detailed instructive guide to perform toilet plunging with the plunger here below:
We are sure you can identify the toilet tank. You need to gently open it up and locate the flapper. You will find a flapper as a moving part of the flush valve, more commonly a rubber mechanism in your toilet that allows water to exit the tank when you flush.
Once located, lift the flapper and drain the water into the toilet bowl. Observe closely whether it stays put or not. If yes, you have a valid reason for the real problem with your toilet system. You can easily remove the clog of the toilet’s internal trap or the waste line with a plunger.
In the next step, you should insert the plunger cup into the toilet bowl. But before that, to remain on the safe side, you need to wear rubber gloves and place towels on the floor of the toilet room to soak up the overflow water while plunging.
Once you insert the plunger cup, you have to allow the cup to fill with water before you start to pump it because you are to use water pressure to displace the trapped clog.
Once everything is set, you can start to plunge. Begin by slowly pumping the plunger so that you compress the remaining air in the cup. After giving a gentle push, you will start to hear the sound of water splashing back and forth.
Once you hear such a sound, you have to increase the force and plunge in and out more vigorously. This way, with enough pressure and suction, the clog on the internal section of the toilet may break up. But don’t stop there, plunge a few more times to be sure every blockage has been removed.
Despite your efforts to break down the clog with a plunger, there might come cases where the clog wouldn’t just move. For such stubborn blockage, it has been suggested by professionals to use a plunger only after you block all the outlets of the toilet mechanism.
You may want to seal the sink, shower, drains, and every other possible outlet of your toilet room with the help of easy-removal duct tape. Once all the overflow holes are blocked, the plunging mechanism is amplified and you can break down the clog.
Well, the straightforward answer to this question is to go for a flange plunger. The flange plunger or the toilet plunger has a kind of cup shape at its opening that is rather soft and made up of rubber. But for flat surfaces other than the toilet, the dome plunger can be appropriate.
If you visit the market today, you will get to know a variety of plungers. But choosing the right one for your toilet is the main concern. Make a decision wisely by doing proper research on your problem and choosing the dedicated plunger to solve it.
Types of Toilet Plunger
Cup Plunger
Cup plungers are best for flat surfaces. The cup-shaped opening of this type of plunger can lay evenly over the flat surface creating the required vacuum so that it can force out the clog.
It also goes by the name sink plunger or force cup plunger, equipped with a straight handle and rubber cup at the end.
Flange Plunger
The Flange plunger is more or less similar to that of the sink plunger. The only difference is that the soft rubber at the end has folds from the inside of the cup.
The flange plunger is specially designed for it to fit well over the toiler drains. But it can also be used over the sink or bathtub.
Accordion Plunger
The accordion plunger is also equipped with a small cup at the end. This cup-shaped end is found to sit over the toilet drain pretty nicely and it works just fine, forcing out the clog from the internal toilet line.
Many people are found to adopt the function of toilet auger for fixing their toilet clogging problem. But you shouldn’t blindly depend on it because it is rather hard to operate and handle.
Professionals recommend not to use the auger without having proper knowledge of it, or else you might end up destroying your whole toilet. Employing a toilet auger on your own can be sophisticated and messy. The below-mentioned procedure might be useful while handling toilet auger:
Step 1: Pull the Auger Cable
You should begin by pulling the cable of the toilet auger so that the barbed tip of the auger touches the curved bowl of the guard. You may have to take back the whole toilet auger, or snake inside the tube for you to see the tip.
The curved end of the auger can be easily inserted into the toilet bowl. Make sure to insert it deep until you can’t see the end. Remember to wear protective gloves before handling the toilet auger.
Once the end is inserted deep into the toilet bowl, you have to use one of your hands to turn the handle gently. The toilet auger functions by rotating the cable such that the end moves toward the drain employing the screwing action.
This work requires patience and steadiness. If you use too much force or decide to move it hastily, you may end up creating more problems instead of solving them. You have to rotate the handle in both directions after finishing on the one.
Make sure to perform rotation until the cable reaches its full extension. If you feel any kind of resistance while doing so, the auger might have reached the location of the clog.
Step 3: Extract the Cable
Once the clog has been located, make sure to pull back the handle of the auger until you feel tightness on the tube, and finally remove the toilet auger from the toilet bowl.
Step 4: Flush the Drain
For the good clearance of the path, make sure to flush down the toilet several times as soon as you remove the toilet auger.
Dish soap is found to create a smooth medium for the trapped object to flow into the guided path, thus, making an excellent choice to solve your toilet clogging problem.
You need to pour dish soap into the toilet drain along with hot water. Make sure not to use very hot water as it may cause unnecessary problems. Your problem might get fixed if you allow dish soap and hot water to work for some period.
If you use baking soda and white vinegar, it might help you clear the blockade provided by the solid element in the internal portion of your toilet.
The reaction between the chemicals, if allowed to happen for at least an hour can break down the clog and you can get relief finally. If it doesn’t work, try using hot water at the end and wait for some period.
What Can Cause a Clogged Toilet?
Toilet Paper
The wet toilet paper is prone to get stuck in the drain hole blocking the path of the toilet. If you happen to flush too much toilet paper at once, your toilet may get clogged.
Foreign Objects
If you have small children around your house and they often play with their toys, such foreign objects can also block the drain path. Further, elements like sanitary pads and baby wipes are also found to clog the toilet.
Use of Hard Water
If you have been using hard water around your house and in your toilet, there’s a high potential that over time, your pipeline and toilet may get clogged.
Hard water often accumulates in the pipes with enough mineral deposition hindering the smooth passage for the liquid and solid particles. This can create large blockages.
Faulty Plumbing
If at the time of installing your toilet, the plumber has made the mistake or let’s say has done the faulty plumbing, it can invite frequent toilet clogging.
Further, poor drainage systems and wearing and aging of the different equipped parts of the toilet may cause the toilet to get clogged.
Lack of Maintenance
Once you install the toilet, over time it is certain to be dysfunctional. And to add more to that, if you neglect the periodic maintenance of your toilet, it will eventually invite several toilet issues including toilet clogging.
Therefore, you need to give a proper focus on periodic cleaning, maintaining, and inspecting your toilet system.
Well, there’s something you can do to lower the risk of toilet clogging. Many professional plumbers and stakeholders have often pointed out that the prime reason for toilet clogging is the negligence of the owner while handling their belongings.
Yes, they have shared their story of trapped perfume caps, children's toys, apple slices, and vegetable items like lemons and onions on the waste line of the toilet. Thus, in the case of non-biological blockade, you have so much to do to prevent frequent toilet clogging.
Close the Toilet Lid
One of the prime things to consider while looking to prevent frequent toilet clogging is that you should develop the habit of putting the toilet lid down when not in use.
If you leave it open every time, hard solids or elements may fall into the toilet bowl which if flushed down, can cause toilet clogging.
Use Toilet Lock
If you have to deal with small children and pets, you may want to consider using a toilet lock. Children and pets are not to blame but you have to be careful enough, they don’t flush down heavy objects in the toilet.
If possible, do not let your kids play in the toilet to minimize the risk of toys getting stuck in the toilet waste line. Make sure to train your pets to stay away from the toilet when not necessary.
Avoid Using Toilet for Unnecessary Things
Keep your makeup kit away from the toilet, this way even by accident you won’t fall anything on the toilet bowl. Try to avoid using toilet room mirrors for your makeup.
Not only makeup, you need to avoid using toilet for the unintended purposes, if you are to lower the risk of toilet clogging. In addition to that, while designing your toilet, you need to give proper spacing to the mirror, hangers, showers, sink, and the main toilet area.
A full-functioning toilet is a must-have element wherever you go around this world. If issues like noise, flush problems, toilet keeps running, and clogging of any type occur, it would be best to give a glance at it and try to resolve it independently. But if you alone can’t fix the problem, you might want to consider calling a professional.
Calling a professional, though can be costly, they will help you fix your problem in a rather very short time. This way, you can learn from them about the potential underlying toilet issues as well as preventive measures. Sometimes, leaving the work to the experienced hand is the best thing you can do to prevent further damage and loss.
Call the professional if you encounter too much water in the toilet bowl. Sometimes the water level in your toilet bowl keeps rising and may overflow, if you notice such unusual phenomena, you should consider it to be an indication of the toilet drain blockage.
Flush Issues
Over time the flushing mechanism of your toilet may not function properly, in such case it would be best to call a professional to resolve the issue. You might want to have a look at it yourself at the beginning since this might be a minor issue.
But, if the flush completely ceases, you should know that there might have been something bigger problem as that of deep toilet drain blockage.
Noise from the Toilet
If you have been noticing some kind of peculiar sound like that of gargling or bubbling coming from your toilet lately, it might be a serious problem. Professionals have been pointing out such problems related to the sewer line.
The sound may have resulted from the blockage of the toilet parts, or plumbing. It would be best to take the help of a professional if you hear such noises.
