I’ve lived in my house for 14 years, and for the first 12 I can’t recall ever having to unblock a toilet: There are 3 in our house, and they functioned well.

Over the last couple of years we’ve redone the loos with more modern sanitary ware, and frankly there’s not a month gone by where the plunger hasn’t been dusted off and brought into action. In fact I wouldn’t mind betting that it’s actually at least once a fortnight.

Some of it is a function of having bigger kids, who seem to eat like elephants, so I presume poo like them as well. But I suspect that modern pressure to reduce water usage doesn’t help. Am I alone in my plunging nightmare?

Yes

I’ve never needed to unblock a toilet. Could it be over use of the short flush?

Shower drainers, that’s another story….

Dual flush loos? My kids fail to understand that solid deposits require a proper flush, not just a quick press of the button. A couple of those together then blocks the pipe.

As a useful hint I tried when all normal methods of unblocking had failed – put a plastic bag over a mop and use that as a plunger. Surprisingly effective (although we did need a new mop afterwards…)

Hmm, possibly although I have done my best to educate the kids on which to use…..

Great username by the OP though 😀

Defo down to your modern soft flush, low water use toilets

Though in my old house we had a normal indoor loo, and a good old fashioned netty in the alleyway, with a cistern 6 foot up and a flush chain, much more satisfying to go out there to contemplate the world I thought

That thing could sink the Bismark!

I think it’s a function of the smaller diameter u-bends on the modern bogs. We have two pans, (yeah, I know, dead posh! 😆 ) and I always go to the older unit when a big job is breaking out.

Yup new type loo here and it blocks about once a week. When we moved in we got fed up with it and called a plumber one time, on the insurance emergency thing. He said that yes it was a design fault in these new type toilets. So we keep a plunger next to the loo now.

Never. Not once.

I was going to say ‘never’ but I’ve had to do it a few times lately. Not since I caught the OH chucking wet wipes down there though.

I am banned from the upstairs loo, and have to use the ‘poo loo’ for anything on the Bristol scale.

The person who wrote flushable on those wet wipe packets should be made to do a years loo unblocking.

A bucket of water poured in from waist height usually does the job

Try unlocking post birth sanitary towels by hand if you want to know about blockages, it was a truly grizzly job.. 🙁

The person who wrote flushable on those wet wipe packets

Yes, I’m amazed that nobody has sued them yet – especially the water companies!

never.

The person who wrote flushable on those wet wipe packets

Use them in our house and still never had need of a plunger.

Do some of you need to take a look at your diets?

You seek wise counsel

best tool for unblocking loos is probly inside your toilet…its the towel rail

unscrew it from wall and remove the long screw from one end, leaving the other long screw attached for the purpose of gently removing any effluvia from the u bend.

you will need to buy a replacement towel rail as well as a bucket, etc to store your super loo unblocker.

as for unblocking showers, you can either invest in a pair of pliers to remove any hairs…or

pour in a substantial amount of bicarbonate of soda until it reaches the plughole and then add cleaning solution ( bleach?) and let it slowly percolate down…taking care to avoid fumes etc.

8)

In ‘loo’, geddit? of a towel rail u could likewise insert a long screw or nail into a piece of wood

i mentioned the towel rail because the dimensions are ideal for the task at hand.

Ta for the advice chaps, but I’ve done the bucket from waist high before, and flooded the bathroom. It appears that once jammed, the u bend needs some hefty work to shift whatever’s there, and it’s usually too far gone to hook it out.

Think I might disable the half-flush on one of the loos and nominate it as the poo-loo…..

I’ve never used a plunger and don’t ever expect to.

A bucket of water poured in from waist height usually does the job

.

Only if the job at hand is a half flooded bathroom, ankle deep in logger-boggers. Best plan is to remove the cistern lid pull out the upright bit and remove the spiral-plastic bit which is there to make your bog flush quietly. The volume of flush will increase massively and the plunger can be retired to the cupboard under the sink.

(ianap)

Never a plunger in the toilet.

I think you have a collapse pipe somewhere?

A bucket of water poured in from waist height usually does the job

My wife blocked the pan in a motel on an american holiday. The best part of two weeks of high-living finally took its toll when Turdzilla decided it wasn’t going to take the pipe to freedom, and instead was hanging around to shoot the breeze with us. A distinctly meaty, stagnant breeze, if i remember properly.

I tried a waste paper bin from above head height, but the effect was to only break him into smaller pieces, and fill the pan, which thankfully was draining slightly. 15 minutes later, a second attempt had the same results, but by now the stench was peeling the wallpaper, and i couldn’t wait for the draining.

I resorted to baling out, avoiding the floating debris, with one of those paper cups they give you for coffee. I also found a use for the little plastic straw stirrer thing (which is f’all use for stirringg, after all) – using it as a flicky thing to push little bits of turd away whenever they were looking like going into the cup. Finally, just as we thought we may need to call room service, a third flush saw him off, and natural harmony was restored.

Thankfully it was nearly 15 years ago when aerosol deodorants were still in vogue. Waving a stick deo around would not have cut it.

Did i mention it was my honeymoon? Romance, etc……

My dad once had to chop up my sister’s gigantor poo with a wire coat hanger.

Since we fitted a new bathroom, the bucket of warm water and washing liquid has become a much more regular occurrence. Not helped by the waste exiting through 90 degrees horizontally before the same vertically to plummet one storey like the Alton Towers log flume.

Reminds me of a notice pinned to the wall of toilet in a shared flat…

“When laying monster faeces
Please chop them into little pieces
For turds that are too long and wide
Cause shipping hazards on the Clyde”

Or words to that effect 😆

Another good method for unblocking, espcially if the toilet is reasonabley full of water, is to put the bog brush in the water and then move it up and down really fast, making sure it doesn;t come out of the water. It generates a really strong siphon motion (sic) in the toilet and clears out most blockages.

I remember being in a hotel once, went for a poo (nothing special, just a normal one), flushed and then toilet backed up. I couldn’t clear it so eventually made a very embarrassing call to the desk who said they’d get someone to sort it. After a variety of workmen had turned up and wriggled things about in my waste, they pronounced it unfixable and I got moved to a room over the hallway.

Next morning I came out of my room and they’re bringing in this massive suction/pumping machine that looks incredibly industrial. As I pass they’re connecting the extra big pipes to it. I put my head down and try to anonymously sidle past. I get to the lift, look round and all the workmen are stood in the hallway watching me. 🙁

I have to take preventative action in our current house as we got the bathroom done a few years back and modern cisterns (in an effort to save water) don’t use as much to flush with as old ones. We also have quite a long run of pipe to the bit where it drops into a vertical pipe.

All I tend to do is flush it ten times in a row once a week, then go to the other toilet (which is a proper size cistern and further down the run and then flush that. It is usually accompanied by a loud chug, chug noise and a very satisfactory rumbling throughout the house!

If the toilet backs up before ten flushes, then I alternate flushing and plunging until I think the blockage has gone far enough to be below the toilet with the decent cistern. Then it sounds like a mini earthquake! The stench outside through the manhole as the blockage hits the sewer after a 4 metre vertical drop is not as amusing, but it goes away quickly so no real worries.

Think I might disable the half-flush on one of the loos and nominate it as the poo-loo

my missus finally saw the light with the baby wipes, when i made her fish them all out from manhole2 following a blockage.

Whilst I don’t have direct experience of these problems I do remember being told about the time a ship I was on ran out of toiler paper, turns out that the narrow bore pipes for the pneumatic system didn’t like paper towels. Unsurprisingly everything ground to a halt at the 90deg to horizontal bend on the engine room ceiling which had to be subsequently cut out and rodded from above whilst some poor sod sat below to make sure it didn’t roughcast the engine below the crane.

Jobbie tank – least fun job in engineering.

Use them in our house and still never had need of a plunger.
Do some of you need to take a look at your diets?

Probably, but you need to stop flushing wet wipes too.

They cause massive problems for the water companies, and expense, that gets passed on to everyone else.

One other tip if you do have to break out the plunger. Don’t think that the idea is to ‘shove’ the blockage down the pipe. If you get a good seal with it and can be a sure as possible there is a minimum of air behind it, then push-pull it sharply as fast as possible. Our plumber swears by doing this with an old string mop. What this does is to shake the blockage as vigorously as possible to get it on the move. Hit it immediately with another flush and things should progress.

Lovely job 😐

Our water saving bogs are great btw, they usually clear the turds even if you only use the short flush.

I think they work because the hole is actually pretty small so the water flows fast through it, and there’s very little water required to actually clear the U bend. Disadvantage though is you often have a hard landing on porcelain, so there are frequently skidmarks to clean with the brush.

Make sure your wife doesn’t put tampons in. Pretty common. Also try using a detergent for washing machines if nothing else works (buy bio detergent with enzynes ).

Chipbreaker.
Teach them (& you), to put in a chip breaker movement during the main extrusional thrust.

You need more naga in your diet clearly!
😈

The Korean method

Chipbreaker.
Teach them (& you), to put in a chip breaker movement during the main extrusional thrust.

AH HA HA HA HA! Love the idea, but……

RE: Korean Method

What happens if there’s a load of shite stuck under the plastic when you rip it up?

Our water saving bogs are great btw, they usually clear the turds even if you only use the short flush.

I think they work because the hole is actually pretty small so the water flows fast through it, and there’s very little water required to actually clear the U bend. Disadvantage though is you often have a hard landing on porcelain, so there are frequently skidmarks to clean with the brush.

Ours clear the pan and u bend fine too, it is just the unusually long run of pipe afterwards that causes the problems. These really are first world problems, mind. It’s not like it dominates my thoughts every day!