HELP!!! How to clear the clogged toilet...

[Cute Wolf]

Well... this morning, after I defecate in my sitting toilet that was near my bedroom... I turn the flush button as usual, but this time, my (sorry) fecal matters won't go down, I flush them again, and worse, water start to overflow... and they only slowly goes down... so I decide to just leave that for some time and flush again, this time with a big bucket full of water... and this time they overflow again... yucks...

So it seems that thing was clogged, and I searched the closet (actually an unused room to storage all unused things) to found a plunger, and try to unclog the toilet, several fecal matters out, but it seems that my toilet is still clogged... damn... try to do it harder, and it still fails... and it seems all the pipe is somewhat full of fecal matters...

And so I decide to bought some caustic soda, and pour those things into the toilet hole... looks like it works, but after some unpleasant fumes and hissss......

Dammit! that damn toilet is still clogged!!!

So I can't use the toilet at my house... and after some manual cleaning of those "overflowed fecal matters" (which you could guess how disturbing it was)... and manually drain the toilet bowl... and clean the bathroom... I can't use the toilet at all, so I must go outside and literally piss on earth at the backyard... and I not yet feels the need to defecate, but maybe I'll using my neighbour's or the university toilet....

And my professor just laughing his ass off when I said the reason I absent today : "My toilet is clogged, and I must clear all the fecal matters"

I'm living alone at my house (I rent my house, a small house in Bandung, as my parents live in another province), so I must repair that toilet all by myself, because Plumber services are real expensive here... and as my toilet is near my bedroom, major pipe surgery will be..... crack most tiles under the room... (dammit, the house designer is soo absolutely stupid!)

Is there any suggestion how to unclog a toilet (other than try harder with the plunger), or another chemichals I should try with?

PS: My toilet is sitting flush toilet, ceramic... I knew, squat toilet in my parent's house was far better as it was easier to deal with...
:furious3:

[Beskar]

If you are renting, doesn't the landlord have to pay for the repair? (that is how I works over here, at least)

But damn, what did you eat last night that completely blocked the toilet?

[Fragony]

Fill up plastic bottle of water, jam it in and give it all emptying it. Few times should be enough. And change your dinner.

[Cute Wolf]

If you are renting, doesn't the landlord have to pay for the repair? (that is how I works over here, at least)

But damn, what did you eat last night that completely blocked the toilet?

well, I allready contact him, but he said that was my own business... and as long as it don't need major surgery, I should try to fix that myself :wall:
and if it need major surgery, maybe we'll take the repair bill 50-50, because it was me who using that home for this last 3 and half years...
what did you expect from a house that the rent cost was Rp 6000000 per years (about $600)?

And last night? I only eat some rice with fish...

[Rhyfelwyr]

Get some gloves and get stuck in!

[caravel]

Get a wire coat hanger unbend it and angle the end of it slightly. Push it in and around the U bend and twist vigorously. Then if the water level has gone down to where it normally is, fill up a bucket of water and toss it down all at once.

Whatever you do, don't flush the toilet when the bowl is already full up. I can't believe how often people do that.

[Fragony]

well, I allready contact him, but he said that was my own business...

If you leave it as it is and just leave, he will have to rent a broken apartment,

[Cute Wolf]

Get a wire coat hanger unbend it and angle the end of it slightly. Push it in and around the U bend and twist vigorously. Then if the water level has gone down to where it normally is, fill up a bucket of water and toss it down all at once.

Whatever you do, don't flush the toilet when the bowl is already full up. I can't believe how often people do that.

Ok, thanks, I'll try that this night :bow:


If you leave it as it is and just leave, he will have to rent a broken apartment,

it was no apartment, my house is small house on the ground... and that wasn't funny if I can't defecate in my house at all...

[Beskar]

it was no apartment, my house is small house on the ground... and that wasn't funny if I can't defecate in my house at all...

It is hilarious, you have to really think what you have done to that poor toilet for it to get like that.

[Vladimir]

Caustic and environmentally damaging chemicals work wonders. If one doesn't work by itself, mix a few for best results.

[al Roumi]

Does anything else connect to the same drain as the toilet? E.g. Bidet, shower or (I shudder to think) basin? When using the plunger, you may need to seal them off too.

[Cute Wolf]

Does anything else connect to the same drain as the toilet? E.g. Bidet, shower or (I shudder to think) basin? When using the plunger, you may need to seal them off too.

no, just the toilet.

[rory_20_uk]

Enzyme preparations probably will work better.

There are several drain cleaner preperations or even mechanical devices that would work as well.

~:smoking:

[al Roumi]

Not sure this is particularily useful but in my experience of this kind of miss-hap in the west, it's usually paper causing the blockage, not actual "fecal matter".

[Lemur]

Caustic and environmentally damaging chemicals work wonders. If one doesn't work by itself, mix a few for best results.
I know a guy who accidentally created some sort of poison gas in his bathroom by doing that. We're talking the works, vomiting, blindness, breathing problems, trip to the ER. We gave him **** about it for years.

Friendly advice: do not mix complex compound chemicals at random. Interesting things can happen.

-edit-

Addendum: The blindness was temporary, before you ask, and mostly due to his eyes swelling shut.

[Beskar]

Not sure this is particularily useful but in my experience of this kind of miss-hap in the west, it's usually paper causing the blockage, not actual "fecal matter".

Actually, good point. There are many places such as in Greece and other less developed places they can't flush toilet paper due to the small drains, but instead, wipe themselves then put it in a bin.

[rory_20_uk]

I know a guy who accidentally created some sort of poison gas in his bathroom by doing that. We're talking the works, vomiting, blindness, breathing problems, trip to the ER. We gave him **** about it for years.

Friendly advice: do not mix complex compound chemicals at random. Interesting things can happen.

-edit-

Addendum: The blindness was temporary, before you ask, and mostly due to his eyes swelling shut.

Ammonia is the usual suspect, but if you're really unlucky, Chlorine or something even more nasty might result.

~:smoking:

[Tellos Athenaios]

Oh that's probably the old trick of mixing bleach with ammonia. Though, if he really was enthusiastic he might have tried caustic soda with bleach.

[InsaneApache]

Use a bloody plunger. Honestly, kids. :furious3:

and use a lot of force.

The coathanger is good as well.

If all else fails, take your shirt off, get your hands in and scrape. Make sure you wash before you make a sandwhich. Otherwise it might make the butty smell funny.

[rory_20_uk]

It'd make the butty smell... butty.

~:smoking:

[Lemur]

FWIW, there's a little girl in the neighborhood whom I will not longer allow to use our toilet. She dropped about a kilo of something that resembled play-doh (http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/en_US/) in the bowl, and it took me two days of plunging, pouring, scraping and unwise use of chemicals to unclog. Now if I see her headed toward one of the two bathrooms, I ask her to go home.

[Vladimir]

I know a guy who accidentally created some sort of poison gas in his bathroom by doing that. We're talking the works, vomiting, blindness, breathing problems, trip to the ER. We gave him **** about it for years.

Friendly advice: do not mix complex compound chemicals at random. Interesting things can happen.

-edit-

Addendum: The blindness was temporary, before you ask, and mostly due to his eyes swelling shut.

I fondly remember cleaning latrine showers with my gas mask, protective gloves, and undiluted HCL-based cleaner. It works wonders as long as you don't let it sit too long on the tile and have a good seal on your mask.

[Cute Wolf]

just managed to obtain some big ammount of sodium hipochlorite and sodium hydroxide, let's see how it works if I let em overnight...

oh yeah, I won't sleep in my house today... the fumes will be unbearable and potentially dangerous to environment, I know...

[Rhyfelwyr]

Surely you could have tried the coat hanger first?

[Tellos Athenaios]

The coat hanger seems the better bet, a pump the next best. Unless the bet is that we see you on “New of the Weird” as some freak accident involving a toilet. :no:

[Skullheadhq]

That's a pretty poopy situation you're in

~:smoking:

[A Nerd]

No one has mentioned a pipe snake yet. Works far better than a coat hanger. It is designed to do what the coat hanger could be used for, it just has a longer reach.

[Ja'chyra]

Lol, two options, plunger or snake, and not a sink plunger either you need a bigger one with about a 12" diameter, the snake is just like a very long flexible spring and remeber to turn it as you put it down.

You can also look and see if the pipe has any openings further down to determine where the blockage is, but, and I can't stress this enough, DON'T USE CHEMICALS as you're not a plumber and the odds are you'll just make a corosive mess above the blockage and burst the pipe.

Oh, and stop flushing the bloody thing.

[InsaneApache]

High pressure hose. Fun, fun fun all the way.

[Beskar]

People keep flushing because they imagine there is a magical trap-door that opens out which is meant to let everything out. So they keep flushing, and holding it down, to open this magical trap-door.

[Lemur]

High pressure hose. Fun, fun fun all the way.
I'm picturing the backsplash. And flinching.

[Ja'chyra]

Should we mention cherry bombs?

Clear the blockage and redecorate.

[A Nerd]

Should we mention cherry bombs?

Dropping a 'bomb' down the toilet is how we got this problem in the first place!

[Hosakawa Tito]

Does your apartment have it's own septic tank/leach field system or is it connected to a city sewer line? Are the pipes cast iron *bad news* or plastic?

Septic tanks should be cleaned every 3-5 years for optimal performance. Old systems using cast iron pipe clog easily over time because the inside of the pipe is very rough with stalactite-like projections of cast-iron that snag toilet paper & other solid matter that eventually narrows and clogs the pipe. If the plumbing snake doesn't work you probably have more than a simple clog problem, and fixing it will probably be more involved than you can accomplish by yourself. The expression "up :daisy:'s creek without a paddle" springs to mind. I wouldn't pay the landlord a cent to fix his sewer problem, that's his responsibility. You might want to start looking for another place to rent.

Playing alchemist and combining caustic chemicals with no knowledge of what you are doing can lead to serious injury or death, don't do it.

[Gregoshi]

Okay, about dozen bits of advice, half of them lethal. :laugh4:

One bit of clogged toiletric knowledge I learned a few years ago that helped my plunging success tremendously, was that the force of a pull is much more effective than a push. A push just jams things up more. Make sure there is enough water in the bowl to cover the plunger head. A few plunges to establish a good suction seal and then a quick, sharp pull of the plunger should start loosening up the clog. You may have to do this several times, but it will eventually come. My son was a toilet clogging champion when he was young. His "fecal matter" was of "impossible" size for one his age, so I had many plunger workout sessions.

Good luck Cute Wolf. May the Force be with you.

[InsaneApache]

Okay, about dozen bits of advice, half of them lethal. :laugh4:

Indeedy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwziN_mpmfA

Having some experience of water treatment I can confirm that mixing sodium hypochlorite with other chemicals, especially bases, is not a good idea. :book:

[Cute Wolf]

Ok... so last night, I do the coathanger trick (with an old metal coathanger)...
and unscrew the toilet bowl, to get acess directly to the pipe hole without the toilet bowl interfering... (gosh! I still don't believe I've done that last night)

put the coathanger to poke the "fecal maters that clogged in" (thanks God, the chemichal stinks I pour yesterday still covers much)..... and guess what that I found.... a small... rat feet.... and tail segments

so... THAT DAMN STUPID RAT DIES IN MY TOILET PIPE!!! :daisy:

you know... after learn about that, I immediatlely opened the sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite, pour all of them into the hole, and immediately add some hot water on top of it.... a thick fumes immediately occur, and I quickly wash myself, lock the bathroom door, wash myself again in the backyard, took some clothes, and go to my neighbour's house....

this afternoon, looks like the problem is gone, but chlorine smells still linger on the air... so this night, looks like I can't sleep in my house as well....



Does your apartment have it's own septic tank/leach field system or is it connected to a city sewer line? Are the pipes cast iron *bad news* or plastic?

Septic tanks should be cleaned every 3-5 years for optimal performance. Old systems using cast iron pipe clog easily over time because the inside of the pipe is very rough with stalactite-like projections of cast-iron that snag toilet paper & other solid matter that eventually narrows and clogs the pipe. If the plumbing snake doesn't work you probably have more than a simple clog problem, and fixing it will probably be more involved than you can accomplish by yourself. The expression "up :daisy:'s creek without a paddle" springs to mind. I wouldn't pay the landlord a cent to fix his sewer problem, that's his responsibility. You might want to start looking for another place to rent.

Playing alchemist and combining caustic chemicals with no knowledge of what you are doing can lead to serious injury or death, don't do it.

It wasn't apartment, it was small, one story ground bound house... and "city sewer line"? I don't knew if such network is exist in Indonesia :wink:, maybe in Jakarta we had, but what we have here is normal septic tank lies somewhere under the house...

and that was my own fault actually, forgot to either close the toilet lid, or the bathroom door and got a rat plug itself inside the pipe...

PS : I'm chemistry student myself :wink:


Okay, about dozen bits of advice, half of them lethal. :laugh4:.

Yeah.... I found it the hard way... and use a very - very potentially lethal way to solve that (Sodium Hydroxide + Hypochlorite + hot water = very basic (in chemistry sense) corrosive oxidizing liquid + fumes of Chlorine, gas weapon in WW I)... if not because that damn rat...

[Fragony]

You didn't even kill the rat before you ate it? That's animal cruelty

[pevergreen]

You didn't even kill the rat before you ate it? That's animal cruelty

:laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4: :laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4: :laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4:

[naut]

NOOOOOOOOOO! Frags! :grin: :laugh4:

[Cute Wolf]

You didn't even kill the rat before you ate it? That's animal cruelty

maybe when I drunk? :clown:

Seriously now, I rarely seen rats in my house, but that proves I should cleaning my house again... :shame:

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Hot water softens up your brown chocolate in the bowl!


:balloon2:

[Gregoshi]

I'm glad nothing bad came from your chemical "experiment". I do wonder about the condition of the clog? Any status update on that? I'd hate to think you nearly killed yourself for nothing.

[Fragony]

I'm glad nothing bad came from your chemical "experiment". I do wonder about the condition of the clog? Any status update on that? I'd hate to think you nearly killed yourself for nothing.

We call it stuuksoda here, reacts with water, gets really hot we use it to clean rusted machine parts. It won't do anything to a bowl or industrial pipes, it's perfectly safe if you use COLD water Cute Wolf.

[Tellos Athenaios]

sodium hipochlorite and sodium hydroxide

Ehrm Fragony I think you missed the part about mixing those two. That's essentially bleach in salt form with lye and he dissolved both in hot water. It produces chlorine gas, and lot's of it. It goes only a bit faster if you use hot water rather than cold water, but the reaction is aggressive enough to warm up the bowl a lot once it gets going.

[Cute Wolf]

now, I was in at local mall, sipping cola and eating fried chickens... trying to forgot all the mess who await me at home, but the situatiion is clear, the toilet was allready unclogged... and the chlorine gas is still on the air...

[Ironside]

Ehrm Fragony I think you missed the part about mixing those two. That's essentially bleach in salt form with lye and he dissolved both in hot water. It produces chlorine gas, and lot's of it. It goes only a bit faster if you use hot water rather than cold water, but the reaction is aggressive enough to warm up the bowl a lot once it gets going.

Mixing those is safe (while replacing sodium hydroxide with an acid is not). Sodium hipochlorite creates poisonous clorine compounds reacting with urine and some other organic substances though.

[InsaneApache]

Again years ago, in a former life, I had the job of changing the chlorine gas bottles. One day the lead washer split and I got, what they call a 'belt'. It felt like I had been kicked in the chest by a horse. That taught me not to take shortcuts and not wear the respirator.

Cleaned my teeth a treat though. :laugh4:

[rory_20_uk]

now, I was in at local mall, sipping cola and eating fried chickens... trying to forgot all the mess who await me at home, but the situatiion is clear, the toilet was allready unclogged... and the chlorine gas is still on the air...

Wet some towels / paper. Chlorine quickly dissolves and is heavier than air. You might end up with things soaked with concentrated hydrochloric acid though... You might want to start off with an alkaline solution to alleviate this.

~:smoking:

[InsaneApache]

Sunlight is good as well.

I should have cottoned on to the water as well.

Doh!

[Gregoshi]

That clogged toilet is starting to look like a minor problem.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Mixing those is safe (while replacing sodium hydroxide with an acid is not). Sodium hipochlorite creates poisonous clorine compounds reacting with urine and some other organic substances though.

EDIT: Noted. Though neither salt will be pure and contain traces of their `active' parts in water, which given HCO- being so unstable is a risky thing to play with.

[Hosakawa Tito]

At least the rat had the decency to die before you sat down to take care of business. Nothing more vicious than a trapped rat with only your dangling family jewels between it and freedom...oh, I'm gonna have a nightmare tonight.:sweatdrop:

[InsaneApache]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1dAQN5QcZU

[CountArach]

To the surprise of practically no one, this thread is closed.