The Unclog Blog - HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric

Tips to Unclog Your Toilet

Without question, clogged toilets have been and will likely continue to be a fact of life. Nevertheless, some of us still find ourselves confounded when confronting this most trivial problem – and there are still plenty of us who, despite all logic, continue to flush a clogged toilet until it overflows.

Don’t let a clogged toilet become a bigger problem than it is. Follow these steps to get your toilet flowing freely and easily:

• If the toilet is dangerously full, get a bucket and bail water out until it’s reduced to about half capacity. Not only does a full toilet pose the risk of overflowing, it’s also likely to create a mess when plunging.
• Try to create a situation in which there is just enough water to cover the plunger’s cup once it’s been inserted into the toilet.
• Ideally, line the edge of the plunger’s cup with petroleum jelly to create a tight seal.
• Insert the plunger at an angle to prevent air from being trapped under the cup.
• Start pumping the plunger – anywhere from one to twenty strokes. Don’t be afraid to use a good amount of force.
• Repeat this several times to burp the entire clog through.
• Pull the plunger forcefully upwards. If the water disappears down the toilet, you’re plunging job has been successful.
• If it’s worked, use a bucket to pour water into the toilet before flushing it. Do this several times, ensuring the bowl empties each time.
• If you’ve plunged and repeated several times to no avail, it’s probably time to get an auger (or snake) – or recruit a neighbor or plumber if you don’t have one.

Tips to Prevent Clogged Pipes

As you can imagine, plumbers get more calls about clogged pipes and drains than for any other service. As you can also imagine, clogged pipes and drains can be easily prevented.

One of the more obvious methods for preventing clogged drains is to place a strainer over the usual culprits: the tub drain, kitchen sink and bathroom sink. In the bathroom, a strainer is the best defense for hair and soap, which love to accumulate and create havoc once they’ve gone down the drain. If your kitchen garbage disposal isn’t reliable (or if you don’t have one), placing a strainer over the drain is a great way to keep foodstuffs out of the way. This usually requires cleaning the strainer often as you prepare meals or wash dishes.

Despite what television ads may like you to believe, cleaning drains mechanically rather than chemically is the best practice. Pouring corrosive materials down your drains is a sure way to damage and weaken your pipes. Unfortunately, very few of us have the tools to handle a snake job on our own. If you would like to attempt to free the clog through a chemical method, pour a cup of baking soda followed by a cup of vinegar down your kitchen drain every month as a preventative measure.

In the bathroom, pour two to three gallons of boiling water down each drain about once a month to clear out hair and grease particles. Also, if your drains have built in strainers, try using a bent wire like a coat hanger to fish it out and clean it off.

Weird Toilet Facts

How sharp is your toilet knowledge? The next time you want to impress at a party while waiting to use the bathroom or dazzle a friend with your sharp trivia, break out some of these interesting and strange facts about toilets. You’ll be the life of the party in no time.

1. Pomegranates studded with cloves were humankind’s first attempt at a toilet air-freshener.
2. The average person spends three years of his/her life on a toilet.
3. King George II of Great Britain died falling off a toilet in 1760.
4. The film “Psycho” was the first movie to show a toilet flushing. The result was many complaints of indecency.
5. The first toilet stall in a row is almost always the least used, and therefore the cleanest.
6. British public toilets are generally voted the worst in the world, in front of Thailand, Greece and France.
7. Thomas Crapper perfected the siphon flush method most commonly used today – although he did not invent the toilet itself.
8. The toilet handle in a public restroom can have up to 40,000 germs per square inch, so keep yours clean!
9. Toilets around the nation are flushed more times during the Super Bowl halftime than any other time of year.
10. An estimated 2.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to proper toilet facilities.

 

Beware the Clogging Power of Kitchen Grease

Have you been dumping grease down your kitchen sink? How about the fat left over in the pan after you’ve just cooked some burgers in your skillet? You’re not dumping this down your drain – are you? If so, shame on you! You’re asking for a clogged sink.

Fat and grease – as you probably know – like to solidify. In fact, they’re generally only in a purely liquid state when subjected to high heat. Once the fat and grease cools, it will begin to congeal and create problems. Pump enough of it down the drain and you might need a plumber to sort it out before the clog leads to something worse, like a flooded basement.

If your kitchen drain is plugged with grease, check to see if you have a grease trap. If so, you should be in good shape. Simply remove the trap and thoroughly clean it out. If you don’t have a grease trap, try pouring a healthy dose of boiling water mixed with baking soda and vinegar down the drain. This should help to liquefy the fat and grease and usher it away.

If the problem persists, you’ll need to head to the store for a degreaser. And the worst case scenario? You might need to call a plumber over to snake your pipes. Nevertheless, kitchen grease clogs can be easily avoided by installing traps and monitoring the amount of grease that goes down the drain.