How do I fix a clogged toilet?

There are two basic ways to unclog a stopped up toilet: plunger or augur snake.

Peter DeMarco is the director of compliance engineering at American Standard. They have been manufacturing plumbing fixtures for more than 140 years and are the world's largest manufacturer of bathroom fixtures and faucets. DeMarco said that clogged toilets are something that they don't have to face at American Standard, but for those that do, unclogging a toilet is a very simple process.


"If you are buying an American Standard, its one thing you will never have to deal with," he said. "But, if in the case you are not that fortunate and have to unclog a toilet, there is two primary ways of remedying that situation. The first is the good old plunger. And everybody is familiar with the plunger."

"And basically the plunger is inserted into toilet and what you are doing when you plunge the toilet is forcing air into the trap of the toilet to dislodge anything that may be blocking the flow path," he added. "That's the most common way and the most recommended way to do that."

Using a plunger works wonders for common problems such as too much toilet tissue. But as we all find out eventually, certain items just have a way of finding their way down a toilet drain.

Kids are some of the biggest culprits when it comes to having a clogged toilet. Whether it be their curiosity or their hatred for their sister's baby doll, at some point in their lives, a child is almost certain to drop something in a toilet. In these cases, DeMarco and other experts advise using an augur snake.

"The other way is to by use of what they call an augur snake, which is a metallic flexible device that can mechanically go into the trap of the toilet to dislodge anything," DeMarco said. "But you want to try the plunger first, it is less intrusive and it works 95 prercent of the time. The only time you will need to use the snake augur is if you have something really hard entrapped into the toilet; a lot of times that will be when kids try to flush toys and for things too rigid for the plunger to push out with compressed air."

Not just picking on kids, adults too have a tendency to take the lazy way out of situations by tossing items in the toilet for disposal. Experts advise strongly against using your toilet as a means of garbage disposal because clogs can easily happen.


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