I have an old toilet in which all the guts have been replaced, but it doesn’t generate enough hydraulic pressure to flush. I suspect it is clogged with hard water build-up. I’ve tried reaming the water jets with a coat hanger, but that didn’t help much. Any suggestions for how to get this old veteran toilet back into working order? We really don’t want to replace it with a new 1.5 gallon flush model.
Thanks. Jim O
Replies
Are you indicating that you have poor flow from the holes under the bowl lip?
I've refurbished several toilets suffering from that particular problem with great success. First turn off the water supply and drain the tank. Then I wipe the underside of the bowl lip dry and plug off the holes under the lip with a quality foil tape. Then lift the flapper and using a long flexible neck funnel, I pour a few ounces of muriatic acid down the funnel into the ports of the toilet. Rubber gloves are a good idea especially if you're sensitive to the acid. Goggles wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Leave it to do it's work for maybe two minutes or so.....during which time you can allow the flapper to close again and the tank to fill. After those 2 minutes or so, remove the tape and flush the toilet. Repeat the procedure if necessary. Make sure you flush the toilet several times when you're done to dilute the acid in the plumbing lines.
A serious word of warning here.......lots of forced ventilation in the room and DO NOT inhale any of the vapors emitted from the muriatic. I also recommend having a full sink or bucket of water at the ready in case of acid spills or contact with your flesh. You'll also want that handy to flush away any acid that trickles into the bowl during the procedure to prevent erosion of the glazing in there.
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
Edited 2/14/2004 11:54:42 AM ET by GOLDHILLER
Your suggestion for unclogging the water ports in our old toilet worked like a charm. Thanks. However, now that the water is flowing it has uncovered another problem that perhaps you can answer. We have been holding the handle down for the duration of the flush just to maximize the water flow with the clogged ports, but now we have discovered that the flapper just doesn't stay up to allow the water to flow out of the tank without your holding the handle down. How do we fix that?
Hard to say from here but if I ws going to venture a guess I'd say you either have to shorten the chain a bit so that the flapper is pulled into a bit more erect of a position ........and/or try replacing it with a new one. Pick one without a hole in its bottom like some of the new ones have these days. This sort of thing may may be what's hampering yours now in that it may have small crack in it that has allowed it to fill with water.
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
Fixing the flapper timing really depends on the style of unit you have. Some have a counter-balance scheme you can adjust, some depend on air trapped under the flapper, etc.
If you replaced the flapper assembly and know the manufacturer, look it up on the web or maybe sneak a peek at the instructions at a hardware store. They will sometimes include instructions for adjusting this.
One thing to check is that the chain is not too short. If the chain is too short then the flapper can't go over-center to the point where it will hold itself up.
Vinegar will soften hard water deposits if you can figure out a way to let the offending parts soak. Muriatic acid works better, but will attack the metal, too, and can be hazardous to work with.
The newer low flush toilets are much better than the ones they first came out with, according to reviews I've read over the past year. And if you live near Canada you can buy 3½ gpf toilets there.