It is morning and you step into your bathroom, toss a piece of dirty tissue into the toilet and flush it down. The toilet starts to gurgle and the water floods your bathroom. You are upset. A clogged toilet is a unpleasant issue at anytime of the day. If your home uses a septic tank for waste management, a clogged toilet must be handled carefully since most commercial drain openers cannot be used with a septic tank. Does this Spark an idea?
Removing the Excess Water
To unclog a toilet connected to a septic tank, use a plunger first to release the water that is currently standing in the toilet. Plunge with the plunger several times until the water moves through the toilet. If the water does not move through, you will have to dip out the excess water. Make sure you wear gloves and use a pot and a bucket. You want to dip the water out of the toilet and then dump the water into a bucket. Do not dump the water down a bathtub or sink drain. After dipping out the water, plunge the toilet several times with the plunger to see if anything will come back up like a sock, rag or other object that may have fallen into the toilet.
Unclogging the Toilet
Once you have the removed excess water from the toilet, pour 2 cups of baking soda into the toilet, the bathroom sink and the bathtub drain. Do not flush the toilet yet. Next, pour boiling water (about 1/2 gallon) into the toilet. If your bathtub and sink's drain pipes are plastic, do not pour boiling water down them. Instead, run hot water from the faucet to rinse the baking soda down the sink and bathtub drains. Then pour 2 cups vinegar into the toilet, bathroom sink and bathtub drains.
You can now flush the toilet---if you notice the toilet getting ready to overflow, locate the water shutoff (normally on the back of the toilet at the bottom) and turn the water off. You have something blocking the drain below your toilet and a plumber will have to be called in if you are not equipped or cannot use a sewer snake or other tool to clear the clog.
Follow-up Care
If the toilet is flushing and draining, use the clogged toilet solution weekly to keep your house's drains open. The baking soda, water and vinegar mixture is completely safe for the septic system. Make sure when you pour the boiling water into your drains that you do not pour too much water. You never want to add too much water to your septic tank. Also, do not flush sanitary napkins, tampons, diapers and other non-biodegradable products down the toilet. These items will clog your septic system and result in drains and toilets overflowing.
Tags: into toilet, septic tank, baking soda, boiling water, clogged toilet
