Need advice - still have toilet/plumbing problems

The first thing you need to do is check an see if there is an object or objects blocking it off. From the store, purchase a new set of toilet anchor bolts and a new wax seal. Then turn off all water to the toilet, flush it and dip out the remaining water, remove the tank lid and place it on the floor. remove the supply lines and the anchor bolt nuts. you may be able to reuse the bolts but probably not. Lift the toilet off of the wax ring and lay it on its side. Look in the hole from the bottom and see what all is in there . Check real good now. if you don't see anything, reach up in there and feel around . Now you will know if that is you problem, or if it is elsewhere. Don't forget to wash your hands when done It is really simple to do and really all you need are chanel lock pliers, and an adjustable wrench. If you don't have a shutoff valve for the toilet, you should go ahead and install one while you are at it.

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Vicker
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My first floor toilet has that, but my top floor doesn't. I tried your suggestion on the first floor and found that it did have a lot of calcium deposit and I cleaned it out with a tool I made from an heavy duty wire clothes hanger. Unfortunately, it did not help.

Thanks for the try!

Cut back on the bran muffins for a week and see if that helps.

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I'll side with the posters who have had trouble with hard water deposits in their toilets. We had to have the plumber out after our toilet quit flushing waste down properly and we were doing a lot of plunging. He poured a couple of bottles of stuff into the empty tank's tube, and let it set for a while. You could see the sediment in the liquid in the bowl! When flushed again, the toilet worked like new.

I have since done this myself, and it works great. Got the stuff at the local plumbing store, not the hardware store.

What you describe here is not the toilet vent. What you have described is a clean out for the drain lines. The top of a vent has to be above the drain it vents.

If your system is "normal" your toilet drain vent if a pipe coming out through your roof. If house is older and your toilets are 'stacked' (the upstairs bathroom is directly above the 1st floor one) the vent most likely comes through the roof just about directly above the bathrooms.

You need to climb up on the roof and check all the pipes coming out. If you can't see anything you could try taking a weight on the string and lowering it down the pipe until it bottoms out. It should go all the way to ground level.

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What Marcia in MT said is certainly worth a try. Remove the bowl fill-up tube from the upright pipe in the tank. Flush and let all of the water drain out. Then stuff something like a paper towel in that hole within the bowl to try to plug it. Pour in something like CLR and let it sit for several hours. Remove plug, put fill-up tube back in upright pipe and flush.

My system is not normal, I guess. It is an A frame built about 25 years ago. There is nothing coming out of the roof anywhere. I have looked all around the house and there is nothing to see except the bathroom exhaust/fan outlets on the north facing wall.

Where in the world is the Vent???
You must vent the Sewer Gas to the Outside. And that is the pipe that is at the edge of the roof line, is what people are talking about that pipe maybe plugged so that air is not allowing the toilet to flush properly.

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Its sounding more and more like you have a venting issue, seeing as how you can't find one.

How about something coming out of one of the walls? The vent might go out through there. Maybe near the eve? Again remember, the top of the vent pipe will be higher than the highest drain and it will not have an airtight cap. Usually they don't have any kind of a cap but some have what I call a 'critter cap' to keep animals out.

Or the builder might not have put a vent in. W/o a vent you aren't going to get a good flush every time.

You really have to find out if you have a vent or not. If so you need to see if its clear. If not you'll need to put one in to correct the problem.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

My understanding is the main purpose of the vent is to let air into the system so that when water drains, it won't create a vacume and NOT drain. Like putting a straw in water and putting your finger over the end and pulling it out. The water won't drain out of the straw until you let air in from the top. Or it will suck all the water out of the traps and let septic gasses into the house.

However since it is hooked to the septic it needs to vent outside or it can let gasses into the house.

Usually the main stack is near the toilets, if your toilets are close to each other vertically then it is likely your main stack is about that location too. Do you have any attic space you can go look in? We bought a new house and for some reason the plumber forgot to run the vent through the roof - it ended in the attic space. Not a good thing at all! We lived in the place a few weeks before Dh was looking up in the attic for some reason and noticed it. Had them out ASAP to get that little item fixed.

If you have no vent, it's a wonder you don't have way more problems. Do you find the water being sucked out of your upper toilet at times? If you have no exterior vent it can cause the toilet to "burb" to let air in when other fixtures use the drain line.

Cathy

This would not be a vent, this would be a cleanout. The vent should be inside the house and be an open pipe clear up through the roof. For a toliet to flush right, the has to be a major amount of water flow through it in a short time. The "weight"of the water can't push the water though a septic system that fast. If there is no vent, or a partially clogged vent, the water gets slowed by air in the sewer pipe that has no where to go. Washing machine and sink drains, have much less "instantaeous" flow and are less affected. There can be a number of different things causing a problem, many of which have been discussed above.

I have very hard water, and calcium build up can be a problem. I had to put a couple of gallons of muratic acid in my toliet tank at one time because the interior channels around the toliet were so clogged that the water would not flow into the bowl fast enough for proper action (this is sort of dangerous, btw) Tree roots in the drain line can be a problem, but were much more of a problem with clay tile than PVC.

If it is not a clogged vent problem,
Rent a snake, get a couple of wax rings and toliet reseating hardware kits, pull both toliets and snake towards the septic tank. While you have the toliets off, check for anything that could be caught in the trap built inside of the toliet. You must lay on your back and look up, if there is a plastic lid from a soda cup, or a rubber ball just the right size, when you turn the stool upside down it will simply roll back up in the trap and you won't see it.

Er... btw, do the lower floor toliet first.

My downstairs toilet was as you described...sluggish. Took two and sometimes three flushes. My wife said that with 22 guests coming over for Thanksgiving dinner this year, I needed to get it fixed. Would clear whenever I poured a bucket of water, though. I snaked it. No help. Poured hydrochloric acid down the drain. No help. Removed the bowl, and saw that the pipes beneath (4 inch. iron) were all clear. I cleaned the toilet out even using a pressure washer. Reinstalled with a new wax ring...still sluggish. My toilet was a Jacuzzi brand and only around 5 years old. I did notice the holes around the rim were very tiny. I went to Lowes and bought a Champion 4 (American Standard). This is the one that shows a guy flushing a bucket of golf balls, then a 20 lb. bag of dog food down the toilet. This thing was pricey ( around $260+ dollars), but you only live once. I put that thing in in about a half hour and gave it my best s h "o" t. This thing is amazing. Good luck.

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I'm having the local plumber out tomorrow. Thanks for all the help. After reading all the posts, I can't help but think it is some kind of venting problem. I'll let you all know how it turns out.