“My toilet has the slows”. That’s the description I got when I answered the phone one day. The guy on the other end was at a loss to come up with any other description. His toilet was flushing very, very slowly as if fighting to drain the water after pressing the handle. Sometimes it would finally finish flushing, but most times the bowl water just went around in a circle. Immediately, I knew what it was likely to be. It was calcium& lime deposits in the “jet” of the toilet. If you have ever watched a toilet flush it looks like a pretty simple operation. You press the handle, streams  of water enter the bowl from under the rim, and when the water gets to a certain height, it pushes all the water and solids down the drain, right?  Wrong. The fact is that there is another opening in the bowl that spews water at the same time it is coming out from under the rim. It is located at the very bottom of the drain. It can sometimes only be seen from the tank side of the toilet. This water inlet sprays directly into the drain and as it passes through the standing (static) water already in the bowl, it causes a vacuum that actually pulls the water down the drain along with what ever is in it.

What was happening to this toilet was that lime & scale reduced the size of the opening of the jet and therefore could not produce the vacuum or suction to pull the bowl contents down. In most cases this is a pretty easy fix. Simply employ an old coat hanger or stiff piece of wire and bend it into a hook. insert it into the jet hole and ream it  with both in & out as well as in a circular motions. You will see the bits and pieces of the scale buildup in the bottom of the bowl. When you think you have removed as much as you can, stop and flush the toilet. You should see a marked improvement or at best a total flush.

But wait….. you’re not quite done. Although you have removed allot of the deposits, there is still more inside the toilet that cannot be reached by mechanical means. For this you need to purchase a liquid lime & scale remover available at your local grocery store. Pour some in the bowl just before bed and let it work over night softening the minerals so when you next flush, some will be flushed down the drain. Do this for 5 consecutive days and your you should have trouble free flushing for years to come.

If you have any questions or need any help with toilet flush problem feel free to contacut us at: 201-399-2160