Rocks Hiding in Pebble's Toilet - Advise from the Hive mind wanted.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

Dear Board hive mind.

As many of you may know we recently moved in to our new home. This home has a problem with one of its toilets. It’s blocked most of the time. Water will slowly seep away and not flush fast. We can get it flushing properly after plunging but the problem returns within a day or two.

A bit of explorative investigation has revealed the U-bend itself is almost entirely blocked with lime scale. So far we have no taken the toilet off the wall, I’m in the belief that this will have to happen. Mr Pebbles is refusing this until all other options have been explored. I also believe there is a further blockage further along the pipework (probably a turd) since the shower also drains into the same down pipe and also experiences very slow drainage. The downstairs toilet also on the same downpipe has no problems (so far)

We have managed to chip away at some of the easiest to reach parts and removed layers of lime scale rocks using brute force. And I now have a collection of jars with these rocks in and different chemicals to see if we can find something to dissolve the stuff with (that won’t also dissolve the toilet or pipes)

Our best result so far has been the Malt vinegar It’s the only one that still producing the occasional bubble after a few days (most stop bubbling after an hour) We have also tied Distilled vinegar, Lemon juice, several different lime scale removers including one containing 15% sulphanic Acid. A descaler product and some bicarbonate of soda. Everything has been rather ineffective (and what we are using in the Jam jars is neat, if we use it in the toilet then it will be diluted with toilet water.

So Board hive mind, Can you help and suggest something we can legally obtain to dissolve/ melt our rocky deposits without blowing up the entire sewer system? You have never let us down before.

Thanks much love Mr and Mrs Pebble.

[maarsen]

Dear Board hive mind.

As many of you may know we recently moved in to our new home. This home has a problem with one of its toilets. It’s blocked most of the time. Water will slowly seep away and not flush fast. We can get it flushing properly after plunging but the problem returns within a day or two.

A bit of explorative investigation has revealed the U-bend itself is almost entirely blocked with lime scale. So far we have no taken the toilet off the wall, I’m in the belief that this will have to happen. Mr Pebbles is refusing this until all other options have been explored. I also believe there is a further blockage further along the pipework (probably a turd) since the shower also drains into the same down pipe and also experiences very slow drainage. The downstairs toilet also on the same downpipe has no problems (so far)

We have managed to chip away at some of the easiest to reach parts and removed layers of lime scale rocks using brute force. And I now have a collection of jars with these rocks in and different chemicals to see if we can find something to dissolve the stuff with (that won’t also dissolve the toilet or pipes)

Our best result so far has been the Malt vinegar It’s the only one that still producing the occasional bubble after a few days (most stop bubbling after an hour) We have also tied Distilled vinegar, Lemon juice, several different lime scale removers including one containing 15% sulphanic Acid. A descaler product and some bicarbonate of soda. Everything has been rather ineffective (and what we are using in the Jam jars is neat, if we use it in the toilet then it will be diluted with toilet water.

So Board hive mind, Can you help and suggest something we can legally obtain to dissolve/ melt our rocky deposits without blowing up the entire sewer system? You have never let us down before.

Thanks much love Mr and Mrs Pebble.

Just keep putting in the vinegar. As the lime scale dissolves, it will neutralize the vinegar so give it a flush and replenish. This should not harm the toilet or your pipes. If you do decide to chip it off, be gentle as you do not want to crack the toilet.

[ThinkerX]

I find myself wondering...

each drain is supposed to have its own vent, or failing that, a vent immediately after intersecting with another drain. Just a guess, but perhaps the vent for the slow drainers is blocked.

[zelticgar]

I've had my kitchen and a bathroom redone in the last year and we had my contractor replace the old metal drain pipes with PVC lengths on both jobs. We had problems with the sink and shower drains. I gave my contractor a hand on both jobs and when we pulled the piping out they were all blocked up with lime scale and gunk. I just wrapped on our kitchen and the pipe we replaced was about 12 feet long. The whole thing had lime deposits in its length. In my opinion you will have little luck treating the existing piping. Eventually a hole will spring up in the old pipes. The deposit build up would have to be chiseled out to clear it up and once things reach a certain point its tough to get a clean drain. Any little thing that gets in there will block it up. My house was built in 1970 and I'm assuming it was the original pipes so figure 45 years of build up was what i dealt with. It turned out to be one of those benefit projects where we never realized how slow the drain was until we got the new drain pipes and plumbing put it. I also had him replace the old shut off values with new values that turn on and off with a half twist. Definitely worth the time and effort.