TOILET CONTAMINATION PROBLEM

[MontereyC6]

Video, we need video of Rhino trying to remediate his thrown!

 

[halfmileharry]

Video, we need video of Rhino trying to remediate his thrown!

Knowing of Rhino's prowess with tools I'm betting it will be cutting edge technology.

 

[AGarbers]

It could be iron bacteria. It looks very much like poo.

 

[Mgderf]

A toilet swap is quick and easy.
Also not overly expensive.

Let me know if you want to go this route.

 

[halfmileharry]

In the meantime, I have "discovered" a method to remediate new and potential clogs that eliminates the be need to plunge. I shall not describe it here!

Come on Rhino. Get on with it. Cut the crap.

 

[JettaKnight]

Come on Rhino. Get on with it. Cut the crap.

I gotta assume Rhino has a poop knife, right?

 

[edporch]

We get the same thing from time to time being on a well with a lot of iron in the water. It's rust/lime scale breaking loose. It does look like poo, but it's not. Actually what hoosierdoc suggested about letting it run isn't far off from what I do. Just hold the flush handle down while flushing. Do that a few times and it should clear up (until enough accumulates to start doing it again).

You could also get some Iron Out and put in your tank and let it sit for awhile then do the "long flush" like described above. Might take a couple of times but the Iron Out should help clear it up. I suspect something like Lime Away or CLR might help too.

This ^^^
We have iron water and get the same thing.

 

[Thor]

Video, we need video of Rhino trying to remediate his thrown!

Baseball? Football? Rock?

 

[AGarbers]

This ^^^
We have iron water and get the same thing.

Most likely this is iron bacteria. Iron bacteria comes from having a non-sanitary well, such as one that can get surface (rain) water in it. Our wellhead was open and at ground level when we first bought our house. The first thing we did was have the well cleaned and cased so that no surface water can get in it. Unfortunately once iron bacteria is started it is extremely hard to kill completely and it keeps regrowing. Some of my business clients have it in their freshwater and chilled water piping and it grows like mad and clogs smaller pipes. Unfortunately, some folks that used to have wells and decide to go on rural/city water decide to save themselves on their water bill and illegally hook up their well back up to their water system, along with the city/rural water. This pressurizes the supply with iron bacteria-contaminated water which can go to the other area folks. This isn't supposed to happen because a back-flow preventer is supposed to be in place at the water meter but they can fail, or some folks put in shunts in place of their meter/backflow device so they can get free water when they need it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron-oxidizing_bacteria

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

One of our toilets had a problem for a long time in that it would clog easily. It was the bathroom that my kids used, and my young nephews, and I was never sure that something had been flushed down at some point that was lodged in the toilet or the pipe. But, having to use the plunger on occasion was routine and it would clear easily enough.

After re-doing that bathroom, including taking the toilet apart and putting all new parts inside and re-installing it, I noticed that, it still didn't look right when it flushed. Long story short, after much messing around, doing different things, I ended up using one of those long thin plastic barbed things pushed into the holes under the rim, and I pulled out a flushable cleaning wipe that had apparently been in there for years. After that, it whooshes like a champ, and no more clogs.

In our toilets, all of the water from the tank goes into a hollow under the rim and comes out the holes, making the vortex in the bowl when you flush. The wipe was used inside the tank and was inadvertently left in there, and it lodged inside the hollow rim when it flushed.

 

[Libertarian01]

^^^Two whole pages and not one of these.

I have no useful input other than, "good luck."

Doug

 

[patience0830]

Video, we need video of Rhino trying to remediate his throne!

FTFY

 

[Hohn]

In order for the supply to become contamination by non-upper deck means, you'd have to have forced something to flow uphill at somepoint. Your previous plunging couldn't have done this.

Thus, since you cannot and didn't force poo upstream, and inanimate objects don't swim upstream, the obvious conclusion is that it is not poo. It might look like it, but it isn't.

Try HoosierDoc's idea of letting it run continuously as long as your water bill tolerance will allow and live with whatever follows.

 

[JettaKnight]

In order for the supply to become contamination by non-upper deck means, you'd have to have forced something to flow uphill at somepoint. Your previous plunging couldn't have done this.

Thus, since you cannot and didn't force poo upstream, and inanimate objects don't swim upstream, the obvious conclusion is that it is not poo. It might look like it, but it isn't.

Try HoosierDoc's idea of letting it run continuously as long as your water bill tolerance will allow and live with whatever follows.

You're making a big assumption about what comes out of Rhino's tail end.

 

[femurphy77]

In order for the supply to become contamination by non-upper deck means, you'd have to have forced something to flow uphill at somepoint. Your previous plunging couldn't have done this.

Thus, since you cannot and didn't force poo upstream, and inanimate objects don't swim upstream, the obvious conclusion is that it is not poo. It might look like it, but it isn't.

Try HoosierDoc's idea of letting it run continuously as long as your water bill tolerance will allow and live with whatever follows.

You're making a big assumption about what comes out of Rhino's tail end.

Beat me to it!

[video=youtube;Nh2iyPmucFk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh2iyPmucFk[/video]

 

[Tactically Fat]

liquid fabric softener = cure for clogs.

Just don't drink too much.

 

[rhino]

In order for the supply to become contamination by non-upper deck means, you'd have to have forced something to flow uphill at somepoint. Your previous plunging couldn't have done this.

Why not?

If I forced it back through the inlet/fill hole at the bottom of the bowl and there is a physical path between there and the fill holes under the rim, I don't see how it could be ruled out. I was definitely applying enough pressure to push water upward a few inches.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Why not?

If I forced it back through the inlet/fill hole at the bottom of the bowl and there is a physical path between there and the fill holes under the rim, I don't see how it could be ruled out. I was definitely applying enough pressure to push water upward a few inches.

On my toilets it wouldn't be possible. The large hole in the bottom only goes to the waste pipe. It goes up and over a curve that's molded into the toilet, and which serves the same purpose as a P-trap under a sink, to keep sewer gas from getting out. The hole in the bottom of the toilet tank (with the flush valve) leads to the little holes under the rim. When you flush, the flapper opens up and the water drains out of the tank and through the little holes under the rim.

I guess, if you plunged the toilet while it was full all the way to the top of the bowl, it might be theoretically possible, but still unlikely.

 

[rhino]

On my toilets it wouldn't be possible. The large hole in the bottom only goes to the waste pipe. It goes up and over a curve that's molded into the toilet, and which serves the same purpose as a P-trap under a sink, to keep sewer gas from getting out. The hole in the bottom of the toilet tank (with the flush valve) leads to the little holes under the rim. When you flush, the flapper opens up and the water drains out of the tank and through the little holes under the rim.

I guess, if you plunged the toilet while it was full all the way to the top of the bowl, it might be theoretically possible, but still unlikely.

My Kohlers have two holes in the bottom. One is the drainthe at the rear and the hole facing that direction sends fresh water from the tank to initiate the flow down the drain. If I pushed sewage far enough into the second hole (the one through wish fresh water enters), it's plausible the the contaminated water could be forced other places that are also connected to the incoming fresh water, like the channels that feed the holes under the rim.

I could be wrong, but that seems plausible to me.

On the home front, I've been holding the flush lever down until the entire tank drains through the toilet. It's actually helping. I'm seeing a lot less of the foreign matter as time moves forward. It might be enough to resolve it eventually without more active measures.

 

[Cameramonkey]

along the lines of those suggesting stuff is built up in the holes. I had severe scale in one of my toilets that had most of them clogged or at least restricted. Here is how I fixed it.

You will want a bottle or two of The Works bowl cleaner. Not the gel stuff but the thin stuff with acid in it. Its not as strong as muratic but still gets the job done. I'd still wear safety glasses just in case.
Totally empty the toilet. Remove the tank.
Evacuate ALL water from the bowl and where the water enters the bowl on top using a wet vac.
If the toilet has one, seal the little jet assist hole at the bottom/front of the bowl with duct tape.
Plug the holes under the rim. Whether stuffing them with a soft wax, or using duct tape to seal up the holes. You want to seal up the holes so the channel inside holds liquid.

Then with that all sealed up, pour in the bowl cleaner. Pour as much in as you can down the hole where the tank connects to the bowl. Go slowly and allow air bubbles to percolate up. Also dont overfill as the bubbles could cause the cleaner to expand. Let that sit for several hours.
Using gloves, CAREFULLY remove the tape (bottom hole first if it exists) and allow the bowl cleaner to drain. put it back together and flush it several times to evacuate the remaining cleaner.

It worked wonders for my toilet. Though my issue was scale, so YMMV.