What To Do With Poor Toilet Flush?

A toilet with poor toilet flush can always be annoying. This problem not only leads to unhygienic toilets but also can cause toilet plumbing problems if left unchecked and unsolved. To make a toilet flush at a normal level, you should first know why your toilet has a weak flush. And then can you know how to deal with such a problem. Here, we will provide some general reasons and solutions for you.

Why Does A Toilet Have A Weak Flush?

Toilet Clog

Trap Or Waste Piping Clog

The most common situation causing the poor toilet flush is that there is a clog. And the toilet clog would happen in two different places. One is the waste piping clogs. The toilet wastes piping functions to carry wastewater from the toilet to the house’s main pipe system and finally out of your house. You can define if the weak flush problem is caused by waste piping clogging easily. When you flush, the water goes nowhere and fills up your toilet bowl slowly. 

Rim Jet Clog

The rim jets are small holes around the toilet rim for water entering the bowl from the toilet tank. These small holes can be clogged easily by various debris, which consequences in the water could not flush into the bowl with the normal pressure. And therefore, it would disrupt the water flow and weaken the toilet flush. You can check whether there are signs of blocking around the rim by using a small handheld mirror.

Siphon Jet Clog

There is another type of toilet with a compartment in the front of the toilet to accommodate water. Every time you flush, water flushes out from the siphon jet to push waste into the trap directly. So as the same as the rim jets, the siphon jet can also be blocked by some debris, which leads to poor flush.

Flapper Issues

Worn Flapper

The flapper is a round rubber part in the tank to prevent water from leaking into the bowl. When you push the toilet handle to flush, the flapper would raise to let a certain amount of water pass through. Over time, the flapper would be worn out slowly so that it could not seal water. As a result, water leaks from the tank, and the toilet flushing power is lower.

Problem With Flapper Chain And Handle

The flapper chain connects with the flapper to the toilet handle to make the entire mechanism. If the flapper chain is too long, the flapper could not raise it to a certain height to let water pass. When you need to push down the handle for a long time for the toilet to flush, then it may be this problem.  

Water Level Problem In The Tank

There is a plastic ball-like device in the toilet tank called a float. When the float reaches a certain point, it tells the refill valve to stop allowing water to refill. If the float is set too low or damaged, water in the tank could not reach the standard level to make a full flush. To define whether there is a faulty float, you can open the tank lid to check if the water level is right below than overflow pipe.

You May Like: Should Toilet Flange Be Flush With Floor?

What To Do With Poor Toilet Flush?

Solutions To Toilet Clog

• If there is a clog with your toilet waste piping, you can use a plunger to unclog it. And the operation is quite easy. Firstly, cover the plunger over the toilet drainage opening to seal it. Then, push the plunger down to increase the pressure in the drain piping. Next, pull it up to force water back to break through the clog. Repeat the steps above and finally, you can unclog your toilet drain piping.

• If the poor toilet flush is caused by the siphon jet clog, you can clear the debris easily by using the acid solvent and a small brush. When there is a rim jet clog, you can also use the acid toilet cleaner to dissolve the debris. At first, turn off the water supply valve and open the flapper to let the water fall out of the tank. Secondly, pour a cup of acid toilet cleaner down to the flush valve opening and leave for several hours. At last, open the water supply and flush the toilet for several times to make sure water jets out powerfully.

Solutions To Flapper Issues

• Check if the flapper is out of place or worn out. On the one hand, if the flapper just shifts slightly, you need to adjust it to make a complete seal. On the other hand, if the flapper is damaged, you should buy a new one and replace the old one.

• If it is the flapper chain that causes the weak flush, you can shorten the chain. There is always a clip that comes with the flapper chain. So, you can adjust and fix the chain to be in proper length with that clip. Be careful not to shorten the chain too much, otherwise, it will cause a leak. A rule of thumb is that there should only be about half an inch of slack in the chain length required to operate the flapper.

Solutions To Water Level Problems

Make sure whether your toilet float is damaged, If so, replace a new one. Or if the float in your toilet tank isn’t at a proper height, you will need to make an adjustment. It is the wrong position of the float that makes the water level lower than the standard level in the tank. To deal with this, you can simply adjust the height of the float. Generally, there’s an adjustment screw in the tank to adjust the float height.