this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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YSK how to unclog a toilet (content.artofmanliness.com)
submitted 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You will never clog a toilet if you get a bidet. Putting tons of TP in is how you get clogs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 49 minutes ago* (last edited 49 minutes ago)

You don't have to use that much tp regardless of the bidet, and not use "flushable" wipes

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 hours ago

Be careful with the hot water. A friend cracked his toilet that way.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (6 children)

Australian here.

Step 1: design your damn toilets so they do not clog.

Step 2: there is no step 2.

Seriously, half a century of toilet use here in Aus and I've never caused - or discovered even - a blocked toilet at home.

Clearly the fact that I can buy a toilet plunger from the local hardware store indicates that this can happen here. But it seems that every American household has a toilet plunger and poop knife on standby and many articles are devoted to what clogs, and how to unclog, American toilets.

There are better designs for both toilets and plumbing out there guys, maybe you should look into using them.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 hours ago

Maybe it's American diets and not the plumbing.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 hours ago

sh itjust works

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Dude we put a pack of (not) flushable wipes and a dozen tampons down the drain, and all our shops have free public toilets

Good luck..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

You've got it all wrong. We've got the exact same toilets! They just struggle with the compressed remains of my three brunch big macs....

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

You don't, American toilets are weird and siphon the bowl out before filling it with water. The better design dumps water into the bowl from the cistern and flushes everything through.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

How many courics?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

I completely agree that the us should design their plumbing better, but we do typically throw more flushable golfballs down the toilet than you.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Note to Australians. Your sewerage pipes are double the width of the USA's weak, inferior pipes. You may never need a plunger in your entire life.

Also, wet wipes are NOT flushable ANYWHERE, and if we didn't live in fake democracies ruled by corporations any company that labelled them as such would have been sued into bankruptcy decades ago.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

That expains it. Never owned one, never needed one.
Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 hours ago

I've never had a problem starting on step 4 and repeating a few times.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Hol up... You're supposed to heat the plunger up first? I can only assume it's to loosen up the rubber so it compresses better, but I've never felt like it was too stiff to not work.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

This was the part that I wouldn't do just because I view the sink as mostly clean and plunger as mostly dirty. So unless I were to sterilize the sink afterwards I wouldn't put a plunger in the sink.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

Yeah seriously that's gross as fuck. I wouldn't even want to use a garage sink to rinse a plunger. It's just too nasty for me. It gets rinsed outside with the hose.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

It's to reduce the chance of it cracking as rubber gets brittle at lower temps; especially a shit batch of cheap dollar-store rubber. If it cracks it's useless.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

What about the poop knife?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

Just one step. Superior really. Plus is that corn I see?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

DO NOT use hot water to help unlog a toilet. I've had the porcelain crack from the heat, had to replace the toilet entirely. Lesson learned.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Doesn't "hot water" refer to what you can get out of the faucet, so like 60 °C (140 °F), not boiling water?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

My kid flushed a rubber ball down the toilet before - it was exactly the right size and squishyness to get stuck. After trying many things, I was able to get it out by removing the toilet and pouring in boiling water - it softened the ball enough for it to be flushed out.

It sounds like I got lucky. It was a warm day iirc - maybe that helped with the thermal stress.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Similar issue, my wife knocked the kids rubber ducky into the toilet well flushing it. A complicated maneuver because she hit it with her elbow knocking the ducky off the top of the tank exactly as she hit flush. Had to auger it to the bottom of the toilet and than unbolt it from the floor and yank it out from the bottom hole because it wouldn't go past the lip where the toilet met the drain. Honestly probably better it didn't go into the pipes and get jammed somewhere else I suppose.

Guess I did all the way up to step 7?

And, yes I remind her of this folly regularly.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

Real men just reach in there and pull the blockage out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

That's gay.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I thought the first image in the thumbnail was flicking the turd!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

Is that like flicking the bean?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

Only rectally

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago

You do one then the other

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 hours ago

Or use a straw...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

There is always the possibility the clog isn't in the toilet itself but further down the drain. You can test this by running faucets and seeing if the sinks drain properly

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago

A cheap method to unblock anything:

  • Remove any loose material.
  • Now pour 30 gallons of jet fuel in the area.
  • Ignite it but stand back at least a few feet.
[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (9 children)

Yikes. What are you flushing down your toilet that you need a auger to unclog it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

Non flushable wipes, tampons, cigarettes, and paper towels

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

If it's the average western diet, it's probably from the massive amount of toilet paper that was used to clean the asshole after their failure to use a bidet.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Step four, you want to pull the fluid column up to unstick the trash, so go slow ‘down’ and somewhat more forceful on the ‘up’.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Step 1 sounds funny to me. I would think it's turn the water off, not remove top tank.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago (16 children)

Top of the tank, as in the lid, so you can close the flapper and prevent the bowl from overflowing.

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