Items you should never flush often find their way into your toilet where they become lodged, causing all sorts of havoc and mayhem within your plumbing system. If you have small children chances are you’ve looked into the toilet from time to time and found your child’s favorite action hero staring back at you. A kid’s curiosity can lead to a clogged toilet when they decide to play with or in one of the greatest inventions of all time. But what do you do when they flush something of serious value that you want to retrieve? Most times the best thing to do is call your plumber. However, you must take action before the plumber arrives to lessen the chance you lose the item forever.
Items Kids Love to Flush
The list below includes items kids should never flush but often do. Not only do you risk losing them, but also clogging your toilet and/or your home’s sewage lines.
- Their favorite toys
- Whole rolls of bathroom tissue
- Family heirlooms such as your grandmother’s broach
- The family hamster
- Your bottle of special occasion perfume
- Dental floss “dispenser”
Turn Off the Water
The first order of business is to stop water from flowing into the sewer lines by turning off the main water shut off valve to the property. Often, toys and other household items kids choose to flush become trapped in the toilet’s built-in P-trap. This is the best-case scenario, as the item will stay lodged until the plumber physically removes it. However, items that make it through the toilet P-trap and into the main sewage line, can be swept away forever by any water flowing through the line. Since most household drains are connected to each other, water draining from other toilets, sinks and shower or tubs carry the potential to wash away your item. Turning off the main shut-off valve may prevent this from happening.
Empty the Toilet Tank
Next up, you should empty the toilet tank itself. An unsuspecting user may not know there is a problem and flush the toilet. Even though the water is turned off, it still has one flush left, stored in the tank. A toilet tank holds the water that actually flushes the commode. Once flushed, the fill valve opens allowing fresh water to fill the tank where it is stored until the next flush.
Use a plastic cup or wet/dry vacuum to remove the water from the tank but do not pour it down the tub or sink drain where it could wash away your item. Instead, transfer the toilet tank water into a bucket or pot from the kitchen. In addition, you should also empty the tanks of any other toilets in the household to prevent water from flowing into the sewage line should someone use them.
Hopefully, you retrieve your lost item but often items that get flushed are gone forever. And just in case this sounds a bit too complicated, contact The Pink Plumber today.
