But you can do some of your own toilet maintenance without risking a complete mess. Here are 10 tips and tricks to help you flush flawlessly.
1. Mild Cleaners
It’s so important to clean your toilet bowl regularly. Not only does it help rid your bowl of unsightly stains, but it also helps you keep a close eye on potential leaks.
Make sure you clean down around the pedestal where sneaky leaks might hide from the naked eye. Catching the leak early can prevent being the person whose toilet overflowed through ceiling causing severe water damage in the rooms below your bathroom.
2. Drains Can’t Take Chemicals
Not two sewers systems are going to be exactly the same. You might have family and friends elsewhere who swear by chemical products that unclog drains.
But it’s best to err on the side of caution and skip any harmful products that claim to remove clogs. They are corrosive which makes them especially dangerous for your skin and eyes.
If you have older pipes, the chemicals might be too strong leading to leaks or rubbing through to reveal toxins in the metals.
3. Perform Inspections
It’s not a fun job but someone has to inspect your toilet bowl on a regular basis. Unless you want to pay hefty fees for a plumber, that someone should be you.
Check inside the tank to make sure there’s no building leading to water leaks. Double-check the components to ensure they’re working properly.
Many people see the inside of the toilet tank for the first time and can’t detect a problem because they don’t know what everything is supposed to look like.
Don’t be this person. Check your toilet’s inner workings every six months.
4. Stop that Leak
It’s important to stop toilet leads in their tracks. In most cases, that toilet has been silently leaking after each flush while you went on about your business.
It’s so common to overlook a leaking toilet that you can go ahead and assume you’re probably weeks, if not months behind detecting the leak. Yes, there’s damage and it’s good to go ahead and get to the heart of it before the damage goes any further.
You’ll save on your water bill and the repair costs to restore the area around the leak.
5. Bricks are Old News
People used to use bricks to save water in their tanks. The idea is that by putting a brick inside the tank, you’ll keep the water moving out after each use.
But this isn’t helpful with modern toilet fixtures. Unless you’re working with a toilet from the 1980s or older, you don’t need a brick breaking down and potentially clogging up your pipes.
A water bottle filled with tiny rocks does the same trick but won’t ever break down and get into your plumbing system.
6. Help Children Out
To a child, the toilet magically disappears its contents never to be seen again. To them, this can be a major advantage over simply using a trash can.
But you have to explain to kids what the toilet is and isn’t used for. If you don’t, you’re going to be doomed to experience clogs for everything ranging from silly putty to small toys.
Their creativity can’t let them miss a chance to get rid of old items in new ways. When your children become adults, they’ll appreciate the plumbing 101 lesson since it’ll save them expensive repairs in the long run.
some clogged plumbing solutions to consider
7. Toilets are for Toilet Paper
This isn’t a commonly known fact. There are products that actually claim to be toilet friendly that aren’t. You’ll find flushable wipes boasting their ability to play nice with septic tanks. This isn’t true.
These wipes aren’t flushable because they aren’t toilet paper. Stick to the basics so you don’t risk ruining your pipes or creating a back up in your toilet bowl.
8. Sanitary Napkins Aren’t Sanitary Safe
Women have been misled by many tampon companies. Tampons aren’t as convenient as they seem.
If you flush your tampons or sanitary napkins into the toilet, it will eventually clog. There are no two ways about that. And neither you nor the plumber wants to collect months worth of bloody tampons from the plumbing system. It won’t be a fun party.
9. Just Use Regular Toilet Paper
Toilet paper comes in many disguises. Some of it isn’t really what you think it is.
The thicker toilet paper varieties are tough on drains and should be put wherever you typically put kleenex. Since most people don’t want to endure the smells of used toilet paper in the trash can, it’s a good idea to simply by a less bulky variety of toilet paper instead.
10. Keep a Plunger on Hand
Toilet maintenance can’t happen with a good plunger. These aren’t the flimsy varieties that don’t suction well to the toilet bowl.
other valuable tips:
Kitchen Catastrophe: 3 Ways To Avoid The Chaos Of A Clogged Sink
A good plunger grabs on to the inside of your bowl and sucks the clog loose swiftly and easily. You can find good versions in the hardware store.
Toilet Maintenance Tips
There are moments when your toilet maintenance falls short. When this happens, don’t be afraid to call in the pros for help. Children make mistakes. Adults overlook leaks. It’ll happen and it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
The key is catching the problem and acting on it right away. For more information and tips visit our blog for updates.
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Image credit: toilet maintenance tips by envato.com
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