Not My Finest Hour

[Mateo1984]

So, my once great idea went sideways today. I have a big problem with rust in my toilets so I often use rust away tablets to keep the toilet looking good. I hate how the disk lays on the bottom of the tank and creates a mess which never fully goes away. I decided to put the disk into an ankle sock and affix it to the back of the toilet tank so it would slowly leech out and keep the toilet clean.

After about 3 weeks we go to flush the toilet and whatdoyouknow the sock went down the toilet bowl intake...yikes! This American Standard toilet has a big intake. I can't see it under the flapper and the first few flushes were no good...now it seems to be flushing normally. I can also see the concentration of rust away cleaner coming from the jet at the bottom so I figure it's in there.

From what I can tell the sock has no way of getting into my septic...I think!? Where the heck did this sock go and I have doomed myself to a new toilet purchase?

 

[Diehard]

Chances are that it went into the area /channel that carries water around the top rim of the bowl.
If you wanted to, you could try fishing a flexible wire, with a hook, down under the flapper valve. You may come back with the sock.
You don't want a very strong hook, in case it gets hung up on something. You want to be able to pull it back without much effort.

Different toilet manufacturers may vary slightly as to where the main flow travels but they all have the flush passage.
You mentioned "cleaner coming from the jet at the bottom", so you may want to keep that in mind when fishing the wire

 

[Jeff Handy]

I have had a few clients whose toilet tank cleansers had plastic holders that broke loose and went down through the flush valve.

In every case, I pulled the toilet and tried to shake it loose back out the way it got in, and also tried shooting a hose into the rim jets while the front of the toilet bowl was turned up to the sky.
It never worked, even with the tank taken off.

Maybe you will have better luck, especially if it is stuck somewhere besides up in the channel that feeds the rim jets.

Meanwhile, who cares how the inside of the tank looks, but if you are obsessive you can always drain it once in awhile and wipe that stuff up.

 

[Mateo1984]

Thanks for the input...At this point I think I will just keep a watchful eye on it to make sure the flushing power doesn't degrade. Having this happen also changes my mind on just putting the tab into the tank from now on, lol.

My biggest worry was it getting out and going into my septic but from the diagram it doesn't look like that is likely.