Toilet backup

[bornitz]

Hi,

I have a Gerber low flush that a company installed last year. it was a promotion to swap out your older toilet. It came with a 6 month warranty, and now about a year later, we came back from vacation to find the water not going down when I flush.

The only thing that ever goes down that toilet is toilet paper and human waste. There are no children, pet toys, feminine products, etc.. There are no traps that I can find and it's a single story house on slab. Not sure if this is relevant or not.

I called the home warranty company, who sent a plumber who tried to clear it using an auger. He said that it got stuck about 3 feet in and accused me of putting something awful down there which would void the home warranty. I assured him that nothing inappropriate went down there. I asked if a different snake would help and he said "no" because that's not appropriate to use for a toilet. He said that the toilet itself might be broken, but I don't understand how that can be unless there is cracked porcelain blocking the drain pipe, or whatever it's called.

I have 2 bathrooms, and everything else works properly. The main line was replaced a couple years ago due to tree roots, but has been fine since. The shower/tub next to the toilet is fine as well as the sink.

I called the home warranty company back and they are assigning a different plumbing company and I'm awaiting assignment so I can make an appointment.

Any ideas on what this might be will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Bonnie

 

[Mr_David]

Home warranty plumbers are 95% jokes. I can on an on about the line of bull I have heard from dissatisfied customers.

Most plumbers have a 6ft auger.
Unless he pulled something back how can he say what the cause was.
If the stoppage can not be reached with a profession grade toilet auger then the problem is not the toilet and in the drain beyond that.

next step is to pull the toilet and run a properly sized snake down the closet bend.

Low flow toilets use less water AND that less water does not carry solids down the horizontal lines as far as the older units that used more water.

 

[bornitz]

Thanks so much, Mr. David.

I decided to cancel the Home Warranty after all these years because they denied my claim without even knowing the cause.

So, I called a highly recommended plumber who did a fabulous job replacing my main line several years ago. He'll remove the toilet tomorrow and check the line, but he's fairly certain that the crappy (no pun intended) free replacement toilet is the culprit since there's no backup anywhere else (sink, shower). He said that the quality of those toilets are awful and he has replaced many since they started the program in my area. However, he still will check the line to verify that nothing is trapped in there before installing a new toilet.

It sounds reasonable because when I pressed down on the lever, it didn't even try to send anything down the pipe, but only fills, hence the backup.

Hopefully, this will be fixed tomorrow.

Thanks again!
Bonnie