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darklight741's avatar
darklight741
Explorer
Dec 28, 2014

my toilet is backed up

Hi. I'm new here and have a big issue. A couple weeks ago our toilet would not drain. We thought maybe it's frozen. Nope, not the problem. We finally managed to get it to drag by getting one of those baloons that you put on the hose. That combined with flushing the tank managed to free whatever it was that was blocking it. Now, our toilet is backed up again. Our tank is empty, we have flushed out the tank many times now but we cannot get the******out of the toilet bowl. We're positive that the pipe from toilet to tank is blocked again. We have snaked it and tried the balloon thing on the hose and neither has done anything except put more liquid in the toilet bowl. My husband and I are completely clueless about what we can/ should try next. Please I want my toilet back!

50 Replies

  • hitchup wrote:
    Maybe you need to hire a Plumber with a camera. DH has to get his Plumber to scout out lines to see why something isn't draining properly. It's usually concrete, but in your case, something may have fallen down the toilet and is plugging the exit.

    Is anyone missing a cell phone?


    The problem with that is that there are no plumbers in our area willing to check it out for us because it's a rv. We both have our cell phones, but we have thought that may be the problem. The only thing that makes us think that not it is because we can get the snake 10ft down- it has to be in the tank by then right?
  • darklight741 wrote:
    2oldman wrote:
    Interesting. So your RV has toilet plumbing like a house.. with a P trap?



    No. There is no p trap. If your referring to my flushing the tank what I mean by that is that outside we can hook up a hose turn it on and it "cleans" the tank out. That part works perfectly and we can hear the water rushing out to our septic hookup.


    Toilets dump straight into the tank, about a foot or foot and a half of pipe, you probably have a pile of stuff right at the end of the pipe.
  • darklight741 wrote:
    No. There is no p trap.

    Ok.. but you said this:
    darklight741 wrote:
    We're positive that the pipe from toilet to tank is blocked again.
    So, you can't simply look straight down and see a blockage??

    No, I"m not referring to flushing the tank.
  • Maybe you need to hire a Plumber with a camera. DH has to get his Plumber to scout out lines to see why something isn't draining properly. It's usually concrete, but in your case, something may have fallen down the toilet and is plugging the exit.

    Is anyone missing a cell phone?
  • 2oldman wrote:
    Interesting. So your RV has toilet plumbing like a house.. with a P trap?



    No. There is no p trap. If your referring to my flushing the tank what I mean by that is that outside we can hook up a hose turn it on and it "cleans" the tank out. That part works perfectly and we can hear the water rushing out to our septic hookup.
  • Interesting. So your RV has toilet plumbing like a house.. with a P trap?
  • old guy wrote:
    you guys need to go to an RV store and get some digestive enzymes and put it into the tank. it will take a few days to loosen up the solids so you will be with out a toilet until you can get the tank emptied. you do need to use more water when using the toilet.




    We've already tried the enzymes. The problem is not our black waste tank but the toilet bowl itself and the pipe from the toilet to the tank. The tank itself is empty and when we flush it the water comes out perfectly.
  • you guys need to go to an RV store and get some digestive enzymes and put it into the tank. it will take a few days to loosen up the solids so you will be with out a toilet until you can get the tank emptied. you do need to use more water when using the toilet.
  • JoeGood988 wrote:
    Stuff happens...but almost always, people new to the RV world do not use enough water. Look how much water is used when you flush a toilet at home...by the time the tank is full, you should have 2/3 water and 1/3 "stuff"...the force of all that water trying to drain sucks out stuff and keeps if from getting hard. But the problem now is getting stuff out...usually a sewer service comes out and hooks on to your fitting and sucks out almost everything. Then when empty, add about 20 gallons of water so you have a small lake to let things pile up. When you flush always let lots of water gointo the toilet. Keep the paper useage down...no big wads of paper..use 1 ply paper so it will disolve easy. Live and learn




    We have been rv'ing for the last 5 years and have never had this problem. We also make sure to run lots of water when anything goes down. There is always water in our tank. We had a sewer service come out the first time this happened- he sucked and didn't get anything out. The toilet was still backed up when he left.
  • Stuff happens...but almost always, people new to the RV world do not use enough water. Look how much water is used when you flush a toilet at home...by the time the tank is full, you should have 2/3 water and 1/3 "stuff"...the force of all that water trying to drain sucks out stuff and keeps if from getting hard. But the problem now is getting stuff out...usually a sewer service comes out and hooks on to your fitting and sucks out almost everything. Then when empty, add about 20 gallons of water so you have a small lake to let things pile up. When you flush always let lots of water gointo the toilet. Keep the paper useage down...no big wads of paper..use 1 ply paper so it will disolve easy. Live and learn

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