Oh hello there, fellow adults.
Isn’t adulthood just grand?
I hope you have also arrived at this life stage in life with poise, confidence, table manners,
oh--the ability to deal with poop.
[♪INTRO]
Yes, a really fun thing about adulthood is that sometimes you have to unclog a toilet by yourself.
Here, we’re going to go over the basic steps for dealing with your average western-style flush toilet.
We suggest that you stock your bathroom ahead of time with some of these essentials:
cleaning gloves, a bucket or cup, a toilet auger, and a quality toilet plunger.
NOT a sink plunger.
This?
This is a sink plunger and will have a harder time maintaining good suction.
This?
This is a toilet plunger and it’s designed to work with toilets!
Okay.
Here we go.
Step 1: Identify the clog.
Sometimes, if your toilet is draining slowly, it isn’t immediately obvious that
your toilet is clogged.
If you find yourself in that situation, it can be tempting to dig into denial and just
continue flushing.
This is the path to a floor covered in toilet water.
Do not walk down this path.
Instead of flushing, open the top of the tank and lift the flapper to let a little water
drain into the tank, then monitor the toilet situation.
If your water isn’t going down, or going down very slowly you’ve probably got a clog.
Once you’ve identified that your issue is a clog, continue to the next steps.
Step 2: Deal with the water situation.
If you flushed, and the toilet is going to overflow, do not delay.
Turn off the water supply valve located behind or next to your toilet.
If you don’t have one, or don’t know where it is, you can open the tank and close the
flapper so water doesn’t continue to rush in.
You might have to rig a shoestring, coat hanger, or stick to keep the float up or the flapper
down to free up your hands.
If you’ve got a slow drain, wait until you’ve only got a few inches before moving on.
Sorry, this means everyone else in the house has to find a different bathroom
In the meantime, put on some gloves and clean up the bathroom floor if you need to--you’ll
definitely want to disinfect it.
If the water isn’t going down in a reasonable amount of time, or you’re trying to solve
this problem quickly, you can use a cup or bucket to remove water from the toilet bowl.
This may be… unpleasant.
But you can flush this water down later, after you’ve unclogged the toilet.
Step 3: Take the plunge.
Once you are no longer in danger of overflow, grab your special toilet plunger.
You’ll want enough water in the bowl to cover the plunger, but not so much that you’re
spilling all over the floor.
Start by getting suction with a gentle couple of plunges in and out.
After you get suction, rapidly plunge in and out with equal amounts of pressure until the
toilet starts draining. [Typewriter Ding]
Step 4: The hot water trick.
If you find yourself plunging on and on to no avail, and you’re pretty sure the clog
is being caused by the kinds of things that are supposed to be in a toilet, you can try
the hot water trick.
Run the bathroom faucet on hot to get it to the hottest temperature.
Gather about a gallon of this hot but not-boiling water, and squeeze a little liquid soap into it.
If it won’t cause the bowl to overflow, slowly pour the hot water down the toilet
drain and wait.
The hope is that the hot soapy water will help loosen and break apart any organic matter down there.
Then, once the bowl has drained enough that you’re not going to splash water everywhere,
continue plunging until the drain is acting normal again.
Step 5: The toilet auger.
If both plunging and the hot water trick doesn’t work, you can turn to the toilet auger.
This fancy tool is designed to twirl through and scrape up whatever is causing
your toilet-misery without scraping your nice porcelain.
Insert the auger head into the toilet drain
and gently turn the crank in a clockwise direction.
If the auger gets stuck while you’re spinning it clockwise, you may have to turn it counterclockwise
for a bit before continuing.
Now, once you’ve gotten the auger all the way down there, pull the coil back up.
Hopefully you’ll also be pulling or breaking up whatever is clogging your pipe.
Step 6: Know when to call professional help.
The steps we’ve outlined here will help you deal with, oh, 90 percent of clog situations.
But sometimes the situation gets more serious.
This can happen when someone drops something in the toilet that didn’t belong in there,
like a wallet or a toy or a spoon or a tampon applicator.
It can also happen when you’ve got an issue with the plumbing that’s deeper than just the toilet.
You may notice water coming up out of the shower or other drains around the house when you flush
In these cases, you’ll need to call a plumber.
Dealing with literal poop is not most people’s idea of a good time, but with a little humor,
a plunger, a toilet auger, and maybe a professional’s help, you’ve got a good chance of resolving
a crappy situation.
If you’d like to share any toilet battle stories, feel free to pop those bad boys in
the comments.
Good luck out there!
We’re rooting for you!
Oh hello there, fellow adults. It's adulthood just—blep!
[mumbling]
Oh hello there, fellow adults. Isn’t adulthood just graand?
Oh man. Brain fart.
More augers. Augers everywhere.
This? This is a—This?
No...
If you find yourself in that situation, it can be tempting to dig into the—
Into...
denial and just continue flushing.
Been there.
You might have to rig a short string, coat hanger, or stick to—
stick.
Shoe string. I've been saying short string.
[off screen] Short string works, too.
[laughter] I was like, "what is a shortstring?"