Toilet flushing

[piemaker2103]

I have 3 toilets in a one story house. They all three started not to totally empty when flushed. I had the sewer line from the house to the septic tank cleaned out thinking that that was the problem. It was not. Sometimes they would flush ok other times not. The strange thing was I could pour 2 - 5 gal pails of water down one toilet within 20 seconds and it would go down with absoultly NO problem. Based on this the person who cleaned out the sewer line concluded the toilets were no good anymore. I find it hard to imagine that all three toilets became nonfunctional at the same time. Since this took place we had the septic tank emptied thinking this would help. It did not.
HELP!

[mrcaptainbob]

I'm not sure about this, but I am under the impression that each toilet has it's own entry to the septic tank. The cleaning of just one drain line wouldn't solve the problem. So......since it happened to all three at almost the same time, I'd have to guess a common problem. May very well be clogged vent stacks for the toilets. That would/could keep them from flushing properly because there's no air relief for the septic tank. Check them with a flashlight. Stick a garden hose down there and flush them clean. Then checkl the toilet flushing again. Sure hope it's something simple.

[LazyPup]

To get a rough estimation of where your main drain line runs go outside and look on the roof. Your main drain is either a 3 or 4 inch line and it must run undiminished in size up to the main vent. You should see it protruding out of the roof in a near proximity to one of the bathrooms and toward the opposite end of the house from the septic tank. All of the toilets may be connected on the main line, but most likely at least one is on a lateral line. If you have a lateral line it will most likely also have a vent but it may not, depending on the length of the lateral from the main drain line. You may also see another vent in the vincinity of the kitchen or laundry,but again, that would be determined by the lengh of the trap inlets from the main drain. If all three toilets are effected the stoppage will either be on the upstream end toward the vent, past the last toilet which is restricting the venting action, or the obstruction would have to be downstream (toward the septic tank) from the first toilet, otherwise all three would not be effected. There is a cleanout at the base of your wet vent riser, which is on the upstream end of the run. To clean the main drain they should rod it out (snake the drain) from the base of the stack, then pull the toilets on the lateral lines and rod out through the toilet flange. (Toilets are considered approved cleanouts because when a toilet is lifted you have an unobstructed run). As far as the toilets being old, that is a bunch of baloney. A toilet is simply a bowl of water with a built in trap. There are components in the water fill and flushing mechanism in the tank that require periodic maintenance but short of cracking or breaking the bowl, or dropping something into it that gets caugth in the trap, the bowls are foolproof. The only thing that goes wrong with bowls is a failure of the wax rings that seal the bowl to the closet flange.