Okay, have yer fun with this one.
Child #1 or #2 let a junior size toothbrush fall in the toilet, then the other promptly flushed (tough to keep their story straight).
It has gotten firmly lodged at the high point of the toilet’s trap, at it’s sharpest turn. Of course it is slowing the exit of certain waste materials and causing occassional back-ups.
I pulled the bowl and tried to fish it out from both ends, but no luck. I could see it briefly, but access is severely limited. Tried the shop vac too… no luck.
Any clever tricks for extrication? Or is this 79¢ toothbrush gonna cost me a new loo?
Replies
Coat hanger?
Can you work a loop of light rope around the toothbrush to pull on? Maybe it would flex enough to come out, or break.
My dad used to work on cars a lot and had a grabber device that was a long coil spring with four clawlike things a t one end and a push button at the other. If you had one of those (maybe get them at car parts stores?) maybe you could reach up and grab the toothbrish with that. I'd suggest one of your kids reaching up there (smaller hands and such), but what if they get stuck? (guess it would teach them not to do it again!)
Is your toilet still off? It must be hard, trying to "make doo" without it : ) My idea might not work, is dangerous, and probably will result in a visit from the fire department. Interested? turn the toilet upside down, so the curve in question forms a trap for liquid. pour a good amount of your favorite flammable liquid, or gasoline, into the curve, and light with a match. Did I mention stand back? Actually, it probably won't take much fire to reduce the offending implement to a harmless puddle. If the porcelain is smooth all the way through (I've never seen that far into a toilet), it should flush right out with a hose, which you should have nearby anyway. Let me know how it "comes out" . saul
I'd advise trying a few other things before the flammable liquid trick, since the heat is apt to crack the porcelain.I think some sort of gabber is what you need. (Maybe I should put you in touch with the doc who yanked out my first kidney stone using one of those things.)
Saul, no you have it wrong. He should promptly sit on the toilet, pants down, with a match in hand, and promptly relieve some gas and light the "gas" right away. Much safer than gasoline and no FD involvement.
I feel your pain. I had a plastic pen in a shirt pocket and leaned over the toilet. The pen fell out and like a torpedo went straight in the hole and since it floated, up to who knows where. I am confident that it is lodged up in the thing somewhere but after many attempts with mechanics flex "grabber" device, plumbing snakes and such it seems my toilet is a veritable Bermuda Triangle. Well, except that it now backs up more easily. Such is my luck.
I assume Saul's post was tongue-in-cheek, but it got me thinking! You might put a hair dryer up there which might soften the plastic enough so that it wouldn't be wedged up there anymore.
Been there, done that and more than once. Let's see, toothbrushes, syringes, hot wheel car, juice can, toy mirror and who knows what else. Take the toilet out in the sun, borrow one of your wife's make up mirrors and tilt the toilet until you can see the toothbrush with the mirror. Then use a coat hanger, nail in a stick, grabber, whatever to get it out. I've alwys managed to get whatever it was out pretty quick once I could see it.
Edited 4/14/2005 5:59 pm ET by Rick
Sledge hammer works great!
Maybe the solution is to have a child reach for it?
how about little kid hands?
U should have two sets in different sizes ...
see which one can squeeze their grubby little hand in their and catch the prize.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
Just drain the water, disconnect the water and pull the toliet. Your total cost will be a new wax ring. A new wax ring is less than $10, much cheaper than buying a new toliet if you break it or damage it.
Read the first post, he pulled it already and tried from both ends.
Another option is to swab it out as if it was a rifle barrel. Here's how:
With the toilet pulled and the trap dry, use a shop-vac to draw a stout carpenter's or mason's string through the trap, leaving string hanging out both ends.
Now tie an old rag, approx. fist sized, to the middle of the string. Pull this rag through the trap, starting from the bottom (horn) and out through the bowl. It should dislodge the toothbrush.
If the rag gets stuck, you can still get it out by pulling from the other end, then reverse the manoever by pulling from the bowl side to the horn side.
It's not my problem, but I think your idea would work the best and be easiest! That or hose with lots of force to sort of water jet it out. Firehose? Everyone has one of those lying about the house.
The story I heard was about the little boy that had gotten a new whistle. Went around all day, blowing the dang whistle, until everyone's nerves were shot. Dad was in the bathroom getting ready to go out, kid was playing around close to him.
Of course, the kid wound up dropping the whistle into the toilet.
Fished it out and . . . . .
blew the pi$$ out of it ! !
<g,d &r>
Greg
It always interesting to see which problems generate interest and cleverness here at BT!I think I will give Pierre's dental floss approach a shot. I have a waxless ring, so remove and replace is easy.If that does't work, the blow dryer is next, then the hot coat hanger.Will report on results.Best.
Some great ideas here...about 2 weeks too late for my folks! They tried the removal and shop vac, etc., but ended up buying a new one. However the new one is taller and longer than the 40-year old original, so they're happy. They saved the insides from the tank in case they ever needs original parts for some of the other old toilets in the other baths.
D&L
See what a hair dryer can do to a toothbrush? Heat it up and with an oven mitt you should be able to pull it out.
My kid did the same thing - only child so no accomplice to confuse the story.
Toilet off, trap dry. Took wire coat hanger ( my favorite Rube Goldberg tool ) and bent it around until I could shove it into the trap and contact the brush ( sounds different when it hits plastic ). Once hanger was bent to the appropriate shape, I heated the hanger cherry red / approaching white with a torch, shoved it into the trap and cut / melted the brush into two pieces which fell out all by themselves! Maybe I was just lucky.
Have the spring loaded picker upper thing mentioned by others - no luck, tried first - could never get a decent grip.
Good luck
Jim
Wow!
Exactly the same thing happened to me. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth next to our 6-year old using the toilet. The brush flipped out of my hand and landed dead center in the bowl the precise moment jr flushed.
I hoped it might make it all the way through but several clogs later I had to admit it was still there making trouble.
I couldn't reach it at all. But, as a trumpet player, I had a flexi-brush trumpet cleaner thingy that is like a mini plumbing snake. It didn't do any good by itself though until I had the bright idea of stripping some 12ga copper wire I had sitting around and creating a claw at the end of the snake.
Insert, twist until it catches, gentle pull. It took about 15 seconds.
Good Luck!
My plumber came up with a trick for removing all sorts of plastics ( lighters, bottle caps, pens, etc) plugging toilets in bars, without unbolting them. After sponging/ cupping all of the water out of the trap he heats the end of a pre- bent coat hanger with a torch, stuffs it up the hole and lets the offending plastic melt on to the coathanger. Bic lighters are the easiest because they 'pop' when you get them good. He gives it a minute to cool then yanks it out. Sometimes it takes three or four tries but he rarely has to pull a toilet.
Lots of inovative ideas here.
Just buy a Water Closet Snake. Made for clearing the trap in the toilet. Any good plumbing supply has them, for less than $20.
You don't need to pull the toilet to use the tool , but I have used them both ways. Sometimes it is necessary to open the spiral on the end of the snake end a little, to give it a little more grab. Be carefull doing that. The snakes are made of spring steel, and bite when they snap back while you are trying to open then spiral end.
Dave