Sunday Plumbing Expense

[Whamo]

   Last night during my last drain I had to go #2.  I went into the bathroom, and the toilet was plugged up.  It seems the plastic from the drain
bags did it.  I was taught to cut the ends of the bags and dump the fluid into the toilet.  Evidently plastic stuck it up over time.  It was $50 to come out on a Sunday, and $179 for the unplug routine.  It took the guy five minutes.  He did give me a senior discount.  From now on I dump the fluid into the shower and rinse it afterwards so no plastic
gets in my system.

[PrimeTimer]

You might look into buying a plumbing auger or plumbing snake. Can get them cheap at Walmart. I use one for our bathtub drain. Cheap, about $5 and easy to use.   

[Simon Dog]

The specific item you need for a toilet is a "closet auger".   These are MUCH more effective at undoing a clog that a plunger and are available at any of the Home Depot like stores, and much more effective on an impacted #2 that the type of snake you would use on a bathtub drain - plus the handle makes it very easy to use without touching any of the sticky stuff.

[KidneysR4Wimps]

I've read that dumping into your sink or tub can also cause backup over time because the solution is sugar water. It can cause a slimy-goo type substance to sit in the pipes, even if you rinse after dumping it out. They suggest the toilet because there's always water in there.

Good luck!

[JW77]

Had similar..boiling hot water can sometimes shift it, with bicarb of soda..

[Charlie B53]

I keep a 'jug' of swimming pool chlorine tablets in the garage to drop a few into the outdoor fountain.  Keeps the misquetos down.  Ditto and standing water, like a few old tires I haven't gotten rid of, yet.

One day I got the bright idea of dropping a few into the toilet tank.  Works great, except the flushing desolved them too soon.  So I had another bright idea, fill a coffee cup about half full of the tablets and top it off with one of those blue pucks, and set that cup in the bottom of the tank.

It is working great.  Not too much blue and not too much chlorine.  Can hardly even smell it but the inside of the bowl is staying far cleaner than ever before.  And by limiting how much 'spreads' from only the surface of the cup the tablets and puck lasts a whole lot longer than before.

One thing to remember:

Do NOT add any type of chlorine cleaner to the bowl for manual cleaning.  It very well could react with the pool chlorine tablet and release FATAL CHLORINE GAS.

IF YOU INSIST ON USING ANYTHING AND MANUALLY SCRUBBING THE BOWL i WOULD SUGGEST REMOVING THE CUP FROM THE TANK, FLUSH A COUPLE OF TIMES TO BE SURE ALL CHEMICAL IS RINSED OUT, THEN CLEAN.  oNLY REPLACING THE CUP ONCE TOTALLY FINISHED CLEANING.

qwap!  I see that I have inadvertantly hit the capslock.   Oooops!