Toilets are not garbage cans with water in them. Flushing the wrong items can cause clogs, ruin plumbing, and even damage your septic system, costing you hundreds to thousands of dollars.
To learn what items to keep out of the toilet, we interviewed Master Plumber Hendrik Vandepoll and Service Manager Roy Barnes from Service Force Plumbing. Here’s what they had to say.
10 Things You Should Never Flush
Dispose of all of the items on this list–and any related items–in the proper way: garbage, recyclables, or compost. Flushing inappropriate things down the toilet leads to plugged plumbing, damaged pipes, and ultimately, costly repairs and inconvenience.
1. “Flushable” Wipes
“Despite the marketing claims, flushable wipes are not flushable,” says Vandepoll. “We get more calls for backups caused by “flushable wipes” than anything else.”
Wipes may say flushable on the package, but that doesn’t mean you should flush them. While they’ll go down the toilet, they can still plug up pipes since they break down slowly and absorb water. Use a lined garbage container instead.
2. Tissues and Paper Towels
“Paper towels are a common problem, too. They might seem similar to toilet paper, but they are not designed to fall apart and disintegrate like toilet paper,” advises Barnes. “In fact, most paper towel commercials emphasize how they DON’T fall apart when they get wet. So always put paper towels in the trash can.”
3. Left Over Food
Left-over food–chunky or soft–may go down the toilet. It will eventually decompose but until it does, it can still stick in the drain pipes and cause clogs.
4. Grease and Oil
Grease and oil rarely clog drains by themselves. They can, however, stick to plumbing pipes and narrow them. Other items that shouldn’t be flushed stick to the grease and further narrow pipes until they clog. Plunging may remove the clog but the grease requires a plumbing snake to get it out.
5. Feminine Sanitary Products
Menstrual products absorb water–often expanding to many times their original size. According to Vandepoll, “Feminine hygiene products should also go in the trash. They might make it through the toilet plumbing itself, but they tend to get snagged further down the line inside sewer pipes and cause a backup.”
6. Q-tips, Swabs, Cotton Balls, and Rounds
All cotton absorbs many times its weight in water and expands. Cotton does not dissolve or break down. It can catch on pipe protrusions, clump together, and block pipes.
Plastic Q-tip sticks also do not decompose in water. Wedged in piping, they cause or add to clogs.
7. Gum
Gum does not break down in water, and it remains sticky. It can adhere to the sides of pipes or make a developing clog worse by gumming things together.
8. Medications and Pills
Pills and other medications usually will not damage or clog plumbing pipes. They flow right through and contaminate the environment, sewer systems, and even groundwater. Throwing them into the garbage for burial in a landfill is not much better. Take them back to a drugstore for proper disposal.
9. Cat Litter
Some cat litter claims to be “flushable”. Don’t do it–even if it is easy. Cat litter absorbs water and can clog drain pipes because most modern toilets do not use enough water to force it all the way through the system. The litter or cat feces and urine may introduce potentially harmful parasites into the environment.
10. Small Objects (A Storage Warning from a Plumber)
“The last thing isn’t really a “put it down the toilet” problem but rather an awareness issue,” says Barnes. “We get a lot of calls to remove items that have fallen in the toilet and been flushed. Often, people have shelves directly above their toilet to store small items, and those end up getting knocked off, flushed down, and stuck in the toilet plumbing. We’d all like a little more storage space in the bathroom, but homeowners should be aware of what they place “in range” of being knocked into the toilet and flushed.”
Just because it is a yucky job, don’t be squeamish. Fish out anything that falls into the toilet to save yourself a large plumbing bill. Things like toothbrushes, razors, cell phones, socks, towels, toys, glasses, rings, etc. It is way easier to flush and hope, but that solution tends to cause long-term problems.
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