Blocked toilet waste with lime scale

[lew07]

Hi Guys. I noticed the water taking a long time to drain from the toilet upstairs after flushing. Tried the plunger thing made no difference. On rolling sleeves up lol and closer inspection it would seem the waste at the bottom of the bowl is severely restricted by a huge build up of what seems to be lime scale. Is it time for a new toilet or is there a liquid I can pour in to dissolve it? Thanks for your suggestions

[tixntox]

If it is lime scale, kettle cleaner/descaler should dissolve it. It will gas off in the process!

Google is your friend:-
https://hg.eu/uk/tips/how-to-descale-a-toilet

[Paneraiseeker]

Lemon juice and vinegar may do the trick

[lew07]

Thanks. Excellent suggestion. Uric scale? That never even occurred to Me! I will assume it’s lime scale at first if that doesn’t work will have to formulate a plan B.

[walkerwek1958]

An acidic toilet cleaner will be more effective if it's limescale. Look for fizzing on contact, that shows it's doing the trick. It'll take a while and a few goes, bit it'll do the trick eventually.

[tixntox]

Why not descale your kettle and then pour the contents into the toilet as it will still work (particularly when hot!)

[PhilipK]

This thread is useless without pictures!

(On second thoughts...)

[Kingstepper]

Whatever you do, don’t use bleach with acidic descaler - will produce chlorine gas.

As for uric scale, never heard of that but if the toilet is flushed urine shouldn’t hang about to form the scale, more likely in urinals not flushing well.

[lewie]

You could force the water from the bend with your hand or bail it out to allow a ‘neater’ mix in the bowl -
That said toilets are pretty inexpensive especially if it just a ‘bog’ standard white suite

[MB2]

You might well find if you remove the toilet from the wall - very simple usually but buy new seals and be careful putting it back that you can then dislodge the scale or replace the plastic pipe.

We had this problem on a house - 15 years without a water softener - have now fitted one to stop it happening again (amongst other benefits)

[notnowkato]

This explains the unpleasantness ,https://www.metrorod.co.uk/help-and-...waste%20pipes.

No connection with the firm, just have experienced similar, now much better.

[blackal]

Phosphoric Acid is the stuff for that.

But - you'd need to T into the outlet somewhere and set up a circulation loop with a peristaltic pump and neutralise it finally before discharging into the main sewers.

It gives off fumes too.............

[lew07]

This thread is useless without pictures!

(On second thoughts...)

Lol if Your local to Me your welcome to come round. Have the full experience. Thanks Guys. I’m a little cautious as already mentioned I don’t want any thing reacting in their or dissolving any pipes nor do I want it to do anything to clog it completely. I’ve never seen any thing like it. If You imagine a large sugar lump stuck in the bottom of your toilet with the hole for waste reduced to the diameter of your thumb. Probably no big deal if your a plumber for a living though

[noTAGlove]

If it is yellow, let in mellow. If it is brown, then flush it down.

You need to have less of the mellow.

Sent from my SM-X200 using Tapatalk

[DavidL]

Citric acid works well as a descaler and it's ok for discharge I'd have thought. Just poor the crystals in and leave it over night.

[KavKav]

Citric acid works well as a descaler and it's ok for discharge I'd have thought. Just poor the crystals in and leave it over night.

Don’t buy the prissy little descaling packets, you can buy citric acid crystals on Amazon for about £10 a kilo!

[Mj2k]

You could force the water from the bend with your hand or bail it out to allow a ‘neater’ mix in the bowl -
That said toilets are pretty inexpensive especially if it just a ‘bog’ standard white suite

Was going to suggest this to increase concentration and efficacy.

[thegreatdogwood]

You could force the water from the bend with your hand or bail it out to allow a ‘neater’ mix in the bowl -

The toilet brush is a more effective way of forcing water around the U bend - use it like a plunger

[Linocut]

You might well find if you remove the toilet from the wall - very simple usually but buy new seals and be careful putting it back that you can then dislodge the scale or replace the plastic pipe.

We had this problem on a house - 15 years without a water softener - have now fitted one to stop it happening again (amongst other benefits)

Did it affect your water pressure?

[sprite1275]

I've never seen limescale build up that much to block a toilet. When I see ours going a bit discoloured a quick clean and then some harpic 10x sorts it.

[DavidL]

Don’t buy the prissy little descaling packets, you can buy citric acid crystals on Amazon for about £10 a kilo!

Actually it's closer to £20 at the moment but yes larger quantities left for a while works wonders.

[Captaincook]

You might well find if you remove the toilet from the wall - very simple usually but buy new seals and be careful putting it back that you can then dislodge the scale or replace the plastic pipe.

We had this problem on a house - 15 years without a water softener - have now fitted one to stop it happening again (amongst other benefits)

I had the same issue although not as bad or actually known, we only found the problem when the toilet was removed to tile the floor.

Removing the seal dislodged part of the scale and leaving the pan to soak with citric acid cleaned up the rest like new.

[Kingstepper]

I've never seen limescale build up that much to block a toilet. When I see ours going a bit discoloured a quick clean and then some harpic 10x sorts it.

Agree, we have hard water and never see any scale. If it did only likely to be at waterline, sounds like something else going on TBH.

[KavKav]

Actually it's closer to £20 at the moment but yes larger quantities left for a while works wonders.

David, I have just checked on Amazon and plenty available around a tenner a kilo.