MrBill57
Feb 22, 2015, 10:14 AM
Help, please – I am at my wits end.
About a week ago, my low flow Kohler toilet, suddenly stopped flushing with the brief hold on the lever. If we held the level down, it would flush. I fixed this, last weekend, by replacing the wax seal. When the seal was repaired everything worked perfectly!
Over this week we have had very unusually low temps (in the negative numbers for days). Friday I came home from work and the wife showed me water that had appeared on the floor, under the toilet after a recent flush. The toilet had flushed normally during this recent flush. But, I now had some type of leak.
So, I pulled it apart again thinking I had done something wrong with my recent wax seal replacement. Replaced the wax seal (again) and put it all back together. Now the boil just fills with water and will not drain unless I get the plunger out and work on it for 5+ minutes.
But, I am getting ahead of myself. When it was all apart, I looked down the 4” cast iron drain pipe I can see 4’ of empty pipe before it goes out of sight with a gradual bend. This bend is located in the crawl space under the house, about 1’ before it goes underground headed towards the septic tank. While I had the toilet off the drain, I poured a few gallons of boiling hot water down and did not see this hot water backing up, but, it sure did make a lot of steam.
We pumped the septic out this past fall, but to verify I went out in the yard and removed the pump out cap to see if it was frozen, which it wasn’t. I also wanted to guarantee air was not trapped creating some type of pressure.
I have now pulled this toilet 5 times with 5 new wax seals. ACE hardware is asking me if I want to buy these things in bulk. The bowl just fills with water and will not flush.
Oh, one more piece of info, all other drains in the house are working; including the Tub, Shower, Bathroom Sink and Kitchen Sink.
Does anyone have any ideas? I would really appreciate anything!
Thx
Bill
About a week ago, my low flow Kohler toilet, suddenly stopped flushing with the brief hold on the lever. If we held the level down, it would flush. I fixed this, last weekend, by replacing the wax seal. When the seal was repaired everything worked perfectly!
Over this week we have had very unusually low temps (in the negative numbers for days). Friday I came home from work and the wife showed me water that had appeared on the floor, under the toilet after a recent flush. The toilet had flushed normally during this recent flush. But, I now had some type of leak.
So, I pulled it apart again thinking I had done something wrong with my recent wax seal replacement. Replaced the wax seal (again) and put it all back together. Now the boil just fills with water and will not drain unless I get the plunger out and work on it for 5+ minutes.
But, I am getting ahead of myself. When it was all apart, I looked down the 4” cast iron drain pipe I can see 4’ of empty pipe before it goes out of sight with a gradual bend. This bend is located in the crawl space under the house, about 1’ before it goes underground headed towards the septic tank. While I had the toilet off the drain, I poured a few gallons of boiling hot water down and did not see this hot water backing up, but, it sure did make a lot of steam.
We pumped the septic out this past fall, but to verify I went out in the yard and removed the pump out cap to see if it was frozen, which it wasn’t. I also wanted to guarantee air was not trapped creating some type of pressure.
I have now pulled this toilet 5 times with 5 new wax seals. ACE hardware is asking me if I want to buy these things in bulk. The bowl just fills with water and will not flush.
Oh, one more piece of info, all other drains in the house are working; including the Tub, Shower, Bathroom Sink and Kitchen Sink.
Does anyone have any ideas? I would really appreciate anything!
Thx
Bill