The answer from Keppitsimplestupid was helpful in guideing me in new directions. Just yesterday we had a whole house water treatment system installed. Today(no Conection) we noted another brown spot on the ceiling under the worst offending toilet. Keep it simple mentioned the flange which according to the pictures appears to part of the seal. How does this prevent overflows. This may be a clue. The last overflow was in the upstairs unit which was the first offender 10 years ago. This toilet not only overeflowed but put out a torrent requiring 10 heavy towels to clean up and led to the stains now appearing on the ceilings below. This happened during my absence and I just learned of it.

So now it does seem that I may have a toilet problem rather than a blockage problem as first thought or both!

As noited we have our own water and septic system.

Any advice is appreciated.

Single111::confused: :confused:

What I am saying is, suppose you have a linoleum or tile floor in the bathroom and you dumped a bucket of water around the toilet. No water should end up in the ceiling below.
With a bad seal, it will.

A leaking seal probably won't affect flushing and won't generally leak when the toilet is flushed. It will leak when the toilet overflows the same way it did in the bucket example.

Restricted passages to, and including, the holes below the rim, within the toilet will affect flushing.

"Keep it simple mentioned the flange which according to the pictures appears to part of the seal. How does this prevent overflows."

The flange is not a part of the seal in any way. The only function that a flange has is to secure the bowl to the floor. Also a wax seal will not prevent water from backing up and leaking down on your ceiling if there's a blockage on down the line. The thing that you have to determine is if you have a bad seal or a drain line blockage and that can only be determined if you pull the toilet and dump a pail of water down the o-pen closet bend. Good luck, Tom