[MrBill57]

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

[Milo Dolezal]

If the bowl fills with water right after you flush - that means the blockage is within the bowl itself. Take 5' auger, insert it inside the toilet and keep turning the handle until entire auger is inside the toilet. Do it several times. Sometimes even plunger can do the job. However, there is no need to remove toilet.

Hope that helps

Milo

[MrBill57]

If the bowl fills with water right after you flush - that means the blockage is within the bowl itself. Take 5' auger, insert it inside the toilet and keep turning the handle until entire auger is inside the toilet. Do it several times. Sometimes even plunger can do the job. However, there is no need to remove toilet.

Hope that helps

Milo

Hi Milo,
Thanks for responding. While I owned a snake, I did not have one of those toilet specific snakes. So, I just bought one. Never hurts to have another tool.

I just snaked the toilet 3 times. I have not felt any resistance while turning and the spring has gone down the max of the snake each time.

The Bad News, bowl still fills without a flush.

The Good News, folks at ACE Hardware are now calling me by my first name.

Any other thoughts? Please let me know.

Bill