What to Do If You’ve Lost Something Down the Toilet and How to Retrieve It
If you flush anything down the toilet by mistake, it does not always indicate that the item is gone for good. In most cases, it is simpler to find something you’ve lost than you would first imagine it would be. If the item can still be seen at the bottom of the toilet bowl after flushing, it was either just partly flushed or it did not make it down the drain. If this is the case, put on some rubber gloves and carefully try to get the thing that you are looking for.
If for some reason you are unable to view the item, there is a good chance that retrieving it will take a little bit more work. This is what you should do:
- To begin, try applying some little pressure with a plunger to see whether this will be sufficient to bring the item into view. There are occasions when a bigger item won’t be able to make it all the way down the waste pipe; employing a plunger may be able to break it free and bring it to the surface.
- You might also try using a bent wire hanger in the event that a plunger was unsuccessful. The use of this approach is not without its dangers, since it is possible that the object may get lodged in the pipe or that the toilet bowl will become scratched. If you do decide to give it a go, make a little hook shape at the end of the wire hanger, and try to keep the remainder of the hanger as straight as you can. The next step is to press down on the drainpipe while gently tracing the top of the drainpipe with your wire hook. As soon as the hook is in place, wiggle it back and forth as you slowly draw it up. You may want to try affixing a magnet to the very top of your hook if the object in question is made of metal.
Why Do People Flush Food Down the Toilet? Be Careful
Trash disposal, which must be one of the greatest innovations of the 20th century, is something on which the majority of us depend. It is really simple to rinse the remnants of your supper off your dishes, and then with the flick of a switch, all of the food scraps are magically ground up and rinsed away.
However, if you don’t have a disposal that works, you could be tempted to flush any leftover food scraps down the toilet after each meal. The majority of people have this attitude for the simple reason that they do not like to load their trash cans with organic debris, which, once done, would cause odors to permeate the kitchen the following day. Some people who have trash disposals are tempted to flush down edible items like coffee grounds, eggshells, and fish skins, which are not allowed to go down garbage disposals.
To Answer Your Question, Yes, You Can Flush Food Down the Toilet.
No, to provide the answer in a nutshell.
Why? Because the pipes that go away from your toilet are too small to accommodate food waste in any capacity. And also because leftover food has the potential to block your sewer line, which will then cause raw sewage to back up into your house. (Human waste and toilet paper are the only two items that should ever be flushed down a toilet; food does not decompose as readily or as rapidly as either of those other two things.)
It’s generally not going to pose too much of a problem if you flush down the toilet an occasional crumb or piece of bread crust. On the other hand, if you make it a routine to flush food down the toilet, you might be doing more harm than you realize.
Be very careful if you insist on following through with the practice of flushing food down the toilet. The following are some examples of foods that should under no circumstances be flushed down the toilet:
- The term “oils and fats” refers to any edible item that solidifies when it reaches room temperature, such as butter, bacon fat, or cooking oils. The presence of these compounds causes your sewer pipes to coagulate, which either slows down or completely halts the flow of sewage. The accumulation and solidification of cooking fats inside of sewers leads to the accumulation of additional pieces of garbage farther down the line, which may lead to the formation of fatbergs, which can have a negative impact on whole towns. In recent years, these enormous hunks of fat and trash have made headlines in the press because they have caused whole branches of sewage systems in major cities all over the globe to come to a standstill.
- Food scraps that are difficult to digest and take a long time to decompose some examples of food scraps that take a long time to decompose are animal bones, maize cobs, and apple cores. If you often flush waste of this sort down the toilet, it’s a marvel that the drain in your toilet hasn’t already been clogged with debris. These things are not only likely to clog your sewage line, but they also provide the excellent raw material for the formation of fatbergs. They are also able to interfere with the process of treating wastewater in your city. Instead, toss these objects into the garbage can you have here.
- Grains, such as rice, oats, and other cereals, have a volume increase after being exposed to water. If you flush a bowl of oatmeal down the toilet, the oats will continue to grow in size and might clog your sewage system.
- Foods high in starch have a consistency similar to that of a mountain of mashed potatoes. If you flush a large mass of potatoes, the gelatinous clog that results may easily cause your sewage pipe’s flow to get slowed down.
What Should You Do If You Are Unable to Retrieve the Object?
If the use of a plunger or a wire hanger did not result in the recovery of the item you were looking for, it is possible that it is time to bring in the experts. Consider hiring a professional plumber to utilize their specialized equipment to search for the thing you’ve lost in the toilet or pipes before you resort to more destructive measures. For instance, Elizabeth Drain Service has a really innovative technique for locating items that have gone lost in the toilet.
We may undertake a plumbing video examination to discover the precise position of your lost item, which is far more efficient than aimlessly searching around in your pipes. Because of this, we will be able to choose the approach that will allow us to collect the item while causing the least amount of damage to your pipes and plumbing system as possible.
