Hi all. Okay, so here’s the situation. Over the weekend, my mom accidentally dropped the toilet paper roller (just the straight metal part, about six inches long) into the toilet as it was flushing and it surprisingly went down. I was asleep when this happened, but I awoke to her cursing. Now the toilet flushes extremely slow and sometimes, the water just rises and nothing goes down at all. She claims that she can’t tell a difference in the effectiveness of the flushing…but I can! I have a phobia about bathrooms and this is driving me insane. I’m afraid to tell our landlord because I feel bad if he has to come up here and take the damn toilet apart. I occasionally plunge the toilet when nothing goes down, but is there really nothing else I can do but ask him to fix it?
I’ve read up on squirting Dawn down there followed by hot water, but I don’t think that will help since the dang roller is metal. I don’t know what to do…I’m in a pickle!
Update:
Oh man, you guys…now I’m really scared. I sincerely thank you for all the advice. I just tried flushing it again and now the water rises and then drains, but with none of the suctioning power it’s supposed to have, so the final sound is just a weak glug-glug. Lord have mercy….
✅ Answers
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The roller is jammed in the gooseneck area of the trap. If you have small hands you might be able to reach it and pull it out. If you’d rather, take a wire coat hanger and stretch it out so the hook end can be inserted down into the hole and try to snag it. If none of this works, you can remove the toilet from the two attachment screws yourself and take it out from below. It’s not hard or complicated. It you can operate a wrench and a screwdriver you can do it.
You’ll have to remove the tank first, then the seat, and finally the toilet bowl itself. And you’ll need a new wax seal for the bottom before you re-attach it.
Otherwise, call a plumber or just tell your landlord and let him figure it out.
Honestly, you just have to reach in there with something, and try to pry it out! I would take a long metal wire or something, and make a hook (experiment with shapes, but try to avoid scratching the ceramic of the bowl). You have to pull the TP holder out!!! It will most likely NEVER flush down (It is stuck on an angle where the channel turns. However, if it did go all the way throught the toilet (I’d be amazed) then it most likely got stuck on the T joint in the piping! YIKES! To fix that, you have to cut a piece of the pipe out to get it out, and then put a new one in! The plumber will charge you allright!
GOOD LUCK with this sticky situation!
The roller is probably stuck in the trap either in the toilet or in the trap under the floor. Your going to have to pull it off and see where the thing is. Sucks, but just plunging to break the crap up is going to be a long term dootie if you don’t.
Go to your local hardware store and get a toilet auger, about $-$, easy to use. It’ll retrieve the broken part or push it out.
Time to calla pulmber, prefrebly a fat one with a huge but crack.
call a plumber.
Source(s): my head