Why doesn't my toilet flush all the time?

Question

Sometimes my toilet won't flush all the way. Sometimes it does. Once in awhile, in morning the toilet is bone dry. The bowl will fill with water, begin the swirling motion, then kind of fizzle out and it all of the water won't go down.

Answer 1

some rag (or equivalent) is underneath the p-trap of your bowl. the bone dry effect is caused by the rag sipping all the water in the bowl towards the other side of the trap. the swirling motion is caused by a distracted flow of water trying to find its way in the only opening beside the rag.

if a simple "blind-hooking" the rag doesn't solve this problem, you need to remove the bowl to get the rag out. if not carefully done, but a new one.

Answer 2

I will guess based on the information you have provided. It sounds like the toilet is partially plugged. If it were not plugged, you could flush it, it would drain, water would run into the bowl from the tank and the water level would reach equilibrium. If it is plugged, it will sometimes have a difficult time reaching equilibrium and the weight of the water (and other contents) will provide pressure on the "drain" (it's called the siphon). This will drain over time, often leaving very little in the bowl.

Get a toilet bowl snake at Home Depot, they are $10, give or take $5. Run the snake into the toilet bowl and crank it, and clean out the siphon. Flush it a few times and see if there is a difference. Within a couple of days you should be able to see if there are any more "sometimes" issues with your toilet.

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

It sounds like you could have more than 1 problem going on here.
The flush valve could be bad as well as the flapper. the only way your bowl is going to be bone dry is either the flush valve or float is bad or it is severely running. to eliminate the flapper out of the picture make sure the tank is full and drop in some food coloring or some tablets. you can get at local hardware store. at this point do not flush the toilet. wait a while and see if there is any colored water in the bowl. that will tell you if the flapper is good or not.
also it sounds like the toilet could be partially plugged .

Answer 4

It's time to replace the flapper in your tank. This is an inexpensive
part available at any hardware store and very easy to install by following the simple instructions. Over a period of time, the flapper wears out and allows water to leak out of the tank, causing the scenarios you are describing. I'll bet your water bill has been pretty high lately!

This site will help you to determine whether the fill valve or the flapper is the culprit with a simple proceedure:

Answer 5

It sounds like you need a new flush device. First, check the chain from the handle to the flapper. If it's too short, the flapper's always constantly up and leaking water, so thre is never enough in the tank to complete a flush. If the chain's set too long, it doesn't pull the flapper open completely. That's the cheap and easy thing to check first. The rubber around those flappers tends to deteriorate, too - especially if you use commercial cleaning tablets in your tank.

Answer 6

it could be several things that are going on inside the tank. 1. the flapper at the bottom is either not opening at all to allow the water to go into the bowl. and 2. the ballcock (looks like a ball connected to a metal rod is shutting the water off at the wrong height. you can either replace all that is wrong with it or go to your nearest home depot or Lowe's and just buy a cheap tank (about $22.00) which comes with everything inside for you. good luck with your project.

Answer 7

you should call a plumer