Your Toilet:
Many people have experienced the inconvenience of an untimely toilet clog. It can be stressful to have to grab the nearest plunger and try to unclog it yourself. This is provided that your home even has a plunger in the first place. It’s a nuisance, to say the least. Take note, however, that toilet clogs are more than just a nuisance. They can be dangerous to both your home and your family. They can easily lead to sewage backups if they aren’t addressed as soon as possible. Fortunately, avoiding a clogged toilet can be relatively easy if you know which items should never be flushed down. With that in mind, here are a few plumbing tips regarding what you should avoid flushing down:
Cigarette Butts
Cigarette butts are non-biodegradable items. In other words, they don’t break down on their own. When you flush butts down the toilet, they can get caught around the U-bend and block the way for whatever else you flush down. Furthermore, cigarette butts contain a large number of dangerous chemicals that can find their way to nearby water sources and water supplies.
Cotton Balls
Although cotton balls are biodegradable by nature, they still don’t break down in the same way toilet paper does. Cotton balls are only torn apart as they navigate through your pipes, but any rough surfaces along your pipes can easily snag any loose strings of cotton. It doesn’t take long for these strings to grow massive in size and cause a massive clog within your fixture.
Flushable Wipes
These wipes may have “flushable” printed on the front of their container, but studies show that they don’t break down even when they come into contact with water the way toilet paper does. In fact, water utility companies throughout Canada claim that clogs due to “flushable wipes” cost taxpayers about 250 million dollars a year!
These are only three of the many things that you should never flush down a toilet. As a good rule of thumb, items that aren’t water or human waste should never be flushed. In the event that you suspect that your toilet may be starting to develop a clog, do not delay contacting respected plumbers in Saskatoon such as Perfection Plumbing & Drain Cleaning Ltd.
Sources:
‘Flushable’ wipes clogging sewers, cause taxpayer drain: Halifax Water, atlantic.ctvnews.ca
11 Things You Should Never Flush Down The Toilet, care2.com