How can I stop my toilet from overflowing?

July 3, 2023 10:17 AM

I have an older house that we recently renovated in part. (And then the new part got flooded). There's multiple bathrooms, with toilets that are respectively 6 months old, 2 years old, and the other undeterminable (at least six years old, Kohler brand.) Every single toilet has overflown within the last year, and I would love to find a toilet that has a failsafe, and install new ones in every bathroom.

This is obviously a problem even on the first floor, as both of my older toilets have overflown when my kids put in too much toilet paper, flushed, and flushed again in a panic. But it's a disaster upstairs, where BOTH upstairs toilets have overflown - and those are the two newest ones. The first overflow we didn't see until it was too late, and afterwards it was diagnosed by the plumber as there being a clog in the system and that it was then repeatedly flushed. The second one overflowed last week, after my 14 year old flushed the toilet, thought it flushed cleanly, the handle stuck 90 percent of the way up (unseen to him) so the chain didn't fully engage with the flapper, the bowl filled up, and unfortunately there was a clog. He emerged from the shower with 3 inches of water on the floor.

So now, as I file my second homeowner's insurance claim in 3 months, I'm wondering if there's a better toilet out there. Some quick googling led me to this toilet from Mansfield, which seems like a neat idea but it's hard to tell if it would actually work in practice or not.

I realize at some level that this is a parenting problem and I need to do remedial flushing lessons with all of my children, but after spending $3,000 on insurance deductibles, I think spending a few hundred dollars per toilet might be a better investment. I really just want the equivalent of the overflow preventer on a sink or bathtub. Surely this design exists (and I'm not very confident in Mansfield's marketing of their "Protector" toilet - if it's near the bottom of the bowl, that's where a clog would likely occur in my house, not necessarily in the internal workings 1 foot below the bowl.

posted by Happydaz to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

An overflow protection obviously exists in the tank, which directs excess water into the bowl.

I think what you are looking for (overflow preventer in the bowl) doesn't exist. Sink and bathtub drains have a U-shaped trap, the purpose of which is to keep water there and block sewer gas from rising through the drain. In a toilet, the bowl effectively is the trap -- actually it's immediately after the hole in the bottom of the bowl, but nevertheless, there's nowhere really to direct overflow from the bowl in a sanitary manner, paradoxical as that might seem when you see it all over your floor.
posted by AndrewInDC at 10:31 AM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Have you considered having your toilets and main stack professionally snaked to see if there is an underlying cause such as tree roots ?

If you are open to replace your toilets for ones with more powerful flushes, take a look at American Standard Cadet toilets
posted by walkinginsunshine at 10:31 AM on July 3, 2023 [9 favorites]

it was diagnosed by the plumber as there being a clog in the system

I would want more clarity on this diagnosis, because I suspect you DO have a clog (or partial blockage, to be more specific) in the system, as in beyond the toilet itself, and a thousand new toilets will not fix this. It's possible any or all of the toilets have some obstructions in the first foot of plumbing, but it's actually more likely at a junction.

At least if this is a freestanding house, you should be able to find instructional videos for how to fairly effectively flush out your entire sewage line from house to street using a garden hose. You CAN pay someone to scope it first, but the last time I dealt with this they let me pay the money and then told me I should just run a hose fairly low for 30 minutes from the kitchen (farthest from the street) drain cleanout (on many homes found on the exterior wall - not sure about condos or basement houses). It's really a matter of time just letting the water run and push along whatever's causing the slow flush, it's not about force or heat or anything.

But you may also want the whole system scoped for damage or something horrible, like the beach-sized towel that more than one person I know has had retrieved out of their sewer line.

Also, if all four toilets are frequently overflowing, you also need your vents checked.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:42 AM on July 3, 2023 [14 favorites]

Response by poster: I will try not to thread-sit, but let me clarify a few things. 1) Our house is on septic. 2) I have seen instances where the septic was backlogged, which caused overflow issues on both downstairs toilets. That's not happening presently, and I had a plumber snake out the septic line two months ago (toys and a few wipes had been flushed down and were caught near the baffle of the septic tank.)

3) Something that complicates this immensely is our 3 year old boy developed a fascination with putting toys in the toilet a couple months ago. That's definitely the root cause of at least two of the toilet overflows. But I don't think it's the cause of all of the issues.

4) I had no idea about toilet vents. That may be worth a call to the plumber.

5) Finally, Lyn Never, thank you for the suggestion on running a hose through the system. I hadn't heard about that. I wish the plumber had said more about this clog he found. Unfortunately, they didn't. :-(
posted by Happydaz at 10:53 AM on July 3, 2023

As a mom of boys who were fascinated with toys down the toilet and who has also had boys flush “contraband” (not drugs) down…I don’t think there is a toilet that can fix this. We joked about pool alarms for toilets. I can tell you my husband dropped an unsanitary and unsightly grill into the bottom of ours while one was fascinated and I was on strict bedrest pregnant with his brother and that helped.

This too shall pass. Ha ha.

Also, if you use really nice soft toilet paper or wipes (wipes are very bad) you may want to switch and go to (in our case) Kirkland. It works but it also doesn’t clog to the same extent.
posted by warriorqueen at 11:07 AM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

(I should note, my husband cleaned the grill each night and that was gross but he just couldn’t take dissembling another toilet at 1 in the morning.)
posted by warriorqueen at 11:08 AM on July 3, 2023

• A water alarm like this could at least warn you of a overflow if no one is in the bathroom.
• If you don't already have quarter-turn valves for the toilets, consider getting them for quick shutoff of water to the toilet when an overflow occurs.
posted by ShooBoo at 11:42 AM on July 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

My old house had an early low-flow toilet installed sometime before the low-flow flush technology was any good, so that toilet gets clogged all the time. I don't know what vintage your toilets are ,but if you have an older low-flow (meaning, it's designed to use less water) toilet, then I can say that a newer low-flow toilet can make a real difference.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:09 PM on July 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

You can get smart home water sensors (I use zwave) that will talk to a smart water valve to turn off the water at the valve location. Lots of ways to set this up with several options along the way. For example I'm in the process of buying 5 sensors that when tripped close the main valve. If you already have a half turn valve at the location you don't have to do any plumbing, just strap the actuator to the valve.

Mine setup will be about $500 but I also am leveraging an existing $200 controller.
posted by Mitheral at 1:31 PM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would lock your toddler out of the bathroom and put him back on a potty and waterproof bed pad or pull ups at night. Not in a mean or punitive way, just explain that that’s the new system this summer (until his impulse control around the toilet is better- a few months of maturity will help!)

Agree that this sounds like an issue in the pipes, not in the toilets.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:11 PM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

You can also look at pressure-assisted toilets. They "push" harder than gravity-flush toilets. Downsides -- they are pretty loud and they're more expensive.
posted by troyer at 2:35 PM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Given you have several different toilets and they have all caused blockages at different times, it seems logical to me that it's not the toilet/s at fault - there's a partial blockage in the line somewhere. If every toilet has caused a problem at least once, it's almost certain that the blockage is past the last toilet in the line. It might take some figuring out, but the last toilet in the line is where I'd start investigating. It's possible there might not be something actually blocking the line, but a poorly installed part of the pipe may be causing a restriction.

Being on a septic system means you can actually scope the whole system and not have to wonder if there's a restriction beyond your property. I would get the system beyond the last toilet scoped to find out what's in there.
posted by dg at 3:38 PM on July 3, 2023

Have you had the septic tank pumped since you moved in? It may be full.
posted by Mournful Bagel Song at 4:21 PM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

We're also on septic and had a clogging problem on both levels last summer (just as I was recovering from surgery, for extra fun). Our regular plumber snaked out from the toilets several times and never found anything. Then we brought in the septic guys and they, after confirming the tank wasn't full or clogged out to the drain field, ran a snake from the tank to the house and didn't find anything. Then we brought in a second plumber who flushed out the stack pipe with really hot water. It was really disgusting and we no longer have a clogging problem - fingers crossed.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:58 PM on July 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

We had some problems, eventually got a new drainfield. But _before_ that, while searching for our issues, a plumber came and ran a video camera down through the drain pipe, looking for clogs. They did find a lot of built-up grease - so they scheduled a day to run high pressure through there to clear it out into the septic tank, and we coordinated scheduling with a septic company to pump out the tank that day. That at least ensured that there wasn't any backup from the house to the septic tank.
posted by TimHare at 8:44 PM on July 3, 2023

Many issues have been identified that our family has lived through: toddlers with a toy (sometimes they just fall in, too), old low-flow tech, and this one from my childhood: planting a cherry tree-a Thriving one - too close to the septic line. One informal check you can do is walk the path of the septic line in your yard to see if something has created a root problem. Ours is a patch of ferns and mowable lawn - no trees or shrubbery.
posted by childofTethys at 6:32 AM on July 4, 2023

Cleaning the stack pipe sounds reasonable an not expensive, snaking drains is more time-consuming, but I'd do that, too, and definitely make sure all toilets have an easy-to reach shutoff handle. Do all the septic care stuff. I'm on septic and use single-ply TP which clogs a lot less. I work at not putting grease down the drain. I'd run hot water down all the sinks(one at a time) with some detergent, for 5 - 10 minutes. Soap and detergent can build up. Get a Zip-It for every bathroom; I had quite long hair, and using one is equal parts gross and satisfying. The 3 year old can use it in the sink. Toilet and sink plungers are really effective.

This level of clogging suggests trouble somewhere in the plumbing, so I'd Do All The Things, and it's miserable; my sympathies.
posted by theora55 at 7:51 AM on July 4, 2023