Odd Things Found In Your Backed-Up Toilet, Why They Shouldn't Be There, And How To Remove Them

Toilets are only designed with a single use in mind; to eliminate human waste products from your home. Absolutely nothing else should go into your toilet. If anything else besides urine, feces, toilet paper, menstrual blood, and/or vomit goes into your toilet, you may be calling a plumber very soon. The following is a list of some of the most common blockages that are found in toilet backups, why they should not be there, how to remove them, and how to prevent them in the future.

Feminine Hygiene Products

It is the twenty-first century, and yet, somehow not all the women got the memo as young girls that you absolutely cannot and do not flush maxi-pads and tampons down the toilet. These products are designed to be extremely absorbent, given their purpose and nature, and as such, the minute they hit the water in a toilet, they swell to almost five times their original size. They are made to hold a lot, and that is precisely what causes them to get stuck. Even tampons can swell up enough to block smaller pipes and block the trap in your toilet. On top of that, you have the added embarrassment of the plumber explaining to you what he/she found in the pipe. It gets pulled out—by hand—which is another reason why women should never flush these items.

Dead and Alive Pets

Flushing the pet goldfish is common, but if the pet goldfish gets stuck, you could traumatize the kids all over again. The plumber either has to mince it in order to get it unstuck, or pull it out and ask you to put it in a container in the garbage. Then there are the living pets, like baby anacondas and frogs, that people think they can flush and the creatures will survive. Those creatures are clever enough to wriggle back through the pipes and into your toilet. They can get stuck, too, which is quite the predicament. Do not flush any creature, regardless of whether it is living or dead.

Toys 

Kids love throwing things in the toilet and watching them go swirling down during the flushing cycle. Objects that refuse to go through the hole have to be fished out. Objects that manage to fit through the hole get stuck in the trap and the pipes below. Get a kid-proof toilet lock if you discover that your toddler is addicted to flushing objects. 

If any of these objects make it into your toilet, contact a toilet backup service.