Nose Hair Trimmer in the Toilet

[GigaBuist]

Had a problem with a toilet in the house the other day.  Liquids went down fine.  Add in some solids and it'd stop right up but you could plunge it down.  So, I shoved a heavy duty auger down into the thing and started ramming wondering what the heck the clog could be.  Wife was positive the toddler didn't shove a toy down in there.

Some broken bits of my nose hair trimmer floated into the bowl after a few rams.

*sigh*

So, trying to figure out a way to get this thing out.  I'm probably going to have to unmount the toilet and ram it out from the other end, but I'd rather not.  Thinking I might try and unlodge it with a thin rod, then use a powerful magnet on the end of said rod to coax it out, or maybe a powerful enough magnet held to the side of the toilet drain system will work too.  Or maybe the shop vac stuck in there, with some wet towels to provide a seal will do the trick.  Not sure.

Any other parents got some tips?

[AZRedhawk44]

One of those automotive "oh nuts I dropped a nut into the bowels of the engine" magnets on a telescoping rod.

Bend it so it will follow the toilet contours and bump into the trimmer.

[RocketMan]

Those telescopic rods don't bend, they kink and break.  BTDT with telescopic radio antennas.  They're the same thing.
Try a strong magnet duct taped to a wire coat hanger.  Or flush a strong magnet tied to a strong cord down the toilet.

[AZRedhawk44]

Got a wire-fish?

One of those flexible rolls of metal used to fish cat-5 cable through walls or conduit?  Might be able to snag it with that.

[GigaBuist]

I've got a flexible rod with a retractable claw on the end of it (think the coin-op crane game, but with a 2" claw that bites so hard it'll hurt to put your finger in there) but it can't get a purchase on the nose hair trimmer.  It's round, smooth, and the thing thing that goes up your nose is what I already broke off.

I do have magnets though, strong enough that you wouldn't want to put your finger between it and metal.  The magnet on a string thing sounds like an awful good idea.  I suspect that'll work.  Good idea, RocketMan.

[RocketMan]

And if that doesn't work, there's always detcord.  

[Gowen]

My wife dropped a sample size deodorant in the toilet just as she flushed it.  It got stuck in the toilet and would not go down and would not come out.  I had to pull the toilet.  I was not happy.

[Scout26]

A stack of the 2x4 Lego Blocks 8 blocks high will not come out until you 1) remove the toilet from the floor, and 2) break the porcelain u-pipe so that you have to go buy and install an entirely new toilet.   


You might just want to open the Lowe's Depot ad right now and ask your wife to pick out a new one from the ones they have listed as on-sale this week.   

[Jim147]

Sometimes you just have to yank the thing out and drag it outside and be done with it.

jim

[Harold Tuttle]

pulling a toilet is a 6 minute operation that can spare you 6 hours of fiddling

wax rings are 6 bucks

[grampster]

What Harold said.

[Scout26]

If it isn't wedged good and tight up the porcelain bendie part.  Then you are screwed.

Probably easier to replace the whole thing.  Maybe you can sneak one in from Canada.

[Jamie B]

pulling a toilet is a 6 minute operation that can spare you 6 hours of fiddling

wax rings are 6 bucks

This.

Sigh - when my son flushed his sister's Poly-Pocket trailer, I learned about wax rings and re-installing a toilet.

Sometimes there is just no other way.

[AJ Dual]

Way back in the mid 90's I was working a short term I.T. contract at S.C. Johnson Wax Co. in their newest building, just a bit south of Milwaukee. It had all auto-flush toilets.

The I.T. Department there had a young German intern. His issue pager fell off his belt into the toilet, and as he whipped around to try and grab it, the sensor went off, and it was flushed by the powerful pressure-head tankless mechanism.

Shame-faced, he admitted to management what happened to the pager, and maintenance was notified. The toilet was clogged, but the pager wasn't in the toilet. Somehow it had navigated the S-curve and had gotten lodged in the waste pipe in the floor. Snakes couldn't get it out.

A day later, the stall had it's door removed, was caution taped off, and the toilet was gone.

A day after that, that men's room was closed, and you could hear jackhammering. 

Poor kid, he never lived it down after that. Some guys in I.T. started calling him "Toilettenjunge".

[Monkeyleg]

I'm sure I've told this story before, but what the...

Shortly after we were married, my wife tried her hand at cooking something that didn't come in a can. She made chicken soup. She took a whole chicken, cut the meat off the bones, then tried to flush the bones down the toilet.

At that age and time, I had zero knowledge of plumbing, except for using a plunger, so I tried forever to plunge the chicken skeleton out of the s trap. Eventually a plumber was called, and it cost us the equivalent of day's pay for each of us.

Expensive soup.

"Nose hair trimmer" sounds funnier, though.

[280plus]

pulling a toilet is a 6 minute operation that can spare you 6 hours of fiddling

wax rings are 6 bucks

yea, but it's so damn gross... 

 

[RocketMan]

Wife 1.0 managed to drop a bunch of Q-tips down the toilet one time.  After that solid matter would clog the toilet roughly every fourth or fifth flush.  Of course, no amount of plunging, snaking or drain cleaning chemicals was able to clear things up. 
After pulling the toilet I found a number of the Q-tips had managed to neatly lay themselves across the exit of the 'S' trap, blocking things quite nicely.

[Hawkmoon]

Just face up to the inevitable -- buy a new water closet and install it. You know the old one has to come off, and you know it'll break trying to dislodge the obstruction.

[280plus]

Toto, get the one that will flush soccer balls, or was it golf balls, I can't remember... some kind of ball. there's two sizes, get the bigger more expensive one. you won't be disappointed.  

And make sure the danglies are clear before you go a hittin' that flush handle! 

[KD5NRH]

Toto, get the one that will flush soccer balls, or was it golf balls, I can't remember... some kind of ball. there's two sizes, get the bigger more expensive one. you won't be disappointed.

I want one that will flush bowling balls.

[280plus]

THAT"S WHAT IT WAS!! 
 
You wouldn't think the Japanese would worry about flushing bowling balls. I kean, how big of a crap can they take? Excluding Sumo wrestlers of course. Probably where it all started, with the Sumo wrestlers. "If it can handle a bowling ball it can handle a Sumo wrestler" was their slogan a while back. Not sure what it is now.

[CNYCacher]

pulling a toilet is a 6 minute operation that can spare you 6 hours of fiddling

wax rings are 6 bucks

Agreed.  You could have been done by now.  Send wifey for a wax ring and if you aren't ready for it by the time she gets back, turn in the man card.

I'm going to bestow upon you the plumbing knowledge which was bestowed upon me by the great handymen of old.

"You are smarter than any plumber I ever met, you are just scared to take it apart.  Take it apart. Find the problem. Fix it. Put it back together."

Procedure:
1. Water shut off
2. Flush to empty tank
3. Soak up remaining water in the bowl with a towel
4. Unhook water line
5. Unscrew nuts from mounting bolts.
6. Lift.

[Monkeyleg]

I want one that will flush bowling balls.

In our first apartment, my wife and I had what our friends called "the atomic toilet". It was pressurized, and would flush anything. The whoosh sound it made when flushing could probably have been heard down the hall of the apartments on our floor.

pulling a toilet is a 6 minute operation that can spare you 6 hours of fiddling

Not quite that easy when the toilet is in its own closet, with 6" to spare on either side, and you're an old man with a bad back. Our toilet has a wax ring that's leaking very, very slightly, and I'm just going to wait until it gets worse before either injuring my back again or spending $$ for a plumber.

[Scout26]

Oh, and since no one has mentioned it.

Invest in a new nose hair trimmer.

You'll thank me for it. 

[GigaBuist]

Procedure:
1. Water shut off
2. Flush to empty tank
3. Soak up remaining water in the bowl with a towel
4. Unhook water line
5. Unscrew nuts from mounting bolts.
6. Lift.

Well versed in the procedure.  I''m the one that put the toilet in 4-5 months ago.  There's just not much room to wiggle around in that tiny bathroom and I'm prone to throwing out my back when doing suck tasks.

We were out of town yesterday for our anniversary.  I should have time tonight to try fishing with a magnet for a bit, but failing that just pull the thing off.

Thanks for the suggestions.