Ask any plumber and they will tell you that people often flush things down the toilet that really should not be flushed. They’ve cleared enough clogs from toilet drain pipes to know the worst things that people flush.
Save yourself the plumbing bill by never flushing any of the following things down your toilet.
1. Wet wipes
Baby wipes, wet wipes, and cleaning wipes are often marketed as “flushable” wipes, but many of them are only flushable in the same way that a t-shirt or towel is flushable. Yeah, maybe you can flush them, but they are going to cause clogs, if not in your drain pipe, then in the sewer line or at your municipal wastewater treatment plant. Many wipes simply do not disintegrate quickly enough to prevent clogs and backed-up sewer lines.
2. Paper Towels
After wiping up a mess in the bathroom, tossing a paper towel in the toilet might seem like an easy way to get rid of it. But consider those paper towel commercials that boast about how strong and absorbent their paper towels are. There’s your top two reasons not to flush them!
3. Feminine hygiene products
Would you believe there’s a good reason why public bathrooms often have signs telling you not to flush feminine hygiene products down the toilet? Tampons and pads are designed to be ultra-absorbent and they expand as they get wet. You don’t want them expanding in your drain pipe.
4. Condoms
Condoms are what plumbers least like to pull out of the toilet drain. Latex prophylactics take years to degrade and even if they get through your drain pipe, they will cause issues in your city’s wastewater treatment system.
5. Floss
Long strands of floss can wrap around other things, creating string balls that can create clogs by collecting more “solids.”
6. Cotton Swabs
Throw used cotton swabs in the garbage because if flushed they will get jammed in the drain pipe and then act like a little dam, blocking other things from continuing down the drain.
7. Hair
When you pull those clumps of hair out of your brush, toss them in the trash, not in the toilet. Hair does not dissolve and will worsen any little blockage in the drain pipe.
8. Too much toilet paper
The problem with thicker, multi-ply, plush toilet paper is that it does take a bit longer to dissolve. If you have to use a lot of it, flush a couple of times rather than sending it all down at once.
Help with Clogged Drains
If it’s too late now and you know you have flushed some of these things down your toilet, call our Burlington plumbers or our Cherry Hill plumbers if the toilet is not draining properly and you need drain cleaning help. If it’s still good, count yourself lucky and stop flushing these things down the drain!
