Toilet flushes OK but waste water seeps back

Red_Cat

Hi all,

I have a problem with a toilet in my home.

When waste is being flushed away, everything works fine, water comes down from the cistern and leaves the bowl clean, with clean water remaining.

Then in 30 minutes or so, the colour of the water slowly changes. You can see what looks like waste water seep back and mix with water in the bowl. Leave it another 30 minutes and then the water in the bowl is brown. Flush it again and everything is fine.

The toilet is a modern one with a bottom filling cistern.

I guess there might be a block somewhere, but i am not sure how to tackle this.

Any advice please?

ormus

first, lift the manhole cover up and see whats happening.

Red_Cat

The affected loo is on the 1st floor, the one on the ground floor is not affected. The manhole cover is downstream of both, so likely to not see something affecting both?

jc808

Red_Cat wrote: »

Hi all,

I have a problem with a toilet in my home.

When waste is being flushed away, everything works fine, water comes down from the cistern and leaves the bowl clean, with clean water remaining.

Then in 30 minutes or so, the colour of the water slowly changes. You can see what looks like waste water seep back and mix with water in the bowl. Leave it another 30 minutes and then the water in the bowl is brown. Flush it again and everything is fine.

The toilet is a modern one with a bottom filling cistern.

I guess there might be a block somewhere, but i am not sure how to tackle this.

Any advice please?

Sounds to me the soil pipe is at too steep an angle and dribbling nasty water back into the u bend

googler

Is the water in the cistern clean? Lift lid off to see.

Allow the cistern to fill, then turn off the water supply to the cistern. Flush the WC, and observe. If the symptom disappears, that rules out seepage of anything from the cistern and upstream of it.

If the downstairs WC is unaffected, I'd suggest the only explanation is some solids remaining in the water in the U bend, and staining the water as a result.

Try filling a bucket with hot water (not boiling) and pour that down the pan (not too quickly so it doesn't splash) - this might loosen any solids that are clinging. Maybe mix some cleaning agent in with the hot water?

Red_Cat

Thanks for all the advice.

I have been in the house for 4 years and this is the first time this has happened, so unless the soil pipe has moved, I am not convinced it is that.

I checked the cistern yesterday and again this morning and it looked fine -clear water.
I will try the hot bucket of water tonight.

spadoosh

It does sound like your pan connector has lifted or your toilet dropped. A blockage and you would expect some kind of back fill in your toilet (ie the bowl fills up) if the water levels remain the same with the discolouration, water will be being held somewhere and without seeing you toilet the only explanation would be that its misaligned.