What Happens When You Flush a Toilet?
April 16, 2011, By Jack Heffron 0 comments
According to various government surveys, we flush a toilet five to seven times per day. We rarely think about what happens afterward, and should your son or daughter ask you about it you'll probably be stuck for an answer. It’s really an ingenious process that goes on constantly, involves miles of underground pipe and keeps our lives cleaner and healthier.
It all begins with a simple act—we press down the handle on the toilet tank. The handle pulls back a chain connected to a flush valve that covers a drain hole inside the tank. Approximately two gallons of water from the tank then pours through the open drain, flooding into the toilet bowl via a center hole as well as small holes located around the bowl’s rim. The water then flows into a hole at the bottom of the bowl, where it is pulled by a siphon into a pipe that connects to the central sewage pipe in your house.
When the toilet tank empties, the flush valve drops back into place, covering the hole at the bottom of the tank. When the flush valve drops, it pulls down the filler valve, which then releases new water into the tank, triggering the refill process. When the water reaches the correct level, the float valve automatically stops the water, and the tank is ready for the next flush.
A chain-reaction process worthy of Dr. Seuss himself! If this brief description has merely whetted your appetite, check out www.toiletology.com, where you’ll find plenty of entertaining toilet trivia as well as helpful trouble-shooting advice.
Clogs
The flushing process works well when we don’t get in its way. Unfortunately, we sometimes do—clogging the drainpipe, which causes the water in the bowl to back up and rise to the rim. Our first impulse, of course, is to flush again, hoping that a second flush will push through the clog. Instead, the second flush pushes the water over the rim and onto the floor.
To prevent that mess: first, don’t flush when the bowl is clogged; second, don’t put anything in the toilet that won’t dissolve in water. Reserve the bowl for human waste and toilet paper. That’s it. No facial tissues, paper towels, feminine hygiene products or anything else that will be too big or heavy for the water to carry or the siphon to pull through the pipe.
For reasons unknown to parents, kids love to flush, and they will try almost anything, from toys to toothpaste to turtles. These things usually can’t make the trip. They wedge in the pipe, forcing dad to grab a plunger or a plumber’s snake to do battle. Sometimes even dad can’t conquer the clog, meaning he’ll have to call a plumber before sitting down with his child and explaining that action figures really can’t be flushed. Ever. The child must think of another way to defeat the villain figure.
