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trollbridge 4 hours ago

I had a major plumbing problem once, in a rented commercial space. The toilet simply clogged constantly and I had to snake it almost every time. The landlord finally relented and had an expert plumber come out.

The guy apparently had a master's degree in plumbing somehow (I thought he was joking but he had indeed put himself all the way into a master's level engineering degree, mostly as a hobby). He first got out his scope and confirmed there was zero blockage in the sewer pipe and the septic tank itself. All good.

Then he started simulating flushing a load: wads of toilet paper, measured by number of squares. 17 squares went down just fine, but then he did 25, which he said is the max he expects a toilet to do. Instantly clogged.

He then told the landlord to stop buying $90 toilets and that he'd just advised a nursing home that had bought a bunch of the exact same model to rip them out and put in a better, $150 model.

So yeah, that's how you test it.

fiftyacorn 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My degree is chemical engineering and thats pretty close to a degree in plumbing

lostlogin 39 minutes ago | parent [-]

Well regarded cardiac surgeon Barratt-Boyes supposedly had a brother who was a good plumber.

This always made me happy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Barratt-Boyes

cobalt 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

this feels like a chute diameter issue, many older (cheaper?) ones are 2in, but high flow are 3in I believe