Is my toilet clogged, or just lazy?
Everyone has met a toilet like this before… you flush, and the water seems to just slowly swirl around for a while, and you wait and wait anxiously for what seems like days (though it’s only a few seconds) to see if it will actually flush or (oh no!) overflow. The best way to describe this toilet is “lazy,” because it seems lethargic and slow in its flushing and like something isn’t quite right in the flushing process. It might even take a few flushes to get whatever’s in the bowl to leave the toilet.
The first thing to determine is if there is a clog in the toilet or if it’s a mechanical issue in the tank. To rule out a clog in the line, take a full bucket of water and pour it into the toilet rapidly. If there is no clog in the line, the sudden addition of excess water should drain quickly and keep the water level in the bowl consistent. If this causes the toilet to overflow, your line may be clogged. Plunge the toilet or call The Scottish Plumber to clear the drain.
If you poured a bucket of water down the toilet and it drained quickly, then there is probably not a clog in the pipe. Sometimes water can slowly swirl around the bowl if some of the ports are clogged. The ports are the small holes around the inside of the toilet bowl that feed the water from the tank into the bowl. Over time, lime, calcium, and other mineral deposits may build up and clog the holes. Try poking through them with a small screwdriver to clean them out and see if this helps.
Sometimes a toilet cleaning tab you place in the tank can shrink down and get stuck in a port. If you have placed one of these in your tank recently, check to see if a small piece of it got suck in a port.