To think a toilet should flush a normal sized poo on the first flush?

[AlexPKeaton]

We are American and new-ish to the UK so I need some perspective. There are a 3 toilets in our rented house, and not one of them seems to have the ability to dispose of a normal sized poo on the first flush, and quite often not on the second, third, or fourth flush. We do flush mid-poo when we can but it's not always possible, especially for our small kids --who produce surprisingly enormous poops.-- All of this flushing is appallingly wasteful of water, and leads to the disgusting experience of regularly encountering leftover poo when going to the bathroom. It's unpleasant for us and mortifying when we have guests!

If it matters, it is a terraced house, old but refurbished on the inside. Our rent is over£5K/month, which I understand isn't exorbitant by London standards, but I have to think it should entitle us to fully functioning toilets. Actually I think ^everyone^ is entitled to that.

My DH thinks the problem comes from the main pipes in the street so the landlord can't do anything, and I will sound like a spoiled American if I bring it up. But I can't imagine everyone else just lives like this.

AIBU?

[Limer]

Anything in the cisterns stopping them filling up?

With levers try pushing down and holding rather than just letting go.

[BarbaraofSeville]

My mortgage for the year is less than your monthly rent, but that is not the point - it costs a fuckload of money to live in London, which is why I do not live there. However, when renting you have a right to expect properly functioning services. Can you talk to your landlord or letting agent about getting the toilets looked at by a plumber?

Or is the toilet one of those stupidly pointless water saving ones that doesn't flush anything away, hence defeating the water saving object when you have to flush multiple times?

I produce healthily sized poos and often have to use the toilet brush to send them on their way. But I never leave shit on the brush as I always cover with toilet roll first.

[Flossyfloof]

Sorry I can't read anything posted after my oh-do-helpful contribution earlier but I would be insisting on something being done on grounds of health and safety. Btw, Lemonski - respect. You are the touletmeiste.

[Flossyfloof]

Meister.

[Flossyfloof]

Fifa!
Toilet Meister!!

[PandoNoPants]

Upgraded my bathroom in order to sell in 2012. My plumber told me not to expect the mega flush on my old toilet as EU regs had put a stop to it. He said new toilets were pretty crap (pardon the pun!)

I second the thing about wooden kebab sticks (ewww). I've also made a potion of washing powder/liquid/shampoo/warm water and let it stew (ewww part deux). I have a 3 and a 5yr old. "Muuuuuum, it won't flush away". You get the idea

[CruCru]

The OP has been given a hard time about her rent. Quite a few Americans I've met in London are living in Kensington / Chelsea / St John's Wood / Marylebone and I could imagine having to pay £5k a month in rent.

Re the loo - yes, modern toilets are super annoying. However, one way of getting the poo out is to pour a bucket of hot soapy water in there (I sometimes do after mopping the floors). No idea if that is helpful.

[ProudAS]

YANBU - it should flush a massive one never mind average sized.

[Ginkypig]

Have a "bathroom" jug.

Fill it with water and as you flush pour down toilet it adds extra water so hopefully it only takes one flush.

I had to use one in an old house and a friend had a toilet pan for the same reason

[NewLife4Me]

Can you look at the design, honestly some of them are dreadful.
We had one once where the waste pipe was higher than the water level, nothing would go down.
You need a certain type for the angle of the pipe or something like that, so our plumber said.

[TheHiphopopotamus]

Remarks about 'giant American King Kong poos' make me feel really unwelcome

Guess it's also true about the differences in American and British humour

[TheCatsMeow]

Im an immigrant...Remarks about 'giant American King Kong poos' make me feel really unwelcome

It's just a joke! My family are foreign and I didn't take offence.

[goingtotown]

Sorry I think this is a wind up.

[rookiemere]

I did not know that pando about the EU imposing reduced flushes on the UK - shocking stuff, certainly some food for thought when the referendum comes to pass - Nigel Farage could get great mileage out of that.

Fellow wooden kebabers - you do realise that there's a poo sized gap in the market don't you ? Now if I could invent some Lakeland friendly innocuous poo cutting device I'd be a millionaire. Rushes off to complete blueprint and patent idea just after I've finished this cup of tea.

[whois]

Yeah new build stuid water saving regs mean normal poos are hard to flush :-(

[OzzieFem]

You definitely need to take the top of the cistern off and have a look inside. As it is the old type and not the dual flush you may find that bricks have been put inside to prevent water wastage by the landlord.

[AyeAmarok]

We found a "flush bag" in our cistern which made the flush weak. We took it out, obvs. much better now.

[WeDoNotTalktoPennilynLott]

Am I the only one that never knew people flush mid-poo?

[noddingoff]

Just came to award the OP a bonus point for typing "poo" rather than "poop". Welcome to the UK, you're assimilating nicely :-)

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Op, when you flush does the water rise up in the bowl?

If it does, maybe your pipes are partially blocked with limescale?

[ValiantMouse]

I'm wondering if the paper you're using is contributing to things not leaving when nicely asked. Can you try without paper, just poo? (Take a dog poo bag, nappy sack or such in with you and put the soiled paper in there. It can be thrown in the bin outside.)

Some of the mega thick/high ply loo roll blocks my loo, but the thinner stuff is fine.

[unlucky83]

Cos its been refurbished it will be due to 6L regs - we have the same problem with our newish loo too.
The toilet bowls are supposed to be designed so it works as well as old 9L flushes - but they just don't.
We have dual flush buttons and the light flush one won't clear a couple of sheets of loo paper with a wee..we never use it. (But we don't flush after every wee anyway to save water. Have to say saving water and leaks etc are important not because of storage but because it takes a lot of energy to get it coming out of your taps clean enough to drink...just to leak out underground or flush the loo or water the garden etc. I think we should be looking more at incentives to use rainwater harvesting for things like loo flushing...)

Anyway poos are two flushes (so 12L instead of 9L) - it is crazy...and it you do the jug trick you need to pour it down as you flush to increase the volume of the flush. Our loo is also prone to blocking slightly - water rises up, second flush makes it 'go' - its not the pipes (old loo was fine) suspect it is to do with the pan design to make the flush 'efficient' ...
It is like washing machines that don't rinse the soap out of clothes properly unless you use the extra water setting or eco settings on dishwashers that run for hours and don't clean or dry anything properly or tumble driers that don't dry properly ...all to get an AAA or whatever rating - but actually when you use them in real life on a setting that works they are nowhere near as efficient...(Actually heard Miele and Dyson are having a bit of ding dong about whether an advertised eg 800w vacuum is actually 800w not more .....)
And never mind tampering with cars electronics to get lower emission readings - when they test cars for their mpg rating they are stripped shells - they even remove the disk brakes...with the car on your drive you can get nowhere near the advertised mpg...
Sorry rant over...but no point trying to pretend or feeling good about being more energy efficient/environmentally friendly when we aren't ...