Aaaargh the toilet is backing up and I have just found these Boots liners are not flushable >:-(

[FrannyandZooey]

Does anyone know if I can clear it myself or will we need a plumber? It's just filling up too much when you flush it, and then not all the water drains away. Thought of various reasons, then realised we have been getting different liners lately as have cancelled our nappy laundry service - and looking at the packet, the Boots disposable nappy liners are NOT flushable WTF is the point of that?

straighten a wire coat hanger
fold it over a few times and poke down the toilet
it might work?

It depends how stable your stomach is.
If you feel that whilst wearing gloves you could try and reach round the bend and see what is stuck then have a go. otherwise get a plumber.

Tip. An old mop (string type) makes a good plunger. Just throw away the head after use and replace with new one.

I had a Bad Toilet Experience and actually found that, using a plastic bag, I could have a glove that went all the way up my arm, iyswim. And you can use the bag to grab whatever you find.

in our first house i was advised to wrap a towel around a broom handle and pump it up and down in the toilet, once the towel gets sodden, it creates a vacum and 'should' flush the bloclage away.hth

Carl, why what is going to happen if I do it?

I reckon I can stick my hands down there, yes. Do I just grope around and try to grab whatever's stuck there? Will the blockage definitely be in the U bend or could it be further down the drain necessitating Expensive Plumber Action? And has anyone ever heard anything so stupid as non-flushable disposable nappy liners? What am I meant to do, scrape the poo off and stick it in the toilet, then put the liner in the bin?

Just a thought

should I be trying to grab the blockage and get it out, or trying to push it further down? I like Katy's idea best (does not involve being up to elbows in sewage) but it seems to me this could just force everything further down.

Grab it and take it out. If you are careful, and using a bag, you can get it out without having to touch it. (It worked for me! Although you probably won't believe me, it was actually food that had gone down and got stuck, not poo.)

Yes, it might be stuck further up, but if it isn't, sorting it out yourself will be cheaper and faster than calling a plumber out.

Ok, keep me covered

I'm going in

Ah, I was just about to ask if you'd had any improvement.

I'll be hiding behind the sofa ...

Are they the liners in the pop up packet, I use them and flush them and have done for ages and am sensing an impending plumbing disaster.

Bloody useless, how can I get my arm in there? I literally can't get it in at all and I have tiny little arms. I don't get what you are all telling me to try to do. The coat hanger thing - ditto. Melrose mine came in a loose plastic pouch but if yours don't say flushable for god's sake don't flush them

PLUS Mrs NQC Fanjo person, your bag trick is ruddy impressive - the bags just filled up with water so I have got dripping bags filled with toilet water to deal with now as well

I think you can only deal with stuff right near the exit with your arm. If you can't feel anything dodgy, then you probably have to get a plumber in ... ugh.

Sorry! It worked for me

It will be all bunged up in that big tubey bit at the back. Buggeration. How about pouring huge amounts of caustic chemicals down there, will that do it?

I think plunging might get the stuck things back into the bowl, or it might dislodge them, so they can go further down the tube?

I'd worry about getting them further down the tube, and then they block all your sewage, or yours and your neighbours. How long have you been using this new brand of liners?

I doubt chemicals would break down the liners, would they? What are liners made of, anyway?

lay large(old, not to be used again) towel on floor, fold in half, put end of brrom/mop shank etc in middle, pull up towel around pole and hold/tape into place(so you look like youve got a huge cu-tip!..then hold on tight around towel and start plunging..or..buy a plunger?

Oh good god

I think this is MEN'S WORK don't you???

NQC, I am not sure. A few weeks? We would have been flushing maybe 1 each day. I don't know what they are made of, a kind of papery stuff. The ones our laundry service provided were most definitely flushable and they biodegrade quite easily. These Boots ones are different though, oh BUGGER, I just assumed you could flush them all. This is my come uppance for being cross with that poster flushing her tampons isn't it?

People flush all sorts of inappropriate things - a friend of mine has a neighbour who keeps flushing nappies. And the whole system fails, and the entire street smells of raw sewage, including inside the houses. Nice.

I'd talk to a plumber, or rotorouter or whatever.

Oh bugger

this is going to cost us, isn't it?

I don't think it has to cost a load - it's just time and equipment, not bits of toilet being replaced, from what I know. But it won't be free.

a plumber would prob do it in minutes. WE had to call one out and he was in and out in 5 mins. I can't tell you how mcuh though, it was council at the time and free. Youc an get toilet plungers which might work. They have a flat disc bit at the bottom, which creates the vacumn when you pump. Sympathies, I have to keep doing that when the dts flush toys down there!

this happened to me too Franny some moons ago

switching to fleece liners never made more sense