Maintenance Tip for an Older Toilet

SAN FRANCISCO — If you have an older toilet, you may notice that you have to flush multiple times just to get everything down the drain. The likely culprit behind this issue is sediment: over time, the jet holes in your toilet bowl (which initiate the flushing action by shooting water from the tank down toward the drain) can get clogged with small bits of sediment, which diminishes the power of the flush. It’s still flushing the same amount of water, but it’s doing it at a much slower rate, with a reduction in pressure that results in the need for multiple flushes.

Fortunately, even though sediment is an unavoidable issue with toilets (and plumbing in general), there’s an easy way to remedy this problem. Simply use a safety pin, pencil or similar fine-pointed tool to clean the sediment out of the jet holes in your toilet bowl. By doing this every six months, you should be able to prevent this issue from occurring.