Modern bathroom with a wall-hung toilet, marble vanity, and dual-flush plate

What to Do If Your Toilet Won’t Flush

By Court Lundberg

Flushing the toilet in your Utah home and watching the water rise instead of go down can be anxiety-provoking. If your toilet won’t flush properly, there are a few potential causes. They vary from minor concerns to more severe plumbing issues. Here’s what you can do if your toilet won’t flush.

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A Broken Toilet Handle

If you push on the toilet handle and nothing happens, it may indicate a broken or disconnected handle. The handle of your toilet is connected to a flapper valve by a small chain, located inside the toilet tank. Pressing down on the handle lifts the flapper, which releases the water sitting in the tank down into the bowl. Reattaching the chain if it’s fallen off may be all that’s needed. However, replacing the entire mechanism may be needed to restore proper function to your toilet.

Not Enough Water in Your Toilet Tank

If your toilet tank lacks sufficient water, it won’t flush properly. A standard gravity toilet does not flush on water pressure. It flushes on volume: the tank dumps its water into the bowl all at once, and that rush is what carries the waste through the trap. A low tank means there is not enough water to finish the job. Ideally, the water level in the tank should be one inch below the top of the overflow tube. Adjusting the fill valve and the float that controls it will usually bring the level back up. However, other potential causes could include toilet leaks, cracks in the toilet tank, or low supply pressure feeding the tank.

A Clogged Toilet

Your toilet is designed to handle specific quantities and types of waste. Toys, sanitary products or excessive amounts of toilet paper can cause clogs. Sometimes, using a plunger can resolve the issue and restore proper flow. However, more severe clogs may require the expertise of a professional plumber. We use a closet auger, a short toilet-specific snake, to clear the trap without scratching the porcelain. What we do not use, and what you should not pour in, is chemical drain cleaner. It is an acid or a base either way, it sits on the pipe, heats up, and eats it from the inside, and if it does not clear the clog the next person has to work in a bowl full of acid.

When It Is Not the Toilet at All

Here is the one most homeowners miss. If the toilet is slow and something else in the house is slow on the same day, the toilet is not your problem. That is the main line. The tells are consistent: water backing up through the lowest fixture, usually a tub or a basement floor drain, when you run something else; gurgling from a drain in another room when you flush; or a bowl that drains down on its own between uses, which is a soft clog further down the line pulling the water with it.

Clearing that toilet again will not fix it, and neither will the third drain cleaning on the same fixture. A clog that keeps coming back is usually a pipe problem, not a clog problem. The answer is a camera down the line so you find out what is actually going on before you pay anyone else to guess. If it is a broken or bellied section, sewer line repair is the fix, and depending on what the camera shows, lining may save you the trench.

Fast, Friendly, and Fair Plumbing Services

At Rare Breed Plumbing, Heating, and Air, we are proud to have expert plumbers who focus on the quality of service that our customers experience. We treat your home like our own, taking great care as we do our job. We work out of three shops, Sandy, Bountiful, and Orem, covering Salt Lake, Davis, Utah, Weber, Summit, Tooele, and Wasatch counties. The office is open Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm, we run emergency service 24/7, and every appointment comes with a 3-hour appointment window.

FAQ

Why won’t my toilet flush?

A disconnected handle and flapper chain, a tank that is too low, a clog, or a problem that is not the toilet at all, like a main-line backup.

How high should the tank water be?

About one inch below the top of the overflow tube. A gravity toilet flushes on volume, not household water pressure. A low tank does not dump enough water to finish the job.

When is it not the toilet?

Several fixtures slow on the same day, gurgling from another room when you flush, or a bowl that drains itself between uses. Those point downstream of the toilet.

Should I use chemical cleaner in the bowl?

No. It sits on the pipe, heats up, and eats it from the inside. If it does not clear the clog, the next person works in a bowl full of acid.

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