We have an issue with both of our toilets that maybe someone can help us with. Both toilets when flushed completely drain all the water from the bowl and I here a gurgling (sp?) noise. Does anyone know what could be cause this? Also the downstairs toilet will fill up almost to the rim before going down. I am going to replace both toilets in the near future but I figured I would ask. Could there be a vent problem? It is a 100+ year old house. I do have a vent (at least on the downstairs bathroom) It run up the outside of the house and i hear water when the toilet is flushed so IO don't think it is blocked.

any help is appreciated.

Scott

Sounds like a pluged or restricted vent.

can I stick a garden hose in the vent and pump water in there to see if something is blocking it? Or how would I go about troubleshooting the vent?

Thanks for your help.

Here is a great site for all things toilet related.

Toiletology

Your problem could be caused by a partially blocked vent as Gary mentions. There is a description of that at the site linked above.

Well, I did try to flush out the vent line. I put the hose in there and I could tell it was filling up like it was blocked and then all of the sudden "whoosh!!!" it sounded like something got cleared out. I then ran inside to make syre there wasn't other issues and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary so I flushed the toilet to see if what I had done did anything. No notable difference. The toilet downstairs still filled up alot and then went down and gurgled at me and the upstairs gurgled when flushed as well. Question, should I have done something else before flushing them?

Any other hints? Could it just be their age? The one is pretty old and the other looks newer.

Thanks for the help!

Scott

The water used to flush vent pipe may have got past the blockage without clearing it. I suggest if you can go on roof with a bright light and look down vent pipe and see if it is blocked.If blocked take a weight smaller than pipe,tie weight to rope and lower into pipe and break up blockage.old window weights work well for this.A good source of light is a mirror and sun.Well diggers used this method to look down wells.tboyla21963@peoplepc.com

How old are the toilets? How long has the problem been going on? Did they both start around the same time?

I am guessing the toilets are 10-20 years old. It has been doing it since we moved in (4 months ago. I haven't tried snaking the lines yet. (Mainly because I don't have one to do it with)

thanks for all the help.

Scott

Do they fill up when you just flush water?

What happens sometimes if its a vent problem is that when you flush the toilet one of the nearby traps(shower trap, sink trap, etc) will get sucked out and act as the vent. Have you been smelling any sewer smells?

The downstairs one fills up when only water is flushed. The upstairs one does not fill up. But they both go all the way down and gurgle. The upstair one I cam also hear the gurgling through the shower drain. I haven't noticed any type of sewer smell.

Thanks for all the help.

Scott

Get a flash light. Flush the toilet and use the flash light to watch the water in the shower drain. Does it appear to drain out? If yes, then there is something wrong with your vent, or there isn't one close enough, which there are usually easy soultions to.

The gergleling is a vent problem . but could also be combined with a stoppage . You may have to pull the downstairs toilet and run a snake through the line . While the toilet is out (take it outside the house)turn it over and look in the bottom drain hole as you may have a foriegn object in it and needs pushed back out. (watch for plastic solo cups as they are hard to see).sometimes rolling the toilet over backwards will roll the object out,This will take two people.even easyer take the tank off . run the garden hose water from bottom can also flush objects out.
While the downstairs toilet is out flush the upstairs toilet and watch/listen for water flow.