The Great Toilet Paper-mageddon

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March 17, 2020

As you are all stuck in the house with your rolls and piles of toilet paper from Costco, Sams, or your favorite doomsday store of choice, we thought it would be a good idea to share some information with you about your plumbing and the 'TP'

Toilet paper has all of the sudden become some sort of currency during a virus infestation that doesn't even cause the #2!

Well when we were kids we used to have an abundance of the pillowy poop cleaner.  So much so that we would throw it on the trees of our enemies homes, but now we would charge that same enemy triple for just one roll if he needed it!

But lets go back in time {one month ago} when we just used the toilet paper all willy-nilly not even thinking of a time where it would be scarce to us.  I mean, most of the time we don’t think twice about flushing toilet paper after its use, but we try to optimize our useness of TP to its most efficient.

Did you know other countries throughout the world have to throw their toilet paper away instead of flushing?  Their plumbing systems just can't handle it. What a luxury we have in America!

Even in the United States, especially in Fayetteville, flushing toilet paper can sometimes create problems. If you use the wrong type of toilet paper too many times, you might find yourself with a broken toilet or a flooded bathroom. Here’s what you should know about toilet paper and your plumbing:

Choose Toilet Paper That Dissolves

As your searching all over Fayetteville for some TP, if you happen to find some be hopeful that it might be the softest, most comfortable, or maybe the cheapest, or maybe just available!!  But do you ever consider how the toilet paper dissolves in your plumbing?

Ideally, the toilet paper you choose should quickly dissolve. If it doesn’t, your toilet paper can build up in your pipes and clog your plumbing. This is especially true if you own a low-flow toilet. While these toilets save water, they provide less pressure to push the toilet paper down the pipes.

So which type of toilet paper is the most dissolvable? Typically, one-ply toilet paper is considered the least thick. One-ply means that there is just one layer of paper. But just because one-ply toilet paper is thin doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the most dissolvable.


Good Housekeeping tested 22 types of toilet paper to determine the highest-quality toilet paper. Some of the most dissolvable brands (that were also rated as soft, strong, and absorbent) included:

 
  • Scott 1000 (one-ply)
  • Scott Naturals (two-ply)
  • Seventh Generation (two-ply)
  • Target Up & Up (two-ply)
  • WhiteCloud Ultra (three-ply)
To test how dissolvable your toilet paper is, place one piece of toilet paper in a container of water. Leave it alone for 30 seconds, and then stir it gently. Ideally, the toilet paper should immediately begin to break into shreds. If it doesn’t, you may want to choose a different toilet paper brand.

Another way to test your toilet paper is to simply drop a sheet of toilet paper into your toilet. If it is still fully intact a few minutes later, it’s probably not dissolvable enough.
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Don’t Flush Anything Else

Toilet paper is the only thing you can safely flush. If you use flushable wipes instead of toilet paper, you might want to think again. Even though they’re called “flushable,” these cleanly wipes take much longer to break down than toilet paper does. Because they are so thick, they can easily get stuck in your plumbing.





Also, remember not to flush any of the following down your toilet:

 
  • Diapers
  • Feminine hygiene products
  • Cotton balls
  • Tissue
  • Paper towels
  • Wrappers
  • Medications

When you flush anything other than toilet paper, it clogs your pipes and prevents water and waste from flowing through.

Got a Clog?

If your toilet gets clogged, don’t flush. Flushing could cause your toilet to flood.

Instead, call the experienced plumbers at
Flow-Rite Plumbing and Drain Service
. Our plumbers use a drain snake to unclog your toilet. The drain snake is a wire coil with a corkscrew tip. Our plumbers move the snake down the pipes until they find the clog. Then, they use the tip of the snake to break up the clog or pull out the debris.

For more severe clogs, your plumber may need to examine the sewer line to find the source of the clog.

Follow these tips to avoid toilet paper clogs and other types of clogs. That is if you can find toilet paper around town anywhere!!
If you do notice a clog, Call Flow-Rite Plumbing >>