Why will toilet flush properly some days and not other on other days? I have just installed a brand new American Standard Champion 4 toilet with a 2 and 3/8" trapway. It has flushed properly for 10 days. Now it is not flushing. When you press lever the water forces up in the middle of the water of bottom of bowl. We had intermittent flushing problems with previous toilet and toilet before that. I was told to check the vents and replace the toilet. The village that we live in relined the main sewer line with plastic sleeves and had remote cutter to open up sewer lines to the residences. If the sewer line was not fully opened could this cause pressure variances that would cause flushing issues. No plumbing changes to the lines in the house have been made to cause this problem. The village power snaked the sewer line in the house last year when this was occurring with the old toilet. Now it is occurring with brand new toilet. Some days it works perfectly, some not. I have checked the vent stacks on the roof and they are clear. Help!

charlie rodriguez

• 152 Answers
• Posted on Dec 15, 2008

SOURCE: have to flush 2 or 3 times to empty toilet bowl

hello, this is a standard toilet you will need to inspect the flapper that is the rubber flap that holds the water up in the tank it works when you pull the lever it pulls the chain upward and lets the water flow if this flapper is old it may not stay up long enough for the water to flow. open the tank top and flush the toilet see if this flapper is staying up long enough and giving the tank enough time to empty if not change this rubber flapper its inexpensive part.
if this is not the reason then you need to adjust your water filler valve there should be a small screw on top of the pivoting float arm
if you have to adjust it for the water limit line inside the tank this will be the proper amount of water needed to flush once completely

also check that the chain lenth on the pull lever is not pulling the flapper down quicker than its supposed to,

try this let me know your results
hope it helps

SOURCE: toilet sounds like it is flushed or water filling up in the tank.

if the toilet has a 'flapper' is there slack in the chain connecting it to the flush arm? The flapper life is usually around 4 years or so - replace it if older.

SOURCE: flapper will not go down

Troy, the flapper otherwise known as the flush valve is easily replaced. They are also very inexpensive. Sometimes they can become distorted due to the clorine in the water and won't operate in the same way they did when it was new. I bet this will fix your issue and save you money as well.

SOURCE: I BELIEVE IAM HAVING SOME TYPE OF VACUME ISSUE WITH TOILET

The water in the tank is not filling to the water line, thereby not providing enough water to flush properly. Adjust the float so that the tank fills to the water line

SOURCE: the water in the bowl does not evacuate properly.

what you need first is to check to see if your bowl is out of level then use a snake rotor to clean any mess in the bowl then flush this should solve your flushing problem