How to Dissolve Toilet Paper Clog

Toilet paper clogs can be challenging to address. This guide offers tips on how to dissolve toilet paper clogs from your sewer line. Moreover, we’ll give you expert tips on keeping your toilet clean and free from paper clogs. Let’s get started.

What Causes Toilet Paper Clogs?

You might already be aware that it’s not recommended to flush condoms and baby wipes down your toilet throne. Although toilet paper and human waste are safe to flush down the toilet, that’s not always true. Here are rare scenarios where toilet paper can cause a clog in your toilet.

1. Your Toilet Was Initially Partially clogged

Sometimes just flushing a bit of toilet paper into your toilet will not cause a blockage in the sewer lines. However, if your toilet already had a partial clog, the toilet paper may stick onto the clog, making it bigger and causing a problematic clog.

When toilet paper clogs drainpipes, it prevents water from flowing freely down the sewer. Although the water that flows through the pipes will eventually be emptied, it will happen much slower than expected.

To prevent clogs from forming in the first place, don’t flush anything except urine, toilet paper, and poop down the toilet. Use a quality toilet cleaner frequently to clear out minor clogs that may have developed.

2. You Used Excess Toilet Paper

Excess toilet paper is probably the primary reason toilet paper causes clogs in sewer lines. Flushing too much toilet paper down your bowl at once can cause it to stretch and twist, eventually developing a clog. Even though toilet paper is designed to decompose easily, sometimes it becomes too much for the lines to manage. That is why it’s essential to flush smaller toilet paper bundles constantly. It will help clean your pipes and prevent clogs from forming in your lines.

6 DIY Tips to Dissolve Toilet Paper Clogs from Your Sewer Line

If you have a toilet paper clog, there are a few life hacks to fix them. Below are some options to dissolve toilet paper clogs.

1. Use Commercial Cleaners

Most commercial products can help you break down toilet paper clogs quickly. RID-X eliminates all the toilet paper clogs and greasy stuff in your bowl. Besides that, the process is straightforward — you only need to pour some RID-X into your toilet bowl and turn on the water supply. It doesn’t take long to break clogs — you can anticipate it to work in just a few minutes.

How to Dissolve Toilet Paper Clog
RID-X

You can rest assured all the waste in your toilet will be gone if you use RID-X, and it won’t damage your sewer system – it will only remove solid debris.

2. Use Epson Salt

Use Epsom salt to dissolve toilet paper clogs. It’s a common ingredient in many products that clean the toilet bowl. It works well and dissolves fast, thoroughly decomposing organic waste.

How to Dissolve Toilet Paper Clog
Epsom Salt

Pour salt into the toilet bowl to help break up any clog in the pipes. After you pour the salt into the toilet bowl, fill a bucket with warm water. Avoid boiling water, as it can cause damage to the porcelain. Let the Epsom salt sink deeper in your toilet drains so that it can reach the furthest part of the paper clog. After that, flush the toilet to remove any dissolved items. If your toilet bowl is half full, hold on until the salt soaks into the drains.

3. Use Dish Soap

Another exciting option is to utilize regular dish soap to clean paper clogs from your toilet sewer line. Although dish soap can break other things easily, that’s not the main goal. It will help prevent the paper clogs from adhering to drainpipe walls.

If you want to use dish soap to clean your toilet, first empty the entire bowl of water. You can use a sponge and a bucket to remove the accumulated water. After that, pour an adequate amount of dish soap around the bowl’s rim. Let the soap sit for a bit, and then flush the toilet.

Pour some dish soap into the drain and allow it to settle down a bit before pouring some boiling water into your bowl. Next, flush the toilet. When you flush the toilet, dish soap will help flush the waste water out of the drains and get to the clog. The purpose of using dish soap is to help clogs become slippery so that they will quickly disappear when flushed.

4. Use Baking Soda and Vinegar

Mix baking soda and vinegar, and then pour the mixture around the rim of the toilet. Let it soak in the waste for a few minutes, then flush the toilet. If that solution isn’t enough, add more baking soda and vinegar. You can try mixing baking soda and vinegar several times to get enough bubbling action to clear your drains and free up water in your sewer line.

If you have stubborn toilet paper or organic waste to deal with, this trick will work well. But if the toilet paper is stuck to hard waste like plastic toys, mixing some vinegar and baking soda won’t help. So move to the next tip.

5. Use a Plunger

A plunger is an excellent way to eliminate the paper clog from your bowl, and it’s simple to use.

How to Dissolve Toilet Paper Clog
Plunger

First, place your plunger against the bowl surface- it must stick inside the bowl just above its outlet. Exert pressure on it vigorously to clear the clog.

After pushing up and down several times, the plunger develops a high-intensity vacuum pressure that clears clogs and other debris. It doesn’t take long to clean up the mess. When a clog disappears, you will know it because it starts moving away from the faucet and making a gurgling sound.

Sometimes it takes several attempts to clear a giant clog, but even if you fail to break it, it shouldn’t take long to unclog your toilet. It is quick and easy!

6. Use An Auger

You can also remove a clog by using an auger — a long, sharp object that will penetrate the sewer lines if you try hard enough. Some call it a bow snake since it can twist and turn around through the primary drain pipe.

Augers are long and have a corkscrew that makes them easy to use. You should put a snake in the toilet and push it through a trap inside the bowl. Do the job by turning the handle clockwise, but be careful — sharp augers might scratch or break your drain lines. When the corkscrew gets to a clog, it will start to work slowly, drilling into the waste ball.

When you get to the clog, twist the auger to break it into pieces. It will be as though you have just ripped a small piece of glass off a car. After removing the clog, you can slowly remove the waste ball by pulling the auger out of the sewer line.

It’s good to clean the auger after using it because it can easily collect debris on its way back to the house.

FAQs

Can toilet paper clogs dissolve and unclog themselves?

Toilet paper can dissolve on its own if you wait a couple of hours for it to dissolve completely. They are made of soft cellulose fibers that break down slowly as they are washed away from the water. If your sewer line becomes blocked because of using toilet paper, it will be best if you wait 15 to 20 minutes before you flush the toilet.

Toilet paper should eventually dissolve and disappear, and you can flush your toilet to give the clog an extra push. But waiting too long before you flush the toilet means you won’t be able to use your toilet. Also, germs and bacteria will start to grow rapidly. And even worse, you are risking a toilet overflow. If the paper clog doesn’t disappear on its own after flushing, use any of the options outlined in this article.

Can bleach dissolve toilet paper clogs?

Most homeowners utilize sodium hypochlorite, popularly called bleach, for bathrooms and kitchens. But can you use bleach to dissolve toilet paper clogs? Yes, you can, but remember that bleach is acidic and might ruin the whole situation. When bleach reaches the toilet paper clog inside your toilet, it tends to make it larger and more complex. So, avoid using bleach if it’s a paper clog. Instead, try using Drano or other cleaning products.

Wrapping Up

If you’ve been wondering how to dissolve toilet paper clogs, your mind should be full of ideas by this point. There are many ways you can fix this situation. You can easily unclog toilet paper clogs using a plunger, dish soap, an auger, vinegar and baking soda, Epson salt, or RID-X.

But remember, prevention is always best — regularly clean your toilet and avoid flushing big pieces of toilet paper down your drain. It will help keep your toilet ever clean and clog-free.

2 thoughts on “How to Dissolve Toilet Paper Clog”

  1. Thanks a lot. To provide me a few preventive measures for me to better take care of my bathroom throne. Toilet papers clogging sewer lines are a common problem among households. And it is also a problem at my home. So terrible.

    Reply
  2. People tend to think that flushing toilet paper down their toilet would be fine. After all, Kleenex, or any other tissue brands in general, would disintegrate when it becomes wet, right? So we need to consider about this.

    Reply

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