How to unblock a toilet without a plunger and without making a mess

What you need

• 10 litre bucket and a cup or ladle for bailing
• Long rubber gloves
• 2-litre plastic bottle with the bottom cut off with a Stanley knife
• Roll of kitchen cling film
• Wire coat hanger wrapped in a cloth and insulating tape (optional)
• Toilet auger with head and crank handle if you have one (Wolfpack, 12-20 € at Leroy Merlin)
• Concentrated washing-up liquid (half a glass)
• Hot tap water, 50-60 degrees, never boiling
• Cleaning vinegar for the limescale (optional)
• Old towels for the floor

Step by step

1. 1

   Close the cistern and bail out water

   Close the isolation valve on the cistern. If the water is at the rim, bail with the cup until the pan is half full. Put old towels around the base.

2. 2

   Soap and hot water

   Pour half a glass of washing-up liquid straight into the pan. Fill the bucket with hot tap water and pour it in from waist height, in one go, aiming at the centre of the pan. Wait 15 minutes. The soap lubricates and the hot water softens the paper.

3. 3

   Bottle as a plunger

   With gloves on, push the bottomless bottle into the pan trap, cap on, until it fits snugly. Push and pull hard 10 times: the bottle pumps water at the clog like a plunger. If the water drops suddenly, open the cistern and flush once.

4. 4

   The cling film method

   Dry the rim of the pan. Cover the whole opening with three or four layers of cling film pulled tight and stuck to the rim. Flush: the film balloons up; press down on it with both hands several times. The pressure pushes the clog through the trap.

5. 5

   Wrapped coat hanger to hook it out

   If you suspect wet wipes or an object, straighten the hanger leaving a small hook at the end, wrap it in a cloth and tape, and feed the hook into the pan trap, turning gently. Hook and pull outwards, never push inwards.

6. 6

   Toilet auger if you have one

   Feed the head into the pan trap and turn the crank clockwise, advancing a little at a time. The auger's elbow protects the porcelain. When you feel the clog, turn without pushing until it gives, then withdraw.

7. 7

   Check and clean up

   Open the cistern valve, let it fill and flush: the water should go down in 3-5 seconds with a swirl. Repeat twice. Clean the pan and the tools with bleach and water, never mixed with vinegar.

Why a toilet blocks and where the clog is

The toilet pan has a porcelain trap shaped like an inverted S, with a passage of about 50-60 mm. That is where 90 % of what should not go down gets stuck: too much paper, wet wipes (even the ones labelled flushable), sanitary pads, cotton buds, the clip-on freshener that falls in, a toy. Thick own-brand toilet roll is the number one cause in homes with a weak cistern flush.

If the clog is in the pan trap, the water rises almost to the rim when you flush and goes down very slowly or not at all. If the blockage is further along, in the pan connector or the branch to the stack, the water goes down a little but gurgles, and sometimes comes up in the shower tray or the bidet. That second case is not solved with home methods; it needs a snake or the machine and is our job.

The home remedy for a blocked toilet works in one of three ways: softening the paper (soap and hot water), pushing the clog with water pressure (bottle or cling film) or breaking it up mechanically (coat hanger). Bicarbonate of soda with vinegar helps little in a toilet: the foam does not generate enough pressure; we explain it in unblocking drains with baking soda and vinegar.

• Water at the rim and not going down: clog in the pan trap, home methods.
• Goes down slowly with gurgling: blockage in the pan connector or the branch, snake.
• Water comes up in the shower when you flush: blockage in the shared branch or the stack, machine and camera.

Mistakes when unblocking a toilet: boiling water, chemicals and the cistern

The first and most expensive: boiling water. Vitreous china cracks from thermal shock, and a new pan fitted costs 150-250 €. Hot tap water, at 50-60 degrees, is enough to soften paper and damages nothing. The second: chemical unblocker in standing water. It does not reach the clog, sits diluted in the pan, and when you go in with the bottle or the hanger it splashes caustic soda. If someone then adds bleach, you get chlorine gas. Chemicals in a toilet, never.

The third is flushing again and again to see if it goes down. Each flush is 6-9 litres that end up on the bathroom floor. Close the isolation valve on the cistern until the toilet drains. And the fourth: using a wire coat hanger without covering the tip. It scratches the porcelain in the trap and from then on everything snags on the scratch. If you use a hanger, wrap it in a cloth held on with tape.

When to call a professional

Call when the water still will not go down after the bottle and the cling film, when a solid object has fallen in (freshener, toy, bottle cap), when the toilet blocks every few weeks, or when flushing sends water up the shower or bidet. In those cases the clog is either wedged in the pan trap, where only a toilet auger with a head will shift it, or in the branch, where the machine is needed.

Unblocking a toilet costs 80-140 € including call-out, and 110-180 € if we have to go in with the snake machine through the branch or the inspection chamber. Out of hours, at night or on a public holiday, 130-220 €. If the blockage keeps coming back, a camera inspection is 60-120 €, free if you book the unblocking. Prices in how much drain unblocking costs, the service in drain unblocking. We arrive in 20-45 minutes in Valencia, Alicante, Torrevieja and Benidorm and in 30-60 in Dénia, Jávea, Calpe and Altea.

Local pages: drain unblocking in Valencia, in Alicante, in Torrevieja and in Orihuela Costa.

Coastal bathrooms: limescale, wet wipes and rental properties

The hard water in Alicante and Valencia leaves limescale in the pan trap and in the holes of the flush rim. Over the years the trap passage narrows and the flush loses force, and a toilet that used to take paper with room to spare starts blocking on the same amount. Once a month, a litre of cleaning vinegar left in the pan overnight dissolves the scale in the trap. For the rim, the same vinegar in the cistern.

In holiday apartments in Benidorm, Torrevieja or Calpe the main cause is the wet wipes and kitchen roll that guests flush. A sign in the bathroom and a bin with a lid halve the call-outs. For owners who live abroad, we hold the keys, clear the blockage and send a photo and the invoice on WhatsApp.

Related guides

If it is the basin that will not drain, follow how to unblock a bathroom basin. If flushing sends water up the shower, read how to clear a badly blocked pipe. And if the problem is that the cistern will not stop running, toilet cistern keeps running.