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Toilet Overflow Dam   (+8)  [vote for, against]
Dry floors!

Does your toilet routinely clog? Must you be vigilant to avoid clogs? Every have to manually disimpact your toilet to avoid a floorful?

The toilet Overflow Dam can be stored in a corner, where is looks like a tight clear plastic roll. When overflow is imminent, insert the bottom of the dam in the bowel and deploy. It will unroll - then click the clamp to form a seal between the rubber strip on the outside of the Dam and the inside of the bowel. Your toilet is now 4 feet deep! Let the water rise! Not only will this save your floor, the pressures generated by the column of water will dislodge most clogs. Then unclamp, rinse and roll!
-- bungston, Sep 18 2006

Giant clog http://redbutton.ne...nt/giant%20clog.JPG
This one is even bigger than I had hoped [xenzag, Sep 18 2006]

"insert the bottom of the dam in the bowel and deploy"

Uh...what?

Bun for the idea, and the Freudian slip.
-- Noexit, Sep 18 2006


//the bottom of the dam in the bowel and deploy.//

Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 18 2006


Consider it Bund!
-- Azazello, Sep 18 2006


I think it would only fill to the top of the tank, but I'm not sure. + though, because it's such a helpless feeling watching the water rise knowing what's about to happen, but not being able to stop it fast enough.

I think if you took the tank lid off and pushed the stopper down it would stop the overflow, but I can never remember to do this when it is happening - all I can think of is sh@#, sh@#, sh@#!.
-- Zimmy, Sep 18 2006


Remembering is not the same as being fast enough to move the spare rolls of bog paper, nearly empty bottles of toiletries, candles, air fresheners, and decorative tchotchkes in time to open the tank and close the valve in time to prevent overflow.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 18 2006


I am saddened and frightened to read of flush volumes that exceed the capacity of the bowl. How big are these cisterns?
-- Texticle, Sep 18 2006


Pretty much any American toilet more then fifteen years old will overflow its bowl on one flush. Repeated flushes into a blocked bowl will overflow any toilet.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 18 2006


//will dislodge most clogs// I doubt that ! (see link) made me laugh at image of unfurling rubber dam, which distorts with pressure, buckles and overflows in every direction releasing a tidal wave (+)
-- xenzag, Sep 18 2006


/any American toilet more then fifteen years old will overflow its bowl on one flush/

That's crazy design. Crazy design that can be rectified relatively easily.

/Repeated flushes into a blocked bowl will overflow any toilet/

That's crazier operation. What kind of maniac would attempt repeated flushes into a blocked toilet (thinking, presumably, that an overflow would not occur for some reason)?

I really don't see how any rational-thinking person would encounter toilet overflow. I'm sorry - it's a sore point with me.
-- Texticle, Sep 19 2006


//What kind of maniac would attempt repeated flushes into a blocked toilet (thinking, presumably, that an overflow would not occur for some reason)?//

Stop yelling at me! I panicked, okay? The water started to flow, the sh@# hit the fan, and I panicked. Oh, God, I panicked <sob>, I couldn't stop it, I just couldn't stop it.

I can't wash the sh@# off my hands, the sh@# just won't come off. <rocks in the corner>
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Sep 19 2006


//What kind of maniac would attempt repeated flushes into a blocked toilet (thinking, presumably, that an overflow would not occur for some reason)?//

Daddy. Daddy!!!! The toilet's flooding!
Aw shi.....
-- Zimmy, Sep 19 2006


Yup. The picture in the link. Definitely a huge clog.
-- DesertFox, Sep 19 2006


[Spoon,] next time it starts to overflow, get down on your knees, and lean forward over the bowl. You should now be able to see a metal knob attached to a metal hose which leads to the bowl. Just turn the knob all the way off (Takes two to three cranks) and the bowl will stop overflowing.

Good design meets good operation: With your knees on the floor and your face that close to the rising water, hell itself could not stop you from turning the water off in time.

As for old american toilets being bad design, I disagree. Bad design is a toilet that does not have enough force to push a standard sized coprolite down the tubes. Bad design is the new water-efficient american toilets. If you're in the US, and you happen to build a log bridge in the bowl you'll see exactly what I mean.
-- ye_river_xiv, Sep 19 2006


What [Zimmy] said.

<passes [Spoon] 1 packet man-size tissues, 1 packet wet-wipes, 1 cup hot, sweet tea, 1 comfort blanket>

<tiptoes out>
-- pertinax, Sep 19 2006


//next time it starts to overflow, get down on your knees, and lean forward over the bowl. You should now be able to see a metal knob attached to a metal hose which leads to the bowl. Just turn the knob all the way off (Takes two to three cranks) and the bowl will stop overflowing.//

Never, ever, seen one of these here in the UK.
-- webfishrune, Sep 19 2006


[ye_river_ziv] It depends on design. We replaced a twenty+ year old toilet that tended to jam on a gerbil dropping with a 5L/flush model that could handle a waterbuffalo who just raided a tacobell.

Having grandchildren, and being in the middle of a house remodel has made me a bit of a toilet expert. We wanted something that could handle a half bucket of golf balls and a couple of barbies.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 19 2006



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