Why is my toilet flushing slow or constantly clogging?

This type of repair is NOT your common toilet clog. This repair is not because your kid put something in the toilet that was not supposed to be in there or somebody tried to flush too much down at once.

Once again, this type of repair is far more common than it should be. However, this problem has nothing to do with the age of the toilet, the wear of the parts, or the know-how, knowledge, or skill level of the person installing it. It has everything to do with poor-quality materials. More specifically, it has to do with poor-quality toilets—even more specifically, builder-grade toilets.

You might have a builder-grade toilet or a less expensive off-brand toilet from a big box home improvement store if it:

• Has a weak flush
• Water swirls and takes a long time to fully flush the toilet
• You can’t make the water stop running after a flush
• Clogs often
• Requires multiple flushes on a regular basis

We see this a lot when a seller is trying to sell their home and put as little money as possible into it to make it more appealing. When the realtor says, “Look, all new toilets throughout!” it’s most likely code for “We spent as little money as possible and watched a YouTube video.”

Builder toilets purchased from a plumbing wholesaler cost the new construction plumber about $65 each. A low-end toilet at the home improvement store is about $100. Other than the minimal price difference (margin that each seller makes), there is very little quality difference between the two sellers’ toilets, regardless of brand.

Both are inferior quality with minimal engineering and testing standards behind them. The toilet manufacturer has a very low bar to hit to pass the minimal standards test, which is fairly easy to achieve. That is—until that toilet gets to the real world of everyday, normal use!