Until an emergency occurs, a functioning toilet is something we take for granted. When the water of your home is turned off because of some problem in the plumbing system or municipal supply has been blocked temporarily.
In order to resolve the plumbing issue, it can be an embarrassing situation for the person who uses the toilet without having any idea there is no running water available at that specific time.
As running water is always so readily available, it is easy to forget that sometimes this might happen when there is no accessibility of water on a temporary basis.
Like, due to some natural water, you might not have access to running water and sometimes the water supply is shut off because of plumbing remodeling or repairing.
Lack of running water will hinder you from performing daily routine activities, the positive point is with some workaround, and still, you can use and flush your toilet.
In this article, we will discuss how to flush toilet when water is off.
Let’s start…
What happens if you flush the toilet when the water is off?
For at least one more flush the toilet should be full in spite of having no running water. The reason is the tank fills again after flushing till it is used again.
You will have to add more water to the bowl, however, if someone has already used the final flush.
All that is needed is access to water to refill the tank- not running water or even pressure. When you pull the handle, you see, the materials present inside the bowl of a toilet got emptied by the tanks, flushing and draining anything down.
Toilet Troubles
A toilet that has a problem of flushing is trouble similar to a flood, however, it can be an embarrassing situation for the person without awareness to use the commode without realization that the supply of water is turned off.
Luckily, even when there is no water supply into the home, still there are ways to discard the contents of the toilet. Either you cut off the water supply because of maintenance and repair, or the municipal supply has been discontinued because of mainline breakage or other problem, always there is a low-tech way out.
Make sure, the tank of the toilet refills after flushing and remains that way till used again. This means the water tank should be full in an emergency situation. However, all is not lost, if someone accidentally uses up water after your final flush.
2 ways to flush a toilet when water is off
How to flush a toilet without running water
In real, can you flush a toilet without water? Surely you can. When the supply of water is off or if the tour toilet tank can’t fill up with water, there is a solution.
To flush with no water, fill water in a bucket and dump it inside the bowl, commence slowly and then all simultaneously. Fill the toilet tank with water alternatively, and flush normally.
Let us first look to understand how to flush a toilet and how a toilet tank works and how water influences the process of flushing.
How a toilet tank works
To flush a toilet, a large amount of water must be get rid of in the toilet bowl instantly. This is what activates the siphoning action, whereby the content of the toilet boil is blocked into the drainage pipe.
To flush a toilet without running water, you must search for a way to discard about a gallon of water or more inside the toilet bowl. This way, you will pass a toilet tank.
How a tank less toilet works
The tank has no toilet tank. So what is the working mechanism? Water is delivered at very high pressure into the bowl of a toilet which is enough to start the action of siphoning.
This is the reason why there are no water tanks in public toilets. The toilets are successful as you don’t have to wait for refilling a toilet before again using it.
1. How to flush a toilet without water using a bucket
Entirely, it is impossible to flush a toilet with no water and this is why it is known as flush toilets. Flushing without water means flushing with no running water in your home/ toilet and there is a need for improvisation.
Below is the process of flushing a toilet with no water.
- Fill the bucket with 2-5 gallon water.
- Hold the bucket properly by placing one hand on the handle and the other at the bottom.
- Start pouring water in the bowl slowly at the start and then dump it all in one go.
- The face must be away from the toilet bowl as some water might splash out on your face.
- Make sure to pour the water fast as it will start the process of flushing. If you are slow, the toilet will not flush.
2. How to flush a toilet without water by manually filling the tank
Modern tanks use a very little amount of water (0.8-1.6 gallons per flush) and result in a powerful flush. Fill the tank with water and flush as you normally would do is the best way to flush a toilet without water.
- Remove the lid of the tank and store it in a safe place.
- Fill water in the tank up to only half an inch underneath the overflow tube.
- Out the lid of the toilet tank back on and flush with the flush button or flush lever.
- This method consumes very little amount of water and there is no need to think about the splashing of waste on your face.
How to flush a toilet without a handle
Definitely, it is possible to flush without the need of a handle, not that few toilets are made with no handles, however, they just break sometimes.
Sometimes the handle gets stuck in the case of dual flush toilets which make them unusable.
- Remove the lid and store it in a safe place.
- Look for the lift chain that joins the toilet flapper and the toilet handle arm, inside the tank. By lifting the chain up, which will lift the flapper off the flush valve in turn. Water will flow to the bowl from the tank and hence flush.
- In the dual system, there are two buttons at the tank’s top mostly a blue and white one. Push any to flush.
- After flushing, put the tank lid back.
Conclusion
If you have basic knowledge of plumbing and adequate tools, you can resolve most of the issues by yourself. In other situations, you will need professional assistance.
