I used sink plungers in toilets pretty much my whole life until i scrolled across a similar diagram one day and discovered the truth.
Good post - needed it about a week ago 😂
Moved into a new place with high efficiency toilets and only had our old plunger. Spent multiple hours trying to clear it. I had no idea that these HE toilets are:
1.) More prone to clogs, need pipe maintenance
2.) Elongated and don’t work well with a normal plunger
Nearly called a plumber but on a final try picked up a BeeHive plunger at the hardware store.
Took a few attempts, but got it situated correctly and fixed the clog.
Haha dang, I’m glad you got it worked out.
Until I learned the difference, I’d slosh around in there with a normal plunger only after pouring lots of hot water in, which usually works great.
Growing up my mom didn’t understand this and always insisted that the sink plungers were the only kind that worked (she also called them toilet plungers) and that toilet plungers (the fancy kind) were some kind of trick. Took until I was in college that I learned you shouldn’t have to break a sweat unclogging your toilet.
I strongly identify with this story.
It’s important to have the right-size flange for each hole, yes.
My new toilet doesn’t fit either of the above shapes, but a “Beehive” plunger works great. The toilet also flushed really well and hasn’t gotten plugged up even once yet, but I made sure to have one that would work as soon as the toilet was ready to use.
This is true for sure. You can definitely use either in either situation if you have to.
not at all effectively.
flanged plungers typically dont fit sink drains and will deform upon compression, and sink plungers dont create enough of a vacuum seal in the toilet outtake to be of much use without a lot of unnecessary effort and mess.
True but you can make it work if you have no choice.
in situations where the clog is mild, sure.
If the clog is severe, then you’ll make little and often no headway using a flanged plunger on a sink drain or a sink plunger on a toilet, no matter how long and frantically you thrust away and splash about.
the flanged plunger isn’t rigid enough to create the necessary vacuum or pressure in a sink and the sink plunger doesn’t create a tight enough seal to create the necessary pressure in a toilet unless the clog is mild in the first place.
Does this really qualify as a diagram?
i wondered the same thing!
i checked dictionaries and i think it does as far as the flange comparison is diagrammed to illustrate the technical differences in design.
what do you suggest?
The toilets at my moms house are teeny tiny so this doesn’t matter on them
But yes… without the toilet plunger on the right: Do not even try the left one with a modern day toilet, it’s sooooo messy
This little bad boy here has changed my life.
I refuse to acknowledge someone is plunging enough to have their life changed by a plunger. Unless you’re using that thing to do whipits.
Ha ha. No no. I’m pretty good. No problems with the old downstairs plumbing. But it’s not just for toilets. It’s for bathtub sinks clogged with hair. Kitchen sinks, etc… It’s just handy to have around the house. I even used it once to blow the dust out of my dryer vent.
Haha, that commercial is very funny, but it actually works?
is it shooting compressed air?
it has a 12 shot magazine?
I don’t quite understand what it is.
It’s essentially a handheld air cannon. The kit comes with a handle and a suction that covers the toilet hole or whatever. You press down and yeah…it’s basically a air-gun shot to the clog.
And yeah. It works great. Not always on the first blast. But I’ve never had it fail me.
awesome, good to know about.
Babe quick, new toilet lore just dropped!
About 250 years old, thinking it’s new is why I wanted a YSK post.
yeah but I feel…
always had the left style ‘sink’ plungers growing up. they unclogged the shitter just fine.
Absolutely never, ever tried using a plunger on the sink. I guess our family didn’t clog the sinks so much? what’s clogging these sinks that they justify a plunger?
If you clean a fish and toss a couple scales and fish skin down the sink, it will clog.
in the states, where houses have garbage disposals, I don’t think sink clogs are much of a problem anymore.
but most countries don’t have garbage disposals, and the original plunger design was invented 250 years ago, before much of modern plumbing and pipe design and everything, so it was useful to have any kind of plunger around.
you can make those couple plungers work for the toilet in a lot of situations, but for the toilet specifically a toilet. plunger is going to make your job way easier without any mess and splashing
yeah I have a disposal that will eat bones. never clogged the sink.
Was the og design for shitters or sinks?
Never had splash issues, I generally plunge pretty cautiously.
skibidi?
I guess you get less shit smeared on the top.
Wait…that’s a flange? I always thought those were just pulled out by accident, like turned inside out. I also always just ignored it because it never hinders anything.
Think about where the splashy toilet water goes when they’re flipped up inside the plunger. They’re shipped that way to cut down on carton space though.
Yes, that makes sense. TIL.
I wonder what the history of this was, and why I never knew about this.
Was there always such a distinction? Did it apply to older toilets as well? Were all my parents, relatives, friends parents just cheap and got the wrong one?
“Was there always such a distinction?”
No, The first cup plunger was invented as the flushing mechanism in 1777, since the flushing toilet wasn’t invented until almost 1800.
that one looked pretty similar to cup plungers of today.
As far as I can find, accordion and flange plungers were developed later to accommodate the standardized outtake valves of modern toilets.
“Did it apply to older toilets as well?”
Yup, except the first cup plunger was held like a hammer rather than a plunger is held today.
“Were all my parents, relatives, friends parents just cheap and got the wrong one?”
Mine certainly were, and again, this design difference is for some reason not common knowledge, so it’s more likely they just didn’t know that the flanged plunger is specifically made for toilet drains.
I have only seen one in a commercial bathroom and I just assumed it had to do with those industrial shaped toilets they use.
I have IBS so that’s saying a lot.
Instructions unclear, plunger stuck on the ceiling, shit water all over my feet and on the walls.
No, you got it.
That all sounds correct.
plunger room of death
Until they start stiffening with age.
Usually age has the opposite effect, but I hear they make pills for that.
The epdm mine is made of is quite stiff after about 10 years of use
They’re talking more like 40 or 50 years. You’ve got plenty of time
Lkke i said mine is already stiffening after 10 years. Its almost like hard plastic now
I once lived in an apartment where the bathtub drain was pretty plugged. It would drain but every shower was done in a slowly rising puddle. I tried draino but it didn’t make a difference.
I eventually had a roommate move in and noticed right away that the tub drained better, asked him how he fixed it. He used the plunger. It blew my mind because up until that moment, I had thought a plunger was specifically for use with toilets.
Now I have a toilet plunger plus a smaller sink plunger since the size of the standard one can be awkward to use on a sink, plus the whole not wanting to use something that’s been in the toilet on things outside of the toilet.
Not that I’ve even had a plugged toilet in years, and, having a bidet, it’s even less likely going forward.
Bidet for the win.
that’s cool, I love stories with aha and oh-whaaaat moments.
i like the smaller sink plungers also,very useful little guys
