How To Snake A Toilet

by Trevor Woods | Last Updated: January 19, 2021

Unless you enjoy playing with suction while using your toilet plunger, face it: clogged toilets are no fun. Not only does using an old-fashioned toilet plunger suck (pun intended), it’s also just plain embarrassing! Plunging away at a plugged toilet is also annoying and takes up a lot of time that you could be spending elsewhere.

Traditional toilet plungers are also potentially hazardous and can be bad for your health. What’s more, is that failure to get a toilet plunger to successfully unplug your toilet can quickly escalate into a volcanic disaster of the worst kind. This makes it even harder to clean up. Not to mention, it’s expensive to have to buy toilet cleaning products or hire a plumber to come do the job for you if that old plunger won’t budge the blockage. 

So, then you might be thinking, why not try a cheap home remedy? After all, that saves you on expenses, right? Wrong. From DIY plungers to hot water flushes to baking soda and old wives’ tales that seem like you’re conjuring mystic forces to physically force your toilet clean, troubleshooting a toilet with at-home remedies eats away at your valuable time.   

At this point, you’re probably feeling overwhelmed, annoyed, and frustrated with your toilet. We don’t blame you. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to your toilet woes! Introducing the toilet snake.

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02/17/2024 11:52 am GMT

No, it’s not a porcelain dwelling reptile. This plumbing tool makes cleaning toilets a breeze. All you need to do is learn how to work this bad boy and your toilet will be as good as new! 

Here’s a comprehensive guide on toilet snakes and how you can use them to easily unclog your toilet.

What Is A Toilet Auger?

A toilet auger, also referred to as a toilet snake, is a professional plumbing tool that is used to unclog toilets. Before you get excited about a snake that magically unblocks your toilet, we’re sorry to tell you that you won’t be putting an actual snake in your toilet. Bummer, we know. 

A toilet snake is a long, slender tool that breaks up and removes materials that are clogging your toilet. Toilet augers are extremely useful at removing stuff stuck in toilet trapways. That’s the curved channel inside the toilet base. The snake is designed to flex and infiltrate narrow pipes and curves of a toilet’s lower area. That area is beyond the reach of other, more traditional tools. 

Toilet augers are like general sewer augers but they have protected areas to prevent you from scratching your toilet bowl or having to touch the wire cable. Quality toilet augers come with a rubber elbow near the front tip and have a durable shaft that is hollow inside. Which a coiled cable moves through both of them.

The rubber elbow near the tip of the auger prevents the wire from ruining the delicate surface inside your toilet bowl. You don’t want to scratch the porcelain in your toilet bowl because these blemishes can provide porous surfaces for germs and bacteria to grow, yuk!

A standard toilet auger is about 3 feet long and has a spinning crank with a movable handle and comes with a variety of auger heads depending on the manufacturer. But the most common is the bulb head AKA Boring Gimlet. I love that word; gimlet! The bulb shape of the auger head is more forgiving in navigating its way through the toilet trap and the open coil is perfect for hooking and retrieving stuck objects from your toilet.

Using is the snake is fairly simple and only requires you to learn a few simple movements. However, it is very important to follow the steps so that you clean the pipes completely, without damaging your toilet.

How Does A Toilet Auger Work?

If you’ve ever had that sickening feeling of flushing the toilet only for water to rise upward in a circular motion, you know you’re in trouble. That exact motion means you need to use a toilet auger. This is because something is plugged deep inside your toilet, preventing any water from flowing through the pipes.

When you are in such a situation, a toilet auger can save the day! Toilet augers are uniquely designed plumbing tools that are made with a certain flex that can maneuver them through narrow pipes and tricky curves of a toilet. Most of the time, the blockage is in the toilet trap. If your auger is long enough, you can use it to clean 2 to 3 feet of clogged material! This will allow your toilet auger to break up the blockage so that it can get unclogged.

Nothing compares to that sigh of relief that comes from successfully unclogging a toilet!

How To

Now that you know what a toilet snake is, let’s get down and dirty! Well, hopefully not too dirty. Here’s the intel on how to easily clear your clogged commode using a toilet auger.

Tools And Materials Needed

Here is a list of tools and materials that you will need to use your toilet snake:

• Shop towels
• Gloves
• Safety glasses
• Toilet auger

Our Top Pick

RIDGID Toilet Auger

$159.95

Provides fast and safe clearing of toilet obstructions.

Buy Now

We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

02/17/2024 11:52 am GMT

1. Find The Main Source Of The Blockage

There are essentially two main types of toilet clogs. The most common clog is a blockage inside the toilet, preventing it from flushing. It could be a wad of toilet paper, a kid’s toy, or maybe you had a blockage in your own “pipes” that in turn backed up your toilet. Hey, it happens! 

The other kind of clog is due to an issue further down the sewer. For this type of blockage you may need to call a professional for help.

2. Remove Anything Visible That Might Be Causing The Plug

This step might sound like a nightmare, and to be honest, it is. You can make the process less disgusting by using a shop vacuum that can handle the wet mess. You’ll need extremely heavy-duty gloves. Don’t think too much about it, and just dive in, as this is an essential step that lots of tutorials skip. Remove any debris that you can spot and dump it in a disposal bucket to get rid of it later.

Next, it’s time to get steamy! Fill a bucket with steaming hot water and pour it into the drain. The hot water will help you soften and dislodge any remaining debris.

You need to use a bucket instead of flushing because flushing at this step can cause water to flood the entire bathroom and beyond. Unless you’re Noah and have an ark on hand, it’s best to avoid the biblical chocolate floodgates. With a bucket, you can control the level of water that you pour in, preventing spills.

3. Use Dishwashing Soap

Dishwashing soap is a great way to dislodge a clog in your toilet. It also smells nice, which can help get rid of any foul smells while you’re performing this admittedly disgusting job. Using a few drops of washing liquid with a bucket full of hot water should suffice. Just make sure the water is hot but not boiling. Hot water will melt grease, whereas boiling water could crack the toilet bowl.

At this point, if your toilet isn’t unplugged, you can try using a plunger. Simply plunge the blockage down the pipes so that it will unclog the mess in your toilet. While using a plunger, you cannot retrieve the material that is causing an issue, but we’re fairly confident that you won’t want it back anyway, considering that it’s covered in toilet waste.

Toilet plungers work like traditional plungers, but they come with an additional suction flange at the front. The flange is like a cup that grips the toilet better and adjusts inside the curvature of the bowl. This gives much better results than ordinary plungers. Keep in mind that you don’t want to force a toilet plunger to budge the clog, as plungers can make things worse if they don’t work quickly. If you find your toilet is still plugged, then it’s time to move onto the next step.

4. Time To Bring In The Toilet Auger

Grab your toilet auger and retract the cable inside the auger handle. Then you place the auger into the toilet bowl being careful not to scratch the porcelain with the tip of the auger bulb. You will want to aim the rubber elbow close to the outlet of the toilet bowl.

5. Release The Flexible Cable

Gently turn the auger’s handle clockwise and feed the cable into the u-curve or s-curve of the toilet. Be very gentle and methodical so that you don’t bind the cable or end up getting splashed in the process, gross! Keep on turning the handle until the full length of the cable is pushed down the toilet. 

Crank The Handle Clockwise

When using a toilet auger to retrieve a flushed item, turn the handle in a clockwise direction. This will help the auger’s tip to corkscrew into the object so it can be pulled out backwards.

The cable might get stuck against the blockage while you are turning the auger handle. If this happens, you might be tempted to apply pressure at this point. Don’t! This will only end with the auger tip pushing past the blockage or having the cable flip and double back out the bowl again, whoops! Instead, maintain firm pressure with the toilet auger and alternate the direction you are spinning the auger’s handle.

Slow and steady wins this race, and avoids splashing in your face. Plumbing poetry!

6. Wiggle The Cable

Once you are completely sure that the flexible cable has gone all the way in, you can now work the cable back and forth a couple of times to clear the area. For stubborn clogs, you may have to repeat this augering process a few times to bust up that blockage. This is when you might have to flex your plumbing muscles!

Turning the handle counter-clockwise you retract the cable and begin augering again. Continue augering until you feel little or no resistance and the water level in the bowl drops. Congratulations, that clog is history!

7. Now Flush The Toilet

The really gross part is over with, and now it’s time to test out your toilet. With the toilet auger cable in the toilet, give your toilet a flush. This will clean off the auger cable and move the blockage down the drain. Try flushing out the toilet a few times to see if it flushes properly. If it does, then you’re good to go! If it doesn’t, however, then you might need to do this a few times before your issue is completely resolved.

Now it’s time to carefully retract the auger cable and remove it from the toilet bowl. Keep rubber gloves and a bucket handy, you may be surprised what you find stuck to the end of your toilet auger‘s tip! That’s one of the main benefits of using a toilet auger to tug out a blockage and see the culprit of the clog.

8. Carefully Inspect The Toilet

Now that you have cleaned out your toilet, it might be beneficial for you to check what caused the issue in the first place, especially if you don’t know what caused the clog. This helps ensure there’s no permanent damage inside your toilet bowl.

9. Clean Your Auger

Don’t put your toilet auger away just yet! You’ll want to properly clean and store your tool to prevent it from turning into a rusty petri dish.

How To Clean Your Toilet Auger

At a minimum, you should clean off the auger tip of any stuck-on debris and rinse the toilet snake off before letting it dry completely. Don’t spray your toilet auger off in the shower, gross! Use the garden hose outside whenever possible. I like to take my drain cleaning equipment to a local carwash if my sewer cables need a deep clean.

A soldering torch makes quick work to burn-off paper and hygiene products that were stubbornly stuck to the tip of your auger. I wouldn’t recommend doing this inside because of the smoke and smell of burning used TP, pe-wee!

The proper way to clean your toilet auger is to soak the tool in a bucket full of detergent and a disinfectant like bleach. You can also pour in hot water and vinegar if you prefer a more natural disinfecting method. Just let your snake soak in this solution for 4 or 5 minutes. Any longer and you might run into rusting issues. 

Use an old toothbrush or a toilet brush to gently clean the surface of the steel cable to help remove any stuck-on debris. Once your toilet auger is squeaky clean, rinse it with some clean water. 

Finish drying off your toilet auger with a newspaper, shop towel, or an old bath towel you’re will to throw away. Paper towels will work in a pinch but I have found they tear too easily when wet and rubbed against the metal cable. 

Lastly, you will want to add a little bit of oil to the toilet auger cable. This will prevent rusting and extend the life of the cable itself. A little motor oil on a rag or a light spray of WD-40 will work just fine. But my favorite is specially formulated Snakeoil, lemon-scented!

Snake Oil

Maintain your auger cables with this lemon-scented rust inhibitor.

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Now your toilet auger has been pampered and ready to be put away until the next time it has to save the day!

How To Prevent Future Clogs?

Now that you’ve tackled that nasty beast of a clog, you certainly don’t want to have to do it again any time soon! Here are a few things you can do to avoid future clogs in your toilet:

• Don’t go overboard with the toilet paper. If you do happen to use too much, throw some of it in the trash can or flush halfway through your toilet usage.
• Don’t flush random objects in your toilet. Though it may be fun to watch them swirl around, that fun will quickly pass once you have to shove a toilet snake down there to retrieve them.
• Don’t use the toilet as a garbage can. Hopefully, we don’t actually have to tell you this!
• Talk to your kids about not throwing away things in the washroom.
• Avoid too much grease in your drains.
• Keep the lid closed at all times.

Conclusion

A backed-up toilet is NEVER fun. And trying to bust up that blockage with a traditional plunger can be a backbreaking chore. Now you have the know-how to use a toilet auger to save yourself time and money by not having to call a plumber for help.

Conquer that clogged commode with your new favorite toilet tool!

Happy Plumbing!

Trevor Woods is the founder of Plumb University® and he started in the plumbing and construction industry in 1997. Since then, his mission is to make plumbing repair and maintenance easy for everyone. And each year, he continues to help more people with their plumbing installation, care, and troubleshooting.