[Greenbuilding] scale buildup in toilet prevents toilet from flushing!

[Reuben Deumling]

I learn something new every day. It never occurred to me that what my
renters were reporting as low performing toilets could be traced to scale
buildup that had completely blocked portions of the toilet's internal
plumbing. Certainly there was a visible yellowish layer below the water
line at the bottom of the bowl, but I figured that was merely staining of
the bowl but not 1/2" thick layer of very hard limestone....
I am now reading online that this is apparently quite common. Lye, caustic
soda, lemon juice and various chemical cocktails based on one or another of
these are recommended. Fine, but this house is on a septic system. How to
guard against throwing the baby out with the bathwater without uninstalling
the toilet? For that matter how to clean the pipes which I discovered were
also suffering a similar fate - at least where I could see.


I can of course instruct my renters to do a more thorough job of cleaning
the parts of the toilet they can see, but this doesn't do much for the
other areas. Are there filters that can prevent this? Other ideas?

Thanks very much.

Oh, and the water company washes its hands of this; claims they hear about
staining but not scale buildup.
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