You may have seen chlorine tablets advertised as effective methods for cleaning a toilet tank. However, after doing some research you’re still not sure whether chlorine tablets are safe for toilet tanks.
The short answer is no. Chlorine, while good for your swimming pool, is not good for your toilet. If you’re experiencing issues with your toilet or plumbing, and you think chlorine tablets may be to blame, give Plumbing by Jake a call at (928) 377-5910. We have dealt with chlorine tablet-related issues before, so we are confident we can assist you with whatever you need.
If It Sits, It’s No Good
A rule of thumb when it comes to toilet bowl cleaners is that, if it’s purpose is to sit around in your toilet tank for two weeks or 30 days – whatever is on the label – then it is no good for your toilet. This is true for both chlorine tablets and those drop-in blue tablets that you leave in the toilet tank for a month at a time.
The longer chemicals sit around in your toilet tank, the more time they have to rot your toilet’s parts and release chemicals into the air that you and your family will be breathing in.
Here at Plumbing by Jake, all too often we see on service calls that our customers’ toilet parts have worn out long before they were supposed to. This is because the chemicals in these cleaning agents eat away at the thinner materials of your toilet, like liners and washers. This leads to breakdowns which could, at worst, cause the need for you to replace the entire guts of your toilet.
Voided Warranties
If you look closely at the label on your toilet, there may be a warning from the manufacturer on it. Typically, this warning will say something along the lines that you will void your warranty if you use a drop-in toilet bowl cleaner in your toilet. This is because they know these products cause parts to break down before their time, and they are warning you that they will not replace products that wear out prematurely due to long-term exposure to chemicals.
Blocked Pipes
If you use a drop-in, caustic agent to clean your toilet, your toilet may not be the only part of your plumbing that suffers. Slivers of these tablets can also break off and lodge in your pipes, causing your toilet to flush ineffectively, or not at all.
The first sign of a clog is that the water that is pouring back into the toilet when you flush will slow down, sometimes to just a trickle. That’s when you know you need to call a professional for help.
Of course, these slivers will disintegrate over time if you don’t seek help, but not without causing you flushing troubles in the meantime. And flushing trouble can also lead to an increase in the amount of water you use, as well as the wear-and-tear your toilet ultimately suffers from with all those extra flushes.
Flushable Wipes
And while we’re on the topic of blocked pipes, stay away from those “flushable” baby wipes, too. Sure, the label may say they’re “flushable,” but we can’t tell you how many times a service call ends in us snaking up a pile of the revolting wipe sludge that ends up lodged in customers’ pipes!
The problem is that these wipes don’t break down as fast in a pipe as they do in a controlled experiment. So, while they may finally disintegrate after around 35 revolutions in a viciously rotating machine, no one’s pipes do that, and so they remain for months on end, gradually growing into a larger clog of gunk.
Have Chlorine Tablets Destroyed Your Toilet? Plumbing by Jake Can Help!
If you’ve used chlorine tablets, and now your toilet isn’t working as well as it once used to, don’t worry. Our experienced team at Plumbing by Jake has seen this happen many times, and we know exactly what to do to get you back up and running again in no time.
Give us a call at (928) 377-5910 anytime, no matter whether your issue is big or small. When it comes to plumbing, even small problems can turn into disasters very quickly, so you don’t want to wait when you discover a problem.
If, however, you feel the issue can wait until the morning, you can send us your information via the contact form on our website, and we will reach out to you during normal business hours to schedule a service call.
We offer all our customers a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee on all our repairs and service. We are punctual and professional – we give you a window, and we stick to it.
We serve several counties throughout Arizona so, if you’re in the area and experiencing a plumbing emergency, don’t hesitate to call us right now!
