Mark Shannon

Plumbing Problem

I have a question about plumbing: What would happen if one were to flush each and every toilet in his/her house simultaneously?

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Kirk Gunn

"The flush heard 'round the world".... Coming Sunday, Feb 1 ! Go Pats !

How many toilets do you have ? Are they low-capacity or the older units ? Are you on septic ? Well water ?

We've flushed all 3 of ours simultaneously with no issue.

imported_BrianW

In a house, probably nothing.

But in a larger facility, like an apartment building, then the main DWV pipe that services those toilets might be insufficient to carry the sudden flood of water. The toilets would overvlow, beginning with the ones on the first floor. From there, everything is a matter of degree. How many toilets overflow on how many floors depends on the number of toilets in the building and on the number and capacity of the building's DWV pipes.

That's about it. Sorry, no explosions, or anything like that.

Joseph DeMartino

The water would run out of all of them. And you'd probably get your ass kicked by anyone who happened to be taking a hot shower at the time. Beyond that, nothing. As noted above, there isn't enough water involved in a house or a single apartment for anything drastic to happen.

Regards,

Joe

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larry mac

The water pressure will decrease for a moment. If anything else happens, you have plumbing problems.

When considering a home purchase, I would turn every sink, bathtub, dishwasher, hot and cold faucet on and then flush every toilet. If anything backs up, you have a restricted sewer drain.

Sometimes, a new homeowner will not see a problem until by coincidence they are using several water sources at the same time and then have the washer dump its water. This might not occur for months.

andrew markworthy

When I was a postgraduate student, I lived for one year in a 15-storey hell-hole hall of residence. One of the great annual treats was to flush every toilet in the place at exactly the same moment. Yes, you do get water rushing back up. One year, it was related, the not exactly respected warden of the place was sitting on the toilet at the time. This seems plausible, given a couple of oblique references I heard the warden make. It was also rumoured that the blow back one year was sufficient for a drain cover in the street outside to be blown off, but I can't vouchsafe for that.

Mark Shannon

Ok, thanks. I was just curious.

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Cary_H

I concur with the other posters. If your plumbing was built to code and is functioning properly, it ought to be just fine.