I used sink plungers in toilets pretty much my whole life until i scrolled across a similar diagram one day and discovered the truth.
This is wrong. Some toilets use the normal “sink” plunger because the exit opening is too large for the “toilet” marked style. You get either or whatever fits your toilet. It’s not specifically for sink only.
Not at all.
“You get either or whatever fits your toilet. It’s not specifically for sink only.”
Incorrect.
The cup plunger is designed to fit over drains on flat surfaces, while flanged plungers are designed to fit inside the outtake valves of toilets.
“Some toilets use the normal “sink” plunger because the exit opening is too large for the “toilet” marked style”.
This is also wrong because:
- The flange is as wide as a cup plunger for sinks anyway, so a sink plunger won’t work if a toilet outtake is too wide for a toilet plunger, and
- the toilet plunger is made to fit inside the outtake of the toilet, not over the mouth of the drain like a cup plunger.
they are completely different designs and have different use-cases that you will only give you and others more trouble and mess for by not knowing and spreading misinformation.
I am not wrong. There are toilet designs where the flange style literally doesn’t cover the exit chute. I have one. I have to use a “sink” style type. The flange style is small and does not form any type of seal due to the shape and size. It’s literally impossible that it is the correct solution. Everything I said is 100% correct.
you are wrong.
“There are toilet designs where the flange style literally doesn’t cover the exit chute.”
The flange is not designed to cover the exit chute, but rather to fit inside the outtake.
This is also apparently due to your specifically atypical plunger.
“The flange style is small and does not form any type of seal due to the shape and size”
since flange and cup plungers are the same diameter, you are clearly having an anomalous problem that you should not be drawing broad conclusions from.
cup plungers and flange plungers are specifically designed to address different problems, to be used in different manners(the cup covers a uniform drain on a flat surface while the flange creates a seal within the sloped and curved toilet outtake by fitting inside the outtake) and are not interchangeable.
Your premises are flawed and your conclusions are incorrect.
Literally don’t give a shit what you say. I am not wrong. On this specific toilet, the flange style literally doesn’t seal and CANNOT perform a push / pull to unclog a drain due to the exit profile and shaping.
You are not right no matter how smart you think you are.
You are arguing that a baseball cap works equally as well as putting a sneaker on your head.
It doesn’t, because while a sneaker is designed and meant to cover your foot, a baseball cap is designed and intended to cover your head.
A sneaker makes an ineffective ballcap and a ballcap makes an ineffective shoe.
Two separate items with separate designs and use-cases.
I think you are failing to understand the design / curvature / multiple radius features of the exit point and that the flange style literally cannot form any remotely close to passable seal to do its job. Idk what to tell you but your not right no matter how you think you can phrase it.
no, i got it.
no worries.
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.
Here’s the second iteration of the OG patent.
Originally the simply device on the left was the one plunger to rule them all. It works in sinks and toilets. The flange and the concept of a toilet-specific plunger was a later concept.
Yup, started with the cup and derived into the flange.
Thanks for linking the US patent!
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?
often, the toilet plunger will look like a sink one on the shelf because they pushed the flange up inside
Most plungers are both. Pull down the cone for the commode or push it up inside for the sink.
What kind of maniac uses it in a sink after using it in a toilet?
Clean it first. Then clean the sink after using soiled plumbing tools.
Just buy a new sink after you unclogged it.
y’all motherfluffers never heard of bleach
I have to finish Attack on titan first.
I prefer not to put my hand on the business end of the doodie derby rod, thank you very much
Who uses the same plunger for the toilet and kitchen sink?
I guess the kind that actually cleans the plunger after use. When I have to use one, after use, I take it outside and hose it off with the hose pipe then soak it in a bucket of bleach water.
I just rinse off the plunger in the new toilet water. Never had an issue.
Plus you can do a double check flush to make sure it’s all clear.
The sink is one of the easiest areas of your house to clean with soap and water.
This little bad boy here has changed my life.
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.
That site has to be one of the poorest editing and proofreading jobs I’ve ever seen.
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.
Wow, jackpot upvotes!
Thanks.
I was just as excited as everyone here is when I found out what the flange is for.
Oh snip snaps cumulative upvotes jackpot!
cringe
okay…i cringed.
nope, didnt get anything out of that.
try harder, if you do it right you’ll achieve nirvana
that must be it, i achieved nirvana ages ago.
Well that’d do it, what are you doing slumming it with us normies
hanging.
being all bodhisattva and shit.
it’s a fun way to encourage development.
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?
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.
“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.
It’s important to have the right-size flange for each hole, yes.
Ok but where’s the poop knife?
Where else?
on the poop knife peg.
The ol pkp.
Which raises the question of what the difference is between the sink poop knife and the toilet poop knife?
sink poop knife
:|
:\
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, bones 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.
og was for drains in general at the time it was invented in the late 1700s, we didn’t even have flush toilets or anything more than cesspools, so there was no need to unclog blockages in household toilets.
The first one was wielded more like a hammer, so it really was just to knock shit loose from whatever hole it was in, apparently.
I definitely felt the same way about toilet plungers as you do until I used one.
until I… took the plunge?
skibidi?
Someone watches reddit stories on smosh
Sorry, not this guy. I’ve never seen smosh.
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.
Yup, that’s a flange, designed for toilet drains
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.
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
