Child Flushed a Cup Down the Toilet
The following is an actual support question sent in by one of our readers....
Jeff asked: My 9 year-old flushed the toilet and did not realize that my baby son had thrown an 8 oz. clear plastic cup in the bowl. I have an AS efficient Flowise toilet. The cup must be stuck but I was told to use a crystal "draino" product as opposed to trying to crack the plastic cup into pieces as they might get caught in the piping and not the toilet. Any helpful ideas other than taking the toilet off and flushing with water hose?
Our team responded: Unfortunately a cup can be quite tricky to remove from the drain, of course depending on how far into the drain it went when flushed. I would recommend avoiding any chemicals in this situation as the chances of them working would be very slim and may cause more harm than good.
If possible, you may want to try a pair of long neck, needle nose pliers available at most major hardware stores. These often give you a much better reach into the drain allowing you to grab a hold of the cup and extract it. Alternatively, a wire coat hanger may work just as well if you straighten it out and are able to hook the cup to pull it out. Both of these options depend entirely on how deep the cup is of course.
Aside from these, you may be left with little alternative than to remove the toilet and flush it with a hose or run an auger through. I do agree that breaking the cup up may cause a much bigger problem and would not be an advised course of action.
Jeff replied: Thank you for the speedy response. You have confirmed what I thought. The new efficient toilets have a square opening in the bowl presenting challenges. Will try needle nose pliers as I have thought of but I think I may just have to take it off 
FEATURED REPAIR GUIDES
- How to Unclog a Clogged Toilet
- How to Replace Your Toilet
- How to Fix a Leaking Toilet
- How to Use a Toilet Auger
- Unclog Toilet Using Household Items
PARTS AND SUPPLIES
TOILET REPAIR HIGHLIGHTS
You may enjoy these random highlights from advice and information found right here on the My Clogged Toilet website.
There are certain things that can go wrong with a toilet that can cost a lot of money to fix, but some of these mishaps can be avoided.
You will want to use a plumber’s drain snake that you can use to reach the problem that is causing your toilet to be backed up.
This should solve your problem and save you a lot of money on toilet repair.
If you have water coming from a crack in the tank you may have to replace your entire toilet.