Can Condoms Clog Toilets? (Find Out Now!)
Condoms are necessary to protect yourself from many different types of diseases and infections when you are actively seeing someone intimately, especially if you have more than one partner. But, they can be gross to dispose of, and you may not want them in your garbage. Therefore, many people decide it’s best to flush them, but is that a good idea?
Condoms can and will clog your toilet if you flush them. Condoms do not break down as they are made of rubber, so if they catch in your system they will back up your drain system until they’re removed. It’s best to throw them in the trash to avoid any of these issues.
Not only is it bad for your plumbing when you flush condoms, but it’s also bad for the environment. In this article, we will talk about what happens if you decide to flush condoms down your toilet. Furthermore, we’ll let you know the proper way to dispose of them so that you can keep your drain system clear and the environment clean.
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Can You Flush Condoms Down The Toilet?
You can do anything that you want to, but it doesn’t mean that decision doesn’t have consequences. So, no, you should not flush condoms down the toilet. The condom will cause a slew of issues such as clogging up the system, which will eventually need to be professionally removed. You can save yourself thousands of dollars by throwing the condom away correctly instead of flushing it.
Can I Flush A Condom Down A Hotel Toilet?
You may think that it’s okay to flush a condom down the toilet at a hotel since it’s not your house, and maybe you believe that they have larger pipes, but that’s not true. The lines for an industrial plumbing system are not much larger than the ones you have at home. Not to mention, if they’re able to locate the condom and it’s traced back to you in any way, you may be reliable to pay for the damages.
Flushing Condoms Affects More Than Just Your Plumbing
Flushed Condoms Threaten Wildlife
Someone May Eventually Find It
Let’s assume that it doesn’t make it into the middle of an ocean and washes up on the beach, or maybe someone at the treatment plant did fine it. Regardless, someone may eventually run across it and have to dispose of it for you. Imagine having to dispose of someone else’s used condom; It’s gross! Or, even worse, a child may run across it and play with it. Many different scenarios could happen when you flush your condom, and none of them have a good ending.
How Do You Dispose Of A Condom Properly?
It takes more effort to dispose of a condom in the toilet rather than getting rid of it the right way. All you have to do is wrap the condom in some tissue paper and toss it in the garbage. If you don’t have extra toilet paper, you can use a newspaper or a paper bag and throw it out that way. It’s so much easier to toss it than it is to flush it, and it poses no threat or harm to the environment, animals, children, or any other creature that may stumble across it.
If you want to make sure that the condom truly doesn’t land anywhere it’s not supposed to, you could always toss it in an incinerator. The incineration process will burn the condom, and the incinerator has a filter that helps remove any toxic gases emitted from the unit. However, you may want to collect several, along with some other items to burn, instead of running it to a processing facility, one condom at a time.
What To Do If A Condom Clogs Your Toilet
Now, if your toilet is clogged because you flushed your condom before you read this article, don’t worry, as there are some things you can do to unclog it. Below, we’ve included a few techniques you can use to dislodge or break down the condom that’s clogging your pipes.
Try A Plunger
You’ll want to ensure you have a high-grade plunger to try this technique. To tell whether it’s higher grade, the plunger should have a very thick rubber cap at the end of it. If the rubber is thin, the suction isn’t sufficient to either pull the condom out or push it through the piping.
- Place the plunger. Ensure the entire hole is covered by the rubber end of the plunger, and then start pushing and pulling the plunger to get the water moving.
- Listen for suction. You should hear the suction going through the pipes. If you don’t hear the suction, then you’re not placing the cap right.
- Continue 10 to 15 times. You may need to do 10 to 15 rounds before that toilet is clear. To check, flush once in a while to see if the water builds or if it will finally go down through the drain.
Use A Drain Cleaner
If you want to try using this method, then you will need to make sure you have a half-gallon of water on hand, along with baking soda and either apple cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar. Either type of vinegar would work fine.
- Boil some water. Put your half-gallon of water into a pot and get it to a rolling boil. The rolling boil should be constant before moving onto the next step.
- Mix the vinegar and baking soda into the water. After the water is boiling, pour some vinegar and baking soda into the boiling water. This should be about 3 cups of vinegar and four tablespoons of baking soda.
- Pour the cleaner into the toilet. After everything is mixed together, pour the boiling water into your toilet. It’s vital that you don’t flush at this stage, as it needs to sit overnight.
- Flush the toilet. When you wake up in the morning, flush the toilet and use it as usual. The vinegar and baking soda should have flushed the condom through the system with no problem.
Get A Plumbing Snake
If the above techniques didn’t work, you can rent a plumbing snake from a store and snake your drains. To do that, you need a plumbing snake. You can also get one with a camera so you can see what you’re doing in the process.
- Insert the snake. The first thing you’ll need to do for this method is inserting the snake into the drain. You will want to make sure it’s fully inserted before moving on.
- Move the wire around. Move the wire in and out, and also up and down to get a feel for any additional clogs that may be there with the condom. Eventually, you’ll push the condom through to move it out of the way.
- Repeat. You will need to continue this movement for about 20 minutes before stopping to ensure you’ve caught the condom and that your drain is now free.
- Flush your toilet. If you think you got the condom, try flushing your toilet. If the toilet flushes, then you have gotten the condom out of the way. If not, you will need to insert the snake again.
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Wrapping It Up
Condoms are a wonderful invention; however, they’re a pretty big problem when caught in the plumbing due to flushing. It’s never a good idea to flush a condom, as they can get caught in the drainpipe, as well as the airways of wild animals. All you have to do is wrap it in tissue, a paper bag, or some newspaper and throw it in the trash.
Heather is a passionate writer who loves anything DIY. Growing up, she learned everything from home repairs to design, and wants to share her tips with you. When she's not writing, she's usually hiking or searching for her next DIY project.
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