I used sink plungers in toilets pretty much my whole life until i scrolled across a similar diagram one day and discovered the truth.
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!
It’s important to have the right-size flange for each hole, yes.
Most plungers are both. Pull down the cone for the commode or push it up inside for the sink.
Who uses the same plunger for the toilet and kitchen sink?
The sink is one of the easiest areas of your house to clean with soap and water.
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.
I prefer not to put my hand on the business end of the doodie derby rod, thank you very much
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.
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
:|
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I once lived in an apartment where the bathtub drain was pretty plugged. It would drain but every shower was done in a slowly rising puddle. I tried draino but it didn’t make a difference.
I eventually had a roommate move in and noticed right away that the tub drained better, asked him how he fixed it. He used the plunger. It blew my mind because up until that moment, I had thought a plunger was specifically for use with toilets.
Now I have a toilet plunger plus a smaller sink plunger since the size of the standard one can be awkward to use on a sink, plus the whole not wanting to use something that’s been in the toilet on things outside of the toilet.
Not that I’ve even had a plugged toilet in years, and, having a bidet, it’s even less likely going forward.
Bidet for the win.
that’s cool, I love stories with aha and oh-whaaaat moments.
i like the smaller sink plungers also,very useful little guys
Until they start stiffening with age.
Usually age has the opposite effect, but I hear they make pills for that.
The epdm mine is made of is quite stiff after about 10 years of use
They’re talking more like 40 or 50 years. You’ve got plenty of time
Lkke i said mine is already stiffening after 10 years. Its almost like hard plastic now
/Arteries have entered the chat
Am I the only one who’s never used a plunger (and never needed to)?
Eat more fiber.
Are you American though? Here in the UK, nobody really owns a plunger and they don’t need to, the plumbing is different, it doesn’t clog. Do need to own a toilet brush though, to wipe off the skidmarks, which is more rare in the US.
I am not, so I guess that explains it. Thanks!
It’s not just the UK that nobody needs a plunger, it’s every modern country except the US. Their plumbing is a century out of date and they eat ultra-processed junk
A recipe for dis-ass-ter
Plungers are extremely common in germany. To be precise i can’t remember ever being in a bathroom without one.
Yeah that’s why I specified modern countries, Klaus 😂
It’s kinda weird that the country where everything is MOOOAR they don’t have gigantic shit pipes
Of course you are. Every other human on the planet is issued a plunger at birth. What’s wrong with you?
You elfin anomaly.
Some us don’t poop in the woods every day.
Nope, same and never heard others talking about it in real life. I’m guessing there is some design issues in the American toilets that is not a problem in Europe. Or it’s the large portions of low quality food?
American plumbing is shit (pun intended) compared to Europe’s. Source: I lived in Germany for 10 years and never once needed a plunger, while I’ve needed them regularly in the US.
Even with the weird “shit shelf” toilets?
Yup, and I had shit shelf toilets pretty much the whole time since it was the 80s and 90s. They probably would have been harder to plunge, so good thing they never needed it!
The comments do seem to hint at this being a big problem in the US.
Indeed, it was very noticeable to me when I moved back here and had to actually consider how much toilet paper there was before flushing. German toilets took whatever I put in there!
I think it has to do with the fact that most European toilets put the reservoir up high either on or in the wall, and gravity helps blast the dook down the drain. I have one of those up high ones with the chain flush in my house (US), and that toilet never clogs.
Maybe, but none of the ones I used were chain flushers.
Australia- never needed a plunger and unless your house is 70+ years old, the cistern and pan are always close coupled.
That said, for a Toilet the sewer connection is 100mm DWV and we use washdown toilets (as most of the world does) vs. American siphon toilets, which use an absolutely massive amount of water and a tiny little trapway to create a siphon that sucks the waste down - that tiny little trap is what gets clogged.
I think Americans would probably sooner move the Metric system than change to a better pan design.
Babe quick, new toilet lore just dropped!
skibidi?
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?
I’ve used both and there’s not really an appreciable difference in my experience.
Hm, doubt it.
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.
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.
Yup, that’s a flange, designed for toilet drains
This is true for sure. You can definitely use either in either situation if you have to.
not at all effectively.
flanged plungers typically dont fit sink drains and will deform upon compression, and sink plungers dont create enough of a vacuum seal in the toilet outtake to be of much use without a lot of unnecessary effort and mess.
True but you can make it work if you have no choice.
in situations where the clog is mild, sure.
If the clog is severe, then you’ll make little and often no headway using a flanged plunger on a sink drain or a sink plunger on a toilet, no matter how long and frantically you thrust away and splash about.
the flanged plunger isn’t rigid enough to create the necessary vacuum or pressure in a sink and the sink plunger doesn’t create a tight enough seal to create the necessary pressure in a toilet unless the clog is mild in the first place.
I guess you get less shit smeared on the top.
I use a bidet and that cuts down on TP usage, but sometimes you get a big ol’ honker of a log ploppin’ out and that sucker just says, “Not today.” That’s when the trusty turd wrangler is your best friend.
One time I was at my mother-in-laws and clogged that some bitch. I couldn’t find a plunger. Turns out my sister-in-law took it when she went away to college, because she was too scared to buy one. I tried to text my wife, but I had no service. So I left it there and went and told my wife. My mother-in-law took a golf cart to the neighbor’s house and explained the situation and they let her borrow theirs. Meanwhile, I’m fucking mortified that the neighbors now think I have fiber intake issues.
Always keep a plunger in a bathroom with a toilet.
Thanks for this story. I read it while taking a shit
Hey I have this very specific problem whenever I use this thin-USE BIDETS, USE BIDETS OR YOU WILL REGRET IT FOREVER, IT USES LESS TOILET PAPER AND WHY AREN’T YOU USING THEM YET THEY’RE PERFECT AND GREAT AND…
How you sound right now.
Say that to my face. I fuggin’ dare you, dude.
Doesn’t surprise me that I’m talking to a literal mongoloid Neanderthal whose two neurons only have one function and that’s to bash against each other.
That’s what the poop knife is for.
I try to get out… BUT THEY KEEP PULLING ME BACK IN!
This guy poop knifes
Bidet is the way.
There’s a lot of intriguing family history in your story. SIL scared to buy a plunger. MIL took a golf cart. Interesting group.
Bro, that ain’t the half of it. My father-in-law built an entire western town in his backyard and when he was done he built a Jurassic Park with dinosaurs essentially made of trash. Here is a shitty picture of the saloon with a bar in it. I’ll see if I can find some of the dinosaur pics too.
Yes PLEASE!
Sounds like you married right.
The signs and storefronts are amazing.
I see the inside of the saloon, is the general store a whole room are just the storefront?
that is amazing, give him my maddest of props.
Here’s a video of Western World. https://youtu.be/ug2U5PUSwA4
Here’s another one of his annual go cart track. https://youtu.be/E5ljFgmQ0MQ
I’ll have to find the Jurassic Park videos.
his annual go-kart track…I knew I wanted land when I eventually buy a house, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted it for.
now I have a lot of valuable inspiration.
please pass on my sincere congratulations and respect, Western World and the go-karts are awesome.
And yes, I’m ready to see the trash dinosaurs.
Yeah just casually dropping in there that his dad sets up a go-cart track for the family get-together in the garden, sure.
I’m bored as shit at work.
Im appreciative he did, i need to know eccentric wackadoos that build scrap dinos and saloons are around.
I found them. There was a zip line through this area too.
Oh man!
I didn’t realize they were fully fleshed out dinosaurs!
they look great!
I actually saw some scrap dinosaurs in Arizona, but they’re still metal and skeleton, no skin or color on them.
wow and the skin is even pebbled. that is so cool.
thank you for getting back to me and sharing those pictures. wow! those are huge dinos too
Damn that’s some impressive stuff! :o
I love this so fucking much. Eccentric people are the best.
Also somebody please invite this old dude to play D&D
He would very much rather smoke cigarettes and drink Bud Light in the yard.
He can do all that but not have a toilet that gets clogged so frequently his daughter is stealing plungers out of anxiety?
I’m not even joking, they got divorced last week.
damn that’s cool
I’d love to read more of these stories, if you have time to share them. Maybe !casualconversation@lemm.ee?
Ok, I’ll join.
Proclaim the Gospel of W. C. Jesus!
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.
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