What could cause the water in a toilet to swirl but never go down when it is flushed?

Answer 1

Water in toilet won't go downSounds like it's clogged up. The water enters the toilet bowl on an angle, so it will always swirl because of that angle, but if it's not going down, there is a clog. If the water is rising in the bowl when flushed, the clog is worse. If the water goes down over a longer period of time the clog is less or "partial". Try using a plunger to push the obstruction down through the toilet. Sometimes an item (toothbrush, hairbrush, comb, etc.) lodged in the toilet "S" drain area will cause a partial clog. The water will go down slowly and a plunger won't seem to do the trick. In this case you may need to pull the obstruction back out into the bowl area of the toilet. You might be able to do this with a coat hanger that has the end bent into a hook shape. The worst case senario is when you have to remove the toilet from the floor, take it out in the back yard, and push the obstruction backwards from the bottom. For this a garden hose or a Plumbing snake might be the tool of choice.

ANS 2 - Spring wound toilet cleaners may be necessary to remove a very stubborn obstruction in the bowl 'S' . I've seldom found coat hanger or similar wire to work as it will not bend around the 'S' . - Things as small as 'Q -tips' can be almost immovable without a very flexible spring wound cleaner. Things like that cause the paper to wad up firmly around them.