Are Toilet Tablets Safe for Plumbing?

Nobody, not even professional plumbers like us, likes to clean their bathroom. At face value, those often blue tablets you find at the supermarket or pharmacy offer an easy alternative. Just plop ‘em in your tank and get a fresh cleaning with every flush. However, before you introduce them to your toilet system, there are a few things to consider. Oftentimes, toilet tablets wind up doing more harm than good to your plumbing and household.

Chemicals from Toilet Tablets

With all cleaning products, you need to make sure you understand what chemicals you’re introducing to your home. The chemicals found in toilet tablets are pretty heavy-duty—some brands even advise against handling them with bare hands. Unlike other cleaning agents you might use in your bathroom, the kinds you wash away, toilet tablets are designed to stick around for a while.

Unless you constantly have a window open or your vent fan running, there’s always a chance that airborne chemicals from toilet tablets are hanging out in your bathroom. This can be harmful to your family’s health. Furthermore, if your pet is known to sneak a drink from the toilet, they could potentially become very sick.  

Toilet Tablets Can Corrode Your Plumbing

The whole point of these toilet tablets is to save time cleaning and save money on a bunch of cleaning supplies. That all sounds great in theory, but that’ll be a drop in the bucket if you wind up having to replace parts of your plumbing system.

A lot of the harsh chemicals found in toilet tablets are rather corrosive, meaning they can eat away at your plumbing. This is especially true if your pipes are already prone to corrosion through hard water or simply if they’re too old.   

Created Problems for Flushing 

As if the previous two reasons weren’t enough to dissuade you, toilet tablets may negatively affect your toilet’s ability to do it’s main job, and nobody likes a toilet that won’t flush, right? How do toilet tablets create flushing issues? The whole point of the toilet tablets is that they dissolve over time. 

The tablets get smaller and can fit where they’re not supposed to. They can sometimes find their way right into your flush valve, basically acting like a plug in a dam. This could result in a reduced amount of water making it from your tank to the toilet bowl. In other words, not everything is getting flushed, making things more unsanitary than when you started. Ironic, huh?

Turn to Terry’s for all Your Plumbing Problems

Taking simple steps to avoid plumbing problems is a great way to ensure things keep running smoothly for years to come. Sometimes the unavoidable does happen, that’s when it’s time to call on Super Terry! Contact us when you need a pro.