How to reverse flush a toilet to retrieve keys?

Sorry to hear about your grief with the keys.

Reversing water flow in a toilet is just not done. No, there’s no use contemplating that option.

Rather, you need some more realistic alternatives. Here are my suggestions (in order of simplicity):

1) Get over your pee-pee aversion. Piss is non-toxic. Some otherwise normal people actually ingest it as part of a paraphilia called WS (water sports). So, reaching into DILUTED pee water is not going to hurt you. It will simply be initially disgusting. Reach in as far as you can. Feel around. Pull out the keys, if you can. Wash up afterwards.

2) Make yourself a “fishing” device out of a wire coat hanger. Bend it up so one end has a hook and the other a handle that allows you to control the hook and twist it, as necessary. Then, go slowly. You don’t want to push the keys farther down the drain. Rather, you want to probe, bit by bit, until you feel (and/or hear) the keys. Next, you want to hook them, or pull them up and out. Be patient.

3) Find the “trap.” This is the plumbing configuration designed to stop heavy stuff from going too far into the sewer system. It MAY (hopefully) have fittings that allow disassembly. This is the case with older style fixtures only. Before you try to take it apart, scoop out as much water as possible. Have towels ready to capture the mess you will likely create taking it apart. In many instances, particularly more modern designs, the trap is cast right into the stool. So, to get at the trap, you have to remove the stool from the floor. This necessitates disconnecting the water connections first. You will also break the wax seal on which the stool sits. Once you get the stool loose, reach into the integral trap (even if the bystanders call you “weird” for thinking you’re actually dealing with a trap).

4) [Last resort] Go to the basement and locate the “clean out” plug. This will be an elbow shaped piece with a big vertical pipe coming down to it and a big horizontal pipe going away from it. Going in the opposite direction from the big horizontal pipe, you will find a short (less than a foot long) length of big pipe with a cap on its end. In the middle of the cap you will find a threaded plug. This is the “clean out.” Be sure to have a tub ready to catch the waste when you open it. Also, cover up anything that “pee water” could mess up in the immediate vicinity. Then, with a big plumbing wrench, twist open the plug. It may be tight, , or rusted, or even painted over. Put some muscle into the effort. Remember: righty tighty, lefty Lucy. You want to turn the plug counterclockwise. Once you get it open, and once you deal with the waste water, look into the pipe. Reach in and feel for the keys. If you still haven’t found them, get a long heavy wire to serve as a “snake.” Shove it down from the toilet until the end appears at the clean out. If this did not push out the keys, take the toilet end of the snake wire and secure it to a hand towel. Be sure it is really secure. It will be very bad news if it falls off as you pull it through the drain. But, from the clean out opening, with the snake made into what amounts to a colossal swab, pull the towel slowly, carefully through the drain and out the clean out. Did you finally find the keys?

If not, I’m out of ideas for you. But I bet one of these things will work for you, probably #2.

Good luck.

3 COMMENTS

Themistocles April 4, 2013 At 12:13 pm

JohnnyCB is a weird guy and you should only read part of his post. Toilets don’t have traps you can take apart. This is a mixed blessing, because while you can’t take apart the trap, you can get at it pretty easily. Fish around with a coat hanger and see if you can snag them. If they’re gone, they’re in the septic tank or worse, the sewer system. If they’re in the septic tank, and you’re really desperate, you can try and find them there. If they’re in the sewer, they’re gone.
Stephen April 4, 2013 At 11:33 am

When you flushed the toilet you flushed your keys away, if you are really lucky they may be in the trap but I don’t think they are! They are in the pipe and you may be able to fish them out with a snake from the clean out but then again it’s a shot in the dark, go get the spears!
JohnnyCB April 4, 2013 At 11:17 am

Sorry to hear about your grief with the keys.

Reversing water flow in a toilet is just not done. No, there’s no use contemplating that option.

Rather, you need some more realistic alternatives. Here are my suggestions (in order of simplicity):

1) Get over your pee-pee aversion. Piss is non-toxic. Some otherwise normal people actually ingest it as part of a paraphilia called WS (water sports). So, reaching into DILUTED pee water is not going to hurt you. It will simply be initially disgusting. Reach in as far as you can. Feel around. Pull out the keys, if you can. Wash up afterwards.

2) Make yourself a “fishing” device out of a wire coat hanger. Bend it up so one end has a hook and the other a handle that allows you to control the hook and twist it, as necessary. Then, go slowly. You don’t want to push the keys farther down the drain. Rather, you want to probe, bit by bit, until you feel (and/or hear) the keys. Next, you want to hook them, or pull them up and out. Be patient.

3) Find the “trap.” This is the plumbing configuration designed to stop heavy stuff from going too far into the sewer system. It MAY (hopefully) have fittings that allow disassembly. This is the case with older style fixtures only. Before you try to take it apart, scoop out as much water as possible. Have towels ready to capture the mess you will likely create taking it apart. In many instances, particularly more modern designs, the trap is cast right into the stool. So, to get at the trap, you have to remove the stool from the floor. This necessitates disconnecting the water connections first. You will also break the wax seal on which the stool sits. Once you get the stool loose, reach into the integral trap (even if the bystanders call you “weird” for thinking you’re actually dealing with a trap).

4) [Last resort] Go to the basement and locate the “clean out” plug. This will be an elbow shaped piece with a big vertical pipe coming down to it and a big horizontal pipe going away from it. Going in the opposite direction from the big horizontal pipe, you will find a short (less than a foot long) length of big pipe with a cap on its end. In the middle of the cap you will find a threaded plug. This is the “clean out.” Be sure to have a tub ready to catch the waste when you open it. Also, cover up anything that “pee water” could mess up in the immediate vicinity. Then, with a big plumbing wrench, twist open the plug. It may be tight, , or rusted, or even painted over. Put some muscle into the effort. Remember: righty tighty, lefty Lucy. You want to turn the plug counterclockwise. Once you get it open, and once you deal with the waste water, look into the pipe. Reach in and feel for the keys. If you still haven’t found them, get a long heavy wire to serve as a “snake.” Shove it down from the toilet until the end appears at the clean out. If this did not push out the keys, take the toilet end of the snake wire and secure it to a hand towel. Be sure it is really secure. It will be very bad news if it falls off as you pull it through the drain. But, from the clean out opening, with the snake made into what amounts to a colossal swab, pull the towel slowly, carefully through the drain and out the clean out. Did you finally find the keys?

If not, I’m out of ideas for you. But I bet one of these things will work for you, probably #2.

Good luck.

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