Wherever you live in this world, your power may go out. This will give rise to a multitude of problems from the heating system not working, WiFi turning off, lack of lights, but one question that may not come to a lot of people’s minds is that can you flush the toilet when the power is out?
Let’s find out the answer.
Can You Flush The Toilet When The Power Is Out?
Some of you may be a bit dumb founded by this question, and well, that is normal because a lot of you have toilets that do not need any electricity.
The answer to the question of whether you can flush your toilet or not depends on a few factors. The biggest factor is which type of toilet do you have.
Gravity Fed Toilets
If you live in a private house, then most likely, your toilet will be unaffected by a power outage because homes usually use gravity-fed systems.
This is because, as its name suggests, these gravity-fed systems do not require any power to operate so that you can go about your loo normally.
Water rushes down from the tank to the toilet, which results in pressure, and then the water flows away with the contents of the toilet bowl straight to the sewers.
For people with gravity-fed systems that are supplied with water from a well, a minor inconvenience will be that they will have to fill up the tank manually.
You should open the ceramic lid of the tank and take about ¾ gallon of water and pour it in; this should be enough for you to flush your toilet.
This task is not all that difficult, so you will not be facing much inconvenience in your toilet business in case of a power shortage.
The only time you might have a real issue with gravity-fed systems is if you live in extremely cold weather, the pipes will freeze, and the flush will not work.
You can also read our in depth article on Gravity Flush Toilet and it’s Function.
Pump Based Toilets
The pump-based systems work similarly to the gravity-fed systems, but the water that comes to the toilet tank comes from an electric pump.
This system thus requires electricity, so if your toilet uses this system, you will most certainly be affected by a power outage.
High-rise apartments usually have pump-based systems, and the electric pump is located in the basement of the building.
You should know that even if your tank has enough water to flush, you should note if you have a pump-based system. When there is no power, the pump doesn’t work, so the tank gets fuller and fuller.
As a result, at a point, the tank will overflow, which can be UGLY. If your tank has a gauge, you can flush if the matter is so urgent. However, it would be much better if you could wait for the power to come back first and then flush.
Upflush Based Toilets
For upflush toilet to work properly, there must be power. Again, the operation is not too different from the others; the waterfalls from the tank to the bowl and takes it out.
However, the waste that is taken out goes inside a macerator and pump which are fixed on the back of the system. Then the content of the toilet bowl is turned into slurry, which is then moved to the public sewer outfall by the pump.
Since the pump works on electricity, there will be no movement of waste when the power is out. Therefore, this means that upflush toilets will not be working during power outages.
How to Flush Your Toilet with No Power
If you are aware of a power outage you will be experiencing; you should plan out things properly. It would help if you had a 5-gallon bucket so you can use the classic using a bucket of water to flush your toilet.
When you pour so much water at a time, this creates high pressure in the bowl and acts as a flush. As water backup, you may also want to consider buying a large barrel to fill with water.
Final Words
So, can you flush the toilet when the power is out? Now you know that this depends on multiple things. Hopefully, we now know the differences between the toilets and how to flush your toilet with no power.
