clean toilet rim jets - hand with glove showing thumb up sign against clean toilet

If your toilet has been flushing more slowly, information technology may be time for you lot to make clean its rim jet holes. We have a rubber alternative for unclogging them.

What are Toilet Rim Jets?

Toilet rim jets (also called siphon holes or rim holes) are literally tiny holes under the rim of your toilet bowl.

When you affluent, water siphons down from the tank through the rim jet holes. This creates a swirling movement that adds to your toilet'due south flushing power. The holes too help clean your toilet afterward every utilize.

Sometimes, the siphon holes become clogged. Less water swirling into the bowl means less flushing power. That's why your toilet flushes more slowly and appears less clean.

PRO TIP: The toilet rim jets are different than the siphon jet, which is i larger hole at the lesser of the bowl. The siphon jet hole allows a larger rush of water to propel the swirling water from the rim jets downwardly the drain.

clean toilet rim jets - diagram of toilet siphon jet holes
The toilet rim jets are different than the siphon jet. However, they piece of work together to create an efficient swirling motion and flush.

Table of Contents

  • What are Toilet Rim Jets?
  • How Do Toilet Rim Jets Get Clogged?
  • What You Need to Clean Toilet Rim Jets
  • How to Clean Toilet Rim Jets with White Vinegar
    • Cleaning Instructions
    • What if That Doesn't Work?
  • Final Thoughts
  • Call ane-Tom-Plumber

How Do Toilet Rim Jets Go Chock-full?

The nearly mutual reason is hard water.

If your drinking spectacles are cloudy or filmy, y'all probably live in an surface area with hard water, which contains dissolved minerals. The same mineral buildup y'all encounter on those glasses will build upwards on and clog the modest rinse holes under the rim of your toilet bowl.

Dissolving those difficult h2o minerals is a uncomplicated task.

clean toilet rim jets - inset photo on toilet that shows dirty rim jet holes
Toilet rim jets are tiny and located under the rim where we tin't hands come across them. When they tin get clogged past calcium buildup (from hard water), they demand to exist cleaned to ensure an efficient affluent.

What You Need to Clean Toilet Rim Jets

This solution for cleaning out the jet holes is easy. It only requires the following materials and tools:

  • Paper towels
  • Plumber's putty
  • 1 gallon of white vinegar
  • Wire coat hanger
  • Rubber gloves
  • Cut pliers (for the glaze hanger)
  • Mirror (optional)

How to Clean Toilet Rim Jets with White Vinegar

Before you get started, consider these two items.

  • Is it really clogged rim jets that are slowing your flush? Yous can bank check this by pouring a five-gallon saucepan into your toilet bowl. Beginning slowly, and then speedily add the residuum. The toilet will flush on its own. If information technology does and so slowly, then the problem is not your rim jets.
  • Practice you use hard water in your home? It's likely if you're non using a whole-business firm water softener. Most areas of the country supply hard water to residences. Information technology leaves calcium buildup on your pipes and other fixtures, including glassware from your dishwasher. If you have hard water, it's a clue that your toilet rim jets might be chock-full.

Cleaning Instructions

  1. Plow off the water supply shutoff valve under the toilet.
  2. Affluent the tank to empty information technology.
  3. Roll single sheets of paper towel into tight, one-half-inch-diameter rolls. Press the newspaper towel rolls upwardly under the rim of the bowl and stick them there with plumber's putty.
  4. Remove the tank cover, lift the stopper by the lift wire or chain, and pour a gallon of white vinegar down the affluent valve outlet in the tank.
  5. Await about 8 hours.
  6. Put on your rubber gloves and remove the plumber'southward putty and paper towels from under the toilet basin rim.
  7. Throw them away and wash your hands immediately. Although the white vinegar that poured out of the now clean toilet rim jet holes is natural, it is acidic plenty to burn the skin if left there for too long.
  8. Turn the water supply valve back on and flush the toilet.
clean toilet rim jets - pour white vinegar into flush outlet tube in tank
Using a funnel can help you cascade white vinegar into the tank'due south outlet tube without splashing it everywhere. Only don't worry if yous go some in the water tank. It won't be a problem.

What if That Doesn't Work?

Here's one final instruction for how to clean toilet rim jets if the in a higher place did not solve the trouble.

Utilise a tool like the cutting pliers to cutting a six-inch length from a wire coat hanger. Try cutting the wire hanger at an bending then the stop you stick into the holes is pointy.

Work the wire hanger in and around each of the rinse holes to articulate them. If yous demand to run across what yous're doing, agree a mirror under the rim. This will be like how a dentist uses a mirror to wait behind your teeth.

Once done cleaning out all the holes, flush again and you should be all set.

clean toilet jet rims - pouring white vinegar into inlet tube of toilet tank
Place the end of your cut wire hanger into each hole. Movement in and out and all effectually until you feel it has been cleaned of harder-to-deliquesce debris.

Final Thoughts

Making sure you lot have make clean toilet rim jets is a simple process.

Though it takes time for the white vinegar to exercise its job, it's a modest cost to pay for non having to replace your toilet with a costly new ane.

Phone call 1-Tom-Plumber

Don't hesitate to contact u.s.a. here or telephone call us at i-Tom-Plumber (1-866-758-6237) if you need assist with whatsoever toilet repair, replacement, or new installation.

ane-Tom-Plumber's certified team of plumbers and drain technicians reply immediately to any emergency plumbing, bleed, or water damage trouble, including digging of underground h2o lines and sewer master lines. Our immediate-response team is available every 24-hour interval and night of the year, even on holidays.