Vent problem?

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

I’ve been having that “not flushing all the way” prob with about 4 of my toilets out here at my apartment complex. All the rim holes (all have good swirl) and the main jet are perfectly clean. After dealing with college students, nothing surprises me anymore- EVERYTHING checks out just fine. Then I started to notice a few things…
All of the problem toilets are on the 3rd floor of different biuldings. All of the toilets flush fine if I leave the 6 ft auger in place, but the problem returns after the 2nd flush when the auger is removed. Looking back on my records, I NEVER had this problem with any of the toilets on the 1st and 2nd floors (they had the syptoms, but those d*mned bleach bowl tabs were almost ALWAYS the cause (clogging jets)). The location of the toilets is always at the corner end of the building.

Now, 3 toilets share the same vent and drain pipes as they are “stacked” (3 story).

I was wondering, could the problem toilets NOT be getting sufficeint vent-air as they are on the 3rd floor? Has anyone else encountered this prob and found a quick/easy fix?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Retired plbg1Participant]

They top toilets have the biggest vent either 3″ or 4″. Sounds like you gave something in the stack are pipe that you open up with cable and when you take out cable it closes back up. Have a camera run through the pipe. Are all the tanks filling up to mark in tank, is there anything between tank and bowl. do they go down when you plunge the bowl, is there something in bowl, take one up and turn upside down and flush out with hose, try 5 gal. bucket of water see if it flushes. After you take up bowl have somebody flush another toilet and see if it backs up be ready to close the flapper.

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Art retired plbg

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