Lawn Sprinklers Inhibiting Toilet Flush?

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

The master bath toilet sits one side of an exterior wall. Directly outside of it the water valves are located for the lawn sprinklers (timers). Lately when the sprinklers go on, the toilet doesn’t flush adequately. And sometimes it backs up. A plunger helps, and at no other times does this occur. Occasionally I hear a soft drip when the toilet is in use as though inside the wall but at no other time. I’m stumped. What to do?

[Retired plbg1Participant]

If your toilet tank is full and SP. come on this should not have the effect of flushing toilet. Check out your Toilet tank by the following.
Is the 1/4 tube in the 1″ overflow pipe.
Is the tank full at the mark.
Is the flapper ok, put colored egg dye in tank and see if it leaks through in bowl, if so put in new flapper.
Are holes in the flushing rim cleaned out, take a coat hanger and bend so it so you can clean them out.
Isa the pipe stopped up from toilet.

Take a 5Gal. bucket of water and dump it into bowl and see if it goes down.
Let me know the results.null

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Art retired plbg

[nicktheplumberParticipant]

As Art wrote, the only thing that your lawn sprinklers could do is to decrease the water pressure to your toilet tank fill valve. This might slow the tank fill rate or even interfere with tank filling. Provided that the tank eventually fills up, there is no way that it should result in a sluggish flush. A sluggish flush always indicates a problem (usually a blockage) in the toilet trap or further down in the waste pipes. This is a matter of simple hydraulic physics and logic.

NtP

[PLUMBILLParticipant]

I know with my lawn sprikler on the water pressure in the house drops for 60psi to about 30psi. If your toilet is working correctly after doing what the oter plumber’s said; change your timers on your system so it turns on a 4 a.m. when no one is using the plumbing.

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