Bubbles In Toilet Tank

JCNimmo

Toilet Is Bubbling. Not just a burp as toilets sometimes do but bubbling constantly, and is emitting a strong odor of sewer gas.

We had very strong winds all day, and the wind blowing over the vent caused the water in the bowl to rise, fall and splash. After several hours of this, the toilet seemed clogged when it was flushed.

When another toilet in the house had been flushed, and when water had been ran in a few of the sinks, and after a shower, the toilet began to bubble constantly and violently enough that it sometimes splashed water onto the floor.

I poured liquid drain opener down the shower next to the toilet, as well as down a sink near the toilet, and the kitchen sink. After an hour, the toilet flushed but went down very slowly. There was no bubbling. Then after water had been ran in a few places, the bubbling began again.

I am on an Aerobic Septic System, and when I turn off the circuit breaker to the aerobic system, the bubbling stops. The toilet still flushes slowly, but water can be ran in different parts of the house and the other two toilets can be flushed.

Affected toilet is last on the house plumbing main line, just before the septic tank.
House is two years and eight months old.
Freezing temperature all day, with 0.1 inch of ice and very high winds.
Standing beside the pump, with breaker turned on, you can hear a loud humming noise.

Note, the spray nozzles were frozen over with ice, I broke the ice from around them and poured hot water on them to thaw them out. I do not know how to manually force the sprayers to spray, so I could not test to see if the thaw was completely successful.

I have not checked the vent, and before I climb up there in the ice to run a hose down it, I thought that I would run this past you all to see if vent blocking is a viable problem.

Thanks in advance for your help anyone.

AllanJ

Does the toilet bowl water level just slosh up and down, or does the bowl fill up and threaten to overflow when you use a lot of water upstairs?

Yes a vent can conceivably become suddenly blocked for such cause as a squirrel becoming stuck in it.

Or your septic system could have stopped functioning due to a frozen line to the leach field. Then the tank fills up and sewage backs up into the house.

__________________
The disadvantages of crab apple trees. In summer, the apples are too sour to pick and eat. In winter the birds come and leave dropping all over the place.

JCNimmo

Thanks Allan;

No, the bowl does not fill, it only bubbles. Some times violently, some times just a gurgle.

What I have discovered: I went ahead and ran a hose down the vent, and ran water through it. I removed the cover to the clean out, and there is about a half inch of water standing in the bottom of the pipe. I ran water through the hose that was in the vent, and watched water flow fairly well past the clean out.

I flushed the toilet nearest the clean out, the one that had been slow, and it flushed fine, as it should have. I then turned the power back on to the aerobic system, and water began to pump from the septic tank toward the house.

I turned off the power, and assumed as you did, that the sprinklers were iced up. I discovered that they were iced, and deiced them both. When I turned the power back on to the aerobic system, the sprinklers came on for a time and pumped water out of the system. Then, when the sprinklers stopped, the water began to pump back past the clean out toward the house again.

What are your thoughts?