The toilet bowl is designed to have a strong flush and many people think they can just flush anything down the toilet but this is far from the truth. One popular questions is “Can I flush Q Tips down the toilet bowl?”, and the answer to that is a big no. In fact if you flush Q Tips down the toilet bowl your probably going to run into a toilet clog the next time you go to flush the toilet. Q tips, when flushed can get logged sideways inside of the toilet bowl trap. If this happens then anything else you flush down the toilet like toilet paper will get logged against the q tips you flush and then the toilet will back up.
The best think you can do with your Q Tips is to throw them inside of the garbage can instead of trying to flush them down the toilet bowl. If you have already flushed Q Tips down the toilet bowl and now you are experiencing a slow flushing toilet or your toilet now will not flush, you will have to now clear the Q Tip toilet stoppage with a hand snake or a toilet closet auger. Sometimes the toilet stoppage will not be inside the toilet trap but actually at the toilet flange. In this case you will have to remove the toilet bowl so you can access the toilet flange and remove the Q Tips that you flushed and are now blocking the toilet paper from being flushed down the toilet flange.
The toilet trap is not wide enough to allow Q Tips to properly flow though the trap and that’s why it’s never a good idea to flush them and why they will jam up or clog your toilet bowl if you decide to flush them. The toilet bowl closet auger is easy to use and generally will remove the Q Tips that are causing the toilet stoppage with ease. So the best thing to do when you have anything stuck inside of the toilet bowl is to get out the toilet snake or the auger and get to work clearing the stoppage. If you can not clear the Q Tip stoppage yourself you could always call a plumber to come over and clear the stoppage for you. So next time you decide to use Q Tips while your in the bathroom, you will want to remember not to flush them or you will wind up with some toilet problems that could have easily been avoided if you would have just thrown then away Vs flushing them.