Are you looking for ways on how to dissolve baby wipes in toilet?
Baby wipes are a baby necessity that comes in handy during diaper changes, wiping your kid’s face, cleaning pacifiers, removing makeup, and overall, in many instances in your everyday life.
As such, you might find yourself going through more than 20 baby wipes in a day.
Getting rid of used baby wipes can be pretty overwhelming, and you might find yourself wanting to dispose of them in your flushable toilet.
So, how do you go about it? Is it even possible for baby wipes to dissolve in the bathroom?
Here is all you need to know.
How To Dissolve Baby Wipes In Toilet
Contrary to popular misconception, it’s not appropriate to dissolve baby wipes in the toilet.
I know most manufacturers claim their brand of baby wipes is flushable. This is because, technically, it’s possible to flush them down the toilet.
Flushing one or two baby wipes might be feasible. The problem arises when they leave the toilet system and enter the pipes, septic tank, or community water system.
In the long run, flushing baby wipes in your toilet will ultimately cause plumbing issues that adversely impact your home’s safety and comfort.
Therefore, it would be best if you didn’t dissolve used baby wipes in your toilet.
Toilet paper and body fluids are the only things you should ever consider flushing in the lavatories.
Moreover, baby wipes are designed to be long-lasting, consequently taking a long time to break down in the water.
In most cases, baby wipes consist of non-woven fabrics such as cotton and even plastic resins. As such, these materials are bonded together using a chemical or heat.
As a result, baby wipes tend to be robust while being soft and disposable.
On the other hand, it’s almost impractical for such fabric to break up like toilet paper or allow water to pass through.
1. What Happens if You Accidentally Flush Baby Wipes?
As already outlined, it’s unlikely one or two baby wipes will negatively affect your toilet and sewer system.
Nonetheless, if you accidentally flush baby wipes in the lavatories, check if there is a clog.
In most cases, if you accidentally flush many wipes instantly, the clog might be trapped in the drain.
As such, put on a pair of gloves or a trash bag and pull the wad out.
It seems gross, right? Still, it’s more practical than calling a plumber who will overcharge you for such an easy task.
Also, if you have a toilet snake, it will work perfectly since it can effortlessly wiggle through the toilet drain and pipes without damaging the porcelain of your toilet bowl.
Read a related post: How To Unclog a Toilet Clogged With Baby Wipes
2. Does Bleach Dissolve Baby Wipes?
Some people recommend that bleach helps dissolve toilet clogs. Still, bleach won’t be effective in dissolving baby wipes.
Just like water, the non-woven fabrics don’t allow the bleach to get in the wipes and start breaking them down.
So again, it would be best to physically remove the baby wipes’ clog or call a plumber instead of trying chemicals or products to dissolve baby wipes in your toilet.
3. Will Sulphuric Acid Dissolve Baby Wipes?
Yes. Sulphuric acid can dissolve baby wipes. However, sulphuric acid is hazardous and corrosive.
As such, it’s vital to ensure you are wearing protective gloves, goggles, and gear covering your body.
Also, ensure your bathroom is well ventilated since sulphuric acid reacts vigorously with water and can produce toxic fumes.
Finally, it would be best if you didn’t mix sulphuric acid with bleach-based cleaners.
Again, it’s much safer to physically remove the baby wipes with the toilet snake or call a plumber.
Accidentally Flushed Baby Wipes Down The Toilet
Do not attempt to flush baby wipes down the washroom.
Wipes are made to be long-lasting, which means they take a long time to degrade in water.
Because of their endurance, they perform an excellent job of keeping your infant clean, but they are not suited for flushing.
Toilet paper is the only item that can be flushed, aside from bodily fluids, because it is meant to break up easily and rapidly after being flushed down the toilet.
Baby wipes flushed down the toilet can quickly clog sewage pipes and cause serious plumbing issues in your community’s sewage disposal system.
Flushing items like wipes might result in fatbergs, which are just one form of plumbing trouble.
In sewer systems, fatbergs are congealed clumps of grease and garbage.
They can affect entire communities, causing large-scale sewer damage or causing serious septic tank difficulties.
Suppose you flush a moist wipe or another foreign object inadvertently. A metal hanger can help you get a firm grasp on wiping in various situations.
You are proactively safeguarding your house and neighborhood from blockages and other drain and sewage issues by doing your bit.
Learn more from a related post: How To Unclog a Toilet Clogged With Baby Wipes
1. Is It True That Bleach Will Disintegrate Baby Wipes?
- Although bleach is sometimes recommended for removing toilet clogs, it is ineffective in removing baby wipes.
- Bleach breaks up the clog by mixing with the acidic components to generate water and salt.
- This doesn’t work on wipes because the nonwoven element of the cloth prevents the bleach from reaching and breaking down the fabric.
- Many store-bought chemical drain openers contain bleach and may also contain additional active ingredients.
2. Is Sulfuric Acid Capable Of Dissolving Baby Wipes
- Baby wipes can be dissolved with sulphuric acid cleaners, but they must be used with considerable caution.
- When working with sulphuric acid, wear protective gloves and goggles and operate in a well-ventilated environment because it can react violently when poured into water and produce deadly vapors.
- It’s also crucial not to mix sulfuric acid cleaners with bleach-based cleaners because the interaction produces a potentially fatal gas.
- Although certain sulfuric acid drain cleaners claim to be safe for plastic pipes when appropriately used, they can harm stainless steel or galvanized pipes, and misapplication can result in pipe damage.
3. Natural Ways To Clear A Clogged Toilet
- If you don’t want to use bleach or sulphuric acid yet, don’t want to hire a plumber, try releasing the clog with home cleaners.
- However, even seemingly harmless cleaners can become deadly if mixed incorrectly.
- Take one cup of baking soda, two cups of hot water, and two cups of white vinegar. Pour this into your toilet.
- The water should not be too warm to the touch. Otherwise, the porcelain would crack. Allow half an hour to pass before flushing.
How do you dissolve wipes in a septic tank?
Wipes can only dissolve by themselves in your septic tank. At least safely. No chemical can break down or dissolve baby wipes.
Your septic tank and drainage system can comfortably accommodate non-fluid materials that take a maximum of twenty-four hours to disintegrate, such as toilet paper.
On the other hand, wipes take a month to dissolve fully. When you regularly flush down wipes, they easily accumulate to block your drainage.
Wipes then coagulate material in the septic tank which makes it insufficient.
Unlike toilet paper, wipes are made up of soft but rigid synthetic material.
This makes it difficult for water and other drain-cleaning detergents to access the individual components of the wipes to make them soluble.
As a result, the wipes stick to the walls of the pipes, attracting more debris.
Your toilet will start clogging with time because waste cannot flush through pipes filled with wipes and other debris.
What chemicals can you use to dissolve wipes?
Although no chemical is known to dissolve wipes 100%, there might be a few options you might give a try.
Take the precaution so that you don’t end up killing all the bacteria in your septic tank or damaging the pipes.
1. Bleach
Some sites recommend using bleach to unclog your drainage system. However, the low chances are that this might dissolve wipes.
Bleach dissolves clogs by reacting with acids in the clog to form a soluble salt and water.
Unfortunately, wipes have a different formulation with nonwoven fabric. As a result, it makes it difficult for bleach to break down these synthetic components.
2. Acid
Sulfuric acid might do the job. Nevertheless, you need to take extreme caution lest you land on a bigger problem.
Sulfuric acid will break down the rigid polymer in wipes and reduce the potential to cause blockage.
However, keep in mind that sulfuric acid is highly corrosive. Due to this, you should wear protective gear like gloves, goggles and work in a properly ventilated area.
Also, never mix it with any reagent, which could lead to a violent reaction.
Apart from posing a risk to you, sulfuric acid will also corrode galvanized pipes and stainless steel. Due to this, the acid will destroy your septic tank over time.
More importantly, sulfuric acid clears out all the synthetic bacteria in your sewer, leaving your home with untreated sewage.
Also read: Can You Flush Baby Wipes?
How do I know whether my sewage is blocked?
It’s easy to tell. First, your toilet will flush sluggishly since the drain is full.
Second, blocked sewage will produce a foul smell in your house since sewage will now be decomposing in pipes rather than in the septic tank.
Worse still, raw sewage will start flowing back to your home.
Outside over the septic tank, the grass will become greener, and you might as well see a water patch over the yard.
How do you remove the wipes clogging the septic tank?
You can dissolve wipes in a septic tank using sulfuric acid drain cleaners, but only with professional guidance lest you make the issue worse than it is.
A professional plumber is better skilled and pumping out such clogs in toilets and septic tanks.
After unclogging, they will also clean it up for you. Therefore, we recommend getting a professional plumber every few years, even if you have no clogs.
You no longer have to worry about how do you dissolve wipes in a septic tank.
While the best option is to refrain from throwing wipes in the septic, we understand that errors occur.
What you can do is use sulfuric acid. Still, the best option is to get a professional plumber to do it for you.
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Summary
It’s not unheard of for individuals to search for how to dissolve baby wipes in the toilet.
However, contrary to popular opinion, baby wipes are not ideal for flushing down the bathroom, and dissolving them in the toilet may cause serious plumbing issues in the long run.
If you suspect your toilet might have been blocked with baby wipes, it would be best to wear gloves and pull them out or use a toilet snake to try fishing out baby wipes from the toilet.
Alternatively, call a plumber.
Frequently Asked Question
How Long Does It Take For Baby Wipes To Clog a Toilet?
Typically, it depends on how many wipes you flush at a time, the amount of water you use to flush the products, and the nature of your toilet’s pipes.
It may take weeks or months for flushing wipes to create a clog.
It may take even a shorter duration for antiquated houses, or some homeowners might never have issues with baby wipes clogging their toilet.
How Do You Dispose Of Baby Wipes?
Throwing them in the trash is the best way to dispose of baby wipes. This way, they won’t clog your toilet and damage sewer systems.
Therefore, avoid disposing of baby wipes in the toilet for a safe and comfortable home.
What Causes Children To Dump Objects Down The Toilet?
Potty training young children may approach the toilet with apprehension, if not outright fear.
Seeing their excrement flush down the toilet after them may surprise and disturb them, or it may fascinate them indefinitely.
Some kids may be influenced to flush various items down the toilet.
People don’t realize that the hole through which their waste is flushed is too small to accommodate many objects.
They also have no idea how big the pipelines that transport their waste are. As a result, children may attempt to flush an unusual variety of materials.
What Happens If You Flush Plastic?
You may believe that flushing a small plastic wrapper is safe, but this is not the case.
Because these small pieces might add up to produce a much larger problem, you should never flush any plastic down the toilet.
Not only will this cause drainage problems in your home, but it will also harm the ecosystem.
Plastics are not easily decomposable.
Plastics can clump together with non-biodegradable materials and products in drainage systems, which are held by oils and grease.
This can result in clogs in your home’s sewage system.
Can You Flush Tampons?
It does not make any difference how old your toilet is.
A tampon can block both old and new toilets, causing significant problems with your home’s drainage and sewer system.
Drain cleaning chemicals may dissolve the tampon sufficiently to flush, but they will cause the same septic system difficulties.
Tampons should not be flushed; instead, they should be disposed of in the garbage.
Mo Mulla is a work from home dad who enjoys reading and listening to music, He loves being a dad and husband to a growing family. He also loves writing about his passions and hopes to change the world, 1 blog post at a time!
