sweet release

This looks almost exactly like what I bought for $5.

I didn't notice, until very late, that my toilet snake (a.k.a. drain snake—also the name of one of John McCrarey's most frequent commenters... the thing is also called a toilet auger, drain auger, plumbing snake, trap snake, hand auger, electric eel, toilet jack, etc.) had arrived last night; I brought the parcel inside close to midnight but was too tired to use the thing last night. Also, I'd just had a gratifying poop in my building's lobby restroom, so with no immediate urges to motivate me, I waited until this morning to do the roto-rooting deed.

Having watched several YouTube videos on how to use different types of toilet snake, I fed a length of flexible-yet-rigid "cord" out of my cheap $5 Chinese device and down my toilet's unwilling throat. Using the equally cheap rotator handle, I spun the snake's wheel, rotating the metal cord, which comes equipped with a slightly larger, spiral-wired head that's meant to plunge into the clog and, theoretically, either loosen it up or drag the clog back out (if it's a sock or something, which was definitely not the case in my situation). It took several tries to get the snake deep enough down the toilet's throat to find the problem, but find it I did.

At the same time, I had to perform a gross dance with the toilet's water valve: while the clog remained, the valve would let water in after a flush, then not reclose, so when I would flush and watch the water level, I'd have to reach behind the toilet and shut the valve off to prevent an overflow onto my bathroom's floor. As things stand, my floor needs a thorough cleaning since there had been an overflow of shit-water yesterday despite all of the Korean Drāno I had previously poured down the toilet—1.5 bottles' worth. This is from several attempts at the Drāno-wait-plunger method I'd been using since the day before. (I saw one recommendation for a warm-water method, but I knew that a clog the consistency of clay would need something lava-hot to disperse it.)

But after several tries, I can now report victory: the clog is now gone; the snake has been retrieved, and all that's left to do is to clean my poor, suffering bathroom. And now that I have a toilet snake, I'm ready for this intractable problem should it ever arise again. For me, the lesson is that as much as I love my toilet plunger, there are rare cases where the plunger and one's determination are simply not enough. So I sit before you today a changed and—we hope—wiser man, having learned one more thing about the ways of the world.

Now, since the metal cord of the drain snake appears to have scratched up my toilet's porcelain (I did say the snake was a cheap, Chinese piece of crap; in the States, most halfway decent snakes are in the $40-$60 range), I need to find out whether those scratches can be "buffed" out. Another adventure awaits.

UPDATE: Gentle application of baking soda or Bar Keeper's Friend is recommended for auger-scratched toilet porcelain. So I ordered the Bar Keeper's Friend.