Can You Flush Your Toilet During A Power Outage? Here's How To Know
Between snowstorms, hurricanes, and other emergencies, chances are you'll experience a few power outages in your lifetime. If you've planned ahead and stocked up on emergency supplies, you might be prepared to go without your usual electronics for a while. But power outages also affect plumbing, and you may be wondering if you can flush your toilet. There are some big mistakes everyone makes with their toilet, and while some can still flush without electricity, others can't. It's helpful to know which kind you have before you do any flushing.
If you live in a single family home or townhouse in a city, you'll likely be just fine flushing your toilet during a power outage. The municipal water supply has plenty of water on-hand for residents, and most toilets are gravity-flush, so power outages don't affect their operation. However, depending on how long the outage lasts, the water supply may eventually run low, requiring you to manually add water to help the toilet flush. If necessary, pour a bucket of water in for each flush. And if you have a pump-assisted toilet rather than a gravity-flush one, live in a rural area, or live in an apartment or condo, the situation is more complicated.
Toilets that won't flush during an outage and what to do instead
Some plumbing systems and toilets use electric pumps to move waste and water around, and that's where things get tricky during power outages. With pump-assisted toilets, you can flush as usual a few times, but you'll soon run out of water without electricity to pump it through. That makes it even more important to keep extra water on hand for flushing; one trick is to fill the bathtub. The same is true for apartment dwellers, as well as rural dwellers on well water, as both systems typically require pumps. There might be a holding tank that can buy you time (or more flushes), but filling a bathtub can really help you during a power outage.
Meanwhile, toilets in rural areas with pump-assisted septic systems can only be flushed a couple of times without power. Use it too much and you'll experience sewage overflows since the pumps are out. Instead, in emergencies, use a backup toilet that's not connected to the septic system.