This is a public service announcement for those of us who want our children to have sparkling clean bottoms. Do your kids use Kandoo Flushable Wipes?
Do you have a ‘low water flow’ toilet?
Do you have a septic system?
Would you prefer to hold on to several hundred dollars of your money?
If you answered yes to the above questions, than listen to me: do NOT flush Kandoo “Flushable” Wipes.
First, an experiment. Take a few pieces of toilet paper and one Kandoo wipe and put it into a sink of water. Wait 30 seconds. Lift up the toilet paper first. It will already have some tears in it from being lifted out of the water; the water will have already dissolved it so much that you can imagine that as it shoots down the pipes, it disintegrates into tinier and tinier pieces.
Look at the Kandoo. It is soaked but still in one piece.
Pull it—–it does not tear. Put it back in the water for another full minute and then try to S-T-R-E-T-C-H it—-see how far is stretches without a single tear?
We have friends who had their septic tank cleaned and, when the lid on their tank was opened, all along the top of it were little Kandoo sheets floating on the surface, oblivious of the fact that they were supposed to be breaking down in that cesspool.
In our home, one of these sheets worked its way down our pipes and got stuck to the side of a pipe WAY down into the belly of the house. Another sheet stuck to that one and pretty soon they were collecting and building their own little dam.
The cost of removing this little dam? I don’t even want to get into that.
Let’s just say that we could’ve just gone ahead and bought a bidet instead.
A few years ago my husband flushed regular wipes down the toilet. Yup, regular ones…not even ones claiming to be flushable.
A few days later everything, and I mean everything backed up.
Plumbers make gooood money. I think we paid his mortgage payment that month.
I am so sorry. As someone who has personally financed her plumber’s condo in Aruba, I feel for you.
Lesson learned. Thanks for the heads (or bottoms) up.
De-lurking to say hi. And man, we’ve been there with the Kandoos, too. Hello Roto-Rooter…
YIKES! I was using the kleenix brand wipes for awhile before switching to TP to clean little man – glad I stopped, but I bet I will get an earfull when the septic needs to be cleaned. The wipes and the tampons will no doubt be having a grand time floating together at the top!
Good grief – I’m glad you posted this.
Thanks for the heads up! Or should I say bottoms?
Ahhh, so that WAS the culprit huh?
I love the pictures!
Thomas the Tank engines don’t flush either.
http://sarahviz.blogspot.com/2007/07/potty-problems.html
SNORT. I had to take those danged things away from my boys becuase they could not get it through their thick skulls that they should use ONE. They were using like…five at a time. I swear the toilet was backed up every other day.
You know what? We should go back to using leaves like the pioneers did.
I had to delurk for this! We had the same problem with our septic right before Christmas. Those wipes should not be allowed to be called flushable on the packaging. My septic people told us not to use Charmin tp either, who knew!!
Thanks for posting this before we had a catastrophe in our house!
I actually recommended to my son that he should seriously think about becoming either a Plumber or an Orthodontist…..if he went with plumber not only would he make oddles of money, but he wouldn’t have those nasty 100,000 student loans.
Just found your blog – I SO RELATE! Go to my blog and read my Piece of Crap post for the sorid details. Let’s just say it was an expensive mistake to ever use Kandoo Wipes and I can’t believe they’re still on the market! And, fyi, my plumber also shared that Kleenex should also never be flushed as it doesn’t break down like TP either. Yikes – news to me!
The crazy thing is, I remember seeing that stuff in your bathrooms and thinking, “hm, flushable? Really?” Thanks for the tip. Remind us never to write them up on Cool Mom Picks.
We have a septic (which I HATE) and I will stay away from these!
SOrry about the bill!
wow.. claiming that they're flushable when clearly they're not. Or maybe what kandoo meant by "flushable" is that it disappears in the toilet when you flush it.. wow. (scratches head in frustration)
Oh no that’s awful! Yes I avoid any products like tampons, wipes, and anything else besides toilet paper to avoid extra work for myself. Thanks for letting us know tho!
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