Bucket of Water

• Before you use anything else on the toilet, rapidly pour a bucket of water into the toilet's tank to determine if the toilet has a clog or not. A partial clog will cause the toilet to slow down but so will clogs in the water inlet holes in the toilet's bowl. When you pour the water into the toilet's bowl, you must not pour it so fast that any water spills out. If the toilet flushes as it normally would, you will know the toilet is not clogged. A clogged toilet will still struggle to flush after you pour in the bucket of water.
  
  

Plunger

• A plunger provides a simple means of dislodging a clog in a toilet's drainpipe. Funnel-cup plungers are best suited for use in a toilet since the curved portion on the bottom of the plunger's cup allows a funnel-cup plunger to fit snugly in a toilet's drain opening. Once you have placed the plunger over the drain hole in the toilet bowl, you must pump the handle up and down forcefully at least 12 times to work the clog free.
  
  

Auger

• A toilet auger, also called a snake, feeds down a toilet's drainpipe, coming into direct contact with the clog itself. The end of the auger has a metal corkscrew-like device that will bore through the clog. When you use the auger, you will likely only need to feed it down the toilet's drain once since the toilet does not have a complete blockage. As you feed the auger down the pipe, spin the auger clockwise to help push through the clog.
  
  

Muriatic Acid

• If the bucket test made the toilet flush normally, the toilet is suffering from hard water deposits clogging the port holes in the rim of the toilet where the water from the tank flows into the bowl. You can partially clear out the hard water buildup using an instrument like a wood dowel, but muriatic acid will clear out not only the deposits you see but also those that exist up the line from the port openings. You will first dilute 1 part muriatic acid with 10 parts water, and then pour the mixture down the overflow tube in the toilet's tank. After half an hour has passed, you can flush the toilet and repeat the cleaning process a second time.