Toilet with no water in the bowl???

[what..the?]

I live in a large house with four toilets, therefore we do not use all of them. I noticed a bad smell the other day and followed the smell to one of our unused toilets. The water was completely missing from the toilet bowl(drained away) and there was some sort of smelly what looked like soil in there but I assume it is human waste. There is still water in the cistern. But I do not know why there is no water in the bowl and whether to just flush it, or will that possibly flood the house???

At the moment I have poured bleach toliet cleaner in there and put cling film over the bowl so the flys which are in our house alot at the moment due to the heat/time of year our not attracted to it.

Help!

[Top_Gooner]

I would guess that due to the recent hot weather, the water just simply evaporated, assuming the whole bore of the u bend is not fouled up, it would be ok to flush the loo without flooding the house.

[brachiopod]

Without the water in the U-bend - there is a direct connection to the soil pipe and foul water drain (sewer) - hence the smell !
Water in the toilet bowl prevents the gases and smells from the pipe escaping into the house - these are vented via a 'stench pipe', which you may see outside rising from the soil pipe up to roof level - often with a small mesh covering on the top.

I would guess, as Top_Gooner has said, that as the toilet appears to be unused, the water in the bowl has evaporated. Check that the bowl itself isn't damaged or cracked (unlikely), and re-fill the bowl by flushing. Even if the cistern did not work - you could just fill the bowl with water from a bucket, enough to fill the U-bend and prevent nasty smells coming up from the drains.

[Space]

I wouldn't pour any bleach ,cleaner, or cling film .
Water should be sufficient to get rid of the smell, as brachiopod said.

[what..the?]

Thanks so much for the great response, I did put some cleaner down and cover it just as a short term thing till I found out what to do. As the last thing I wanted was the pesky flies getting in there and then finding my kitchen!!

So from what you all say I will try and flush it and if that does not work I will put a bucket of water down it to see if I can get a water level back to solve the smelly problem.

Thanks again for the responses.

P.s About what you say about it being connected to the outside etc might this explain the huge number of flys in the house recently could they get through the pipes etc???

[Buenchico]

There are only 4 reasons (which I can think of) why all of the water should disappear from a toilet bowl:

1. A suction'siphoning effect when flushing: That would be unusual if it's not happened before but the solution is simple: just pour some water into the bowl.

2. Evaporation: As has been said, it takes a long time for that amount of water to evaporate but, once again, simply pouring some water into the bowl should fix it.

3. A leaking/cracked bowl: Definitely worth checking. Although another poster has (correctly) said that it's unlikely it's certainly not impossible. I know of two occasions (once in my house and once in a friend's, where this has been the cause). Again, pour some water in but also keep checking for leaks.

4. The final reason I can think of for the water disappearing? Well, you don't own a dog by any chance . . .? :-)

Chris

[what..the?]

lol no dog!

The property is rented so we have not lived there long and therefore in that instance you do not really know alot about the in's and out's of it all.

But I do know all the plumbing is crap the bath hardly drains and I have cleaned it ,so it must be waste/drain pipe which is not acute enough - so the water does not drain /run away fast enough.

All the sinks drain poorly. And the showers have no pressure - someone might as well be ******* on me!!