Lost Wedding Ring Down the Toilet: What to Do and How to Recover

Every wedding day comes to an end, but it can be a nightmare if a wedding ring slips away down the hotel toilet. Here's what you can do to try and recover the ring and how to handle the situation.

What Happens When a Ring isFlushed Down a Toilet?

Be pissed and move on. Once it goes in the toilet and is flushed, it is long gone. Unlike sinks, there is no trap on toilets – the toilet is the trap. So once the ring is flushed out, it falls into the sewer line and goes on to wherever.

Try Recovering the Ring as Quickly as Possible

To quote Ricky Ricardo: "Lucy, you have some ‘splaining to do!" Unless the ring was too heavy for the sudden flow of water to wash it all the way to the drain, you are just out of luck. Modern toilets often have water-saving features, such as a soft flush for urine only and a harder flush for solids. If the soft flush was used, you may be able to recover the ring by working your hand into the hole at the bottom of the toilet bowl. Be sure to have your cell phone ready to call the front desk should your hand become stuck.

Stay Calm and Act Quickly

Now if you were Lucy and Ethel, you could come up with some sort of scheme to explain why your ring was off your finger in the first place. Oh-h-h Lucy! Ha ha ha… as Ricky would say.

Procedure for Reporting and Handling the Situation

First, quit having affairs. Call the hotel front office immediately and stop using the toilet. Hopefully, only liquids were involved. There is a built-in trap to the porcelain toilet. You may have to remove the commode and back flush it in the bath tub.

Seek Professional Assistance

I am afraid and sorry to say that it is gone for good. In our hotel, we have retrieved many wedding rings and engagement rings from the drains on basins, but that is only possible because there is a U bend where items collect, and it can be unscrewed. But the toilet never – once it leaves the bathroom, it goes into the city or town sewerage system.

Seeking Expert Help

It is caught in the trap. As Ricky said, every toilet in the US has a trap for anti-backflow of hazardous gasses. If it was a toilet in the US, then it hasn’t left your room yet, and you are in luck maybe. I say maybe because you are now going to have to convince the hotel to take apart their toilet to get it back. So be nice because they are under no obligation to do so.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I am pretty sure that it won’t be able to be retrieved. Hopefully, it was insured with your insurance company. And its most likely that you will be heading back to the jewelry store you bought the original ring from if you know what I mean!