Thanks raehelen. I will most probably replace the toilet in my second bathroom with an elongated comfort height for my guests. What happened to you at your mom's house was similar to someone pulling a chair out from under you. Not fun. Unfortunately, I am 4'10" with short legs for my torso. I tried sitting on the toilets on display the other month at Lowes. The group of folks around me stopped and started laughing. For an elongated bowl I have to sit and scoot back past my knee bend in order to center myself over the toilet. And then I have to scoot forward in order to stand up. And they told me I looked like a little kid on the comfort height toilets. So I will stick with the regular round toilet in my MBR since I'm single. If I were to sell my house then I would look at changing it out. So I am not the norm. I remember reading on this forum that one of the members has a house that was formerly owned by a jockey and was slowing changing things out. That is the kind of house that I need. Even my kitchen counter is a little too high for me. I stand on a stool and use my BBQ tongs to get the clothes out of the washing machine. And I like the old fashion stuff, I bought a new Speed Queen that is similar to the old Amana to replace my 27 year old Maytag. I cut the legs down on my kitchen table and chairs. When I have guests over for dinner we use my dining room table. Most everything in life doesn't fit me. This post was edited by Anna_in_TX on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 15:20

There are cleaners that work magic on that. Watkins makes one (haven't tried the Watkins, but was told it is great). I use Phos-20 which I guarantee you works. All you need is your this stuff and your toilet brush. I am sure the link below would be for the same cleaner I use but a diff mfgr. I cannot find the one I use online. I buy it thru a contact. Here is a link that might be useful: cleaner

That hole is called the siphon jet opening. If the toilet just swirls but won't flush properly, then something probably went through the siphon jet opening and is in that cavity. I flushed some freeze-dried salmon dog treats and this happened to me. One of them made it through that hole. You need to put on a latex glove and put your finger into that hole. You will probably feel a foreign object in there. You will need to coax the foreign object out of there with your finger while the toilet is flushing.

Judging from your description that is an older 3.5gal/flush toilet. Try an experiment. Instead of flushing in the normal manner put 3.5gal of water in a bucket and pour it directly in the bowl and see if it flushes normally? If it flushes normally when you pour water directly in the bowl both the vent and drain lines are ok. The problem most likely is that the water from the tank is entering the bowl too slowly, which is a very common problem as the bowls age. Under the rim of the bowl there is a row of small holes where the water from the tank enters the bowl. As the bowl ages those holes become partially obstructed from mineral buildup or waste material from the bowl. You can don a pair of latex gloves, then take a small diameter drill bit, just slightly smaller than the holes and go around opening those holes so the water can flow out quicker and that should resolve the problem.