Toilet easily clogs up

[newhomeowner68]

So I bought this house (built in 1954) last summer and the toilet is a piece of crap (no pun intended). It's a low flow 1.6 G/flush by Eljer. The first problem I noticed is that when you flush it the water splashes out onto the back of the seat and lid if it's down. I noticed this little pink thing (see attached pic) inside the tank that is adjustable from 1-9 but I tried both extremes and cant figure out what it does, if anything.
The big problem is that whenever I take a decent sized dump the toilet gets clogged up requiring the use of a plunger and a few extra flushes. This happens about 50% of the time and even if I don't put any toilet paper in with the poo.
Also, my house is about 6' below street level and is equipped with a pump of some sort, maybe a sump pump. My two neighbors also have similar pumps as we are all at the end of the street that has a slight maybe 5-10% downward grade towards our homes. I was told that these pumps pump our waste water up to the main city sewer line at street level.
So I'm wondering if I have a crappy toilet or a crappy pump that's causing all these clog ups. Also, do these pumps need to be serviced and what would need to be done and how often? I remember the realtor said the previous owners "had the pump serviced by a plumber once a year". Any info would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to call the plumber because of course he's gonna want to come out to "service" it and probably charge me hundreds of dollars.

 

[journeyman]

how old is the toilet? The rim over time plugs with calcium so the transfer of water from tank to bowl is not suffiscent enough. also has toilet ever been pulled to make sure there are no blockages in bottom of toilet or possibly roots growing up closet bend.

 

[newhomeowner68]

No idea how old toilet is. the transferof water seems more than adequate as it violently enters the bowl and splashes on to the seat and lid.
When you say "pulled" do you mean removing the toilet? Nothing has been done to toilet since I moved in last summer.

 

[journeyman]

there should be a date stamped on inside of tank.

 

[newhomeowner68]

Thanks journeyman. This is the number I found inside the tank:
583 28 02 05

Could it be Feb 2005?

 

[havasu]

Some of the first edition low flow toilets were made to the new government standards, but had horrible designs. They saved water as required, but didn't flush solids very well. I'd recommend pulling that toilet and replacing it with any of the top model newer design low flow toilets, and I can assure you that your toilet problem will be gone.

 

[gendow]

It could be that your tank level is too low. In general most tank levels should be kept at 1" below the overflow tube line. Adjusting the float will add more (or less) water to the tank.

 

[srloren]

Your toilet has to flush properly to start with. American Standard makes a toilet called the Champion 4. It has a 4" Douglas Valve in the bottom of the tank which makes it FLUSH. They show a demo clip by flushing a bucket of golf balls down the toilet. It works very good for those who have large stool problems. Your pump will carry the waste out only if it gets to the pump, so start by clearing the toilet with a closet auger to make sure it does not have a partial blockage. The problems with the first low flush toilets are well known and the newer toilets have solved the flushing with little water issue. So try to clear the toilet with the auger and if that doesn't fix it, change the toilet out for one of the newer low flush toilets. Don't go for the .8 gallon per flush as I believe that is over reach to save water. Try the 1.2 gal which I believe the Champion is. That's my story. Good luck.