Toilets

 I’ve been having trouble opening & closing the toilet blade recently. That’s the part that connects the inside toilet to the holding cassette underneath. It’s been taking all my physical strength to open it, & even then it’s not opening enough for a clean getaway down under 😉 it also causes liquid leakage, which isn’t pleasant to deal with when emptying at the dump station.

Time for maintenance!

Trouble shooting these issues with only a manual to go by, can be extremely challenging. The first step is to see if I need to buy parts, a whole new cassette, or simply clean it. I decided to check the state of it first, so I watched a couple of Youtube vids to see how it connects all the parts. 

It’s a complex piece of equipment, with all of the parts being plastic. There’s a float inside for indicator levels, an emptying spout, seals, a breather valve, a blade & handles. I dismantled what I could, without having to worry about difficulty in putting it back together. My brother brilliantly stepped up to do the stuff I couldn’t do, & help me learn. So helpful! Then the fun of taking it all apart. Long gloves were worn😉

We fiddled for a few hours, finding out how all the parts interconnected, & found the seal has gone for the blade opening knob. Brother then poured generous amounts of soapy water into the blade knob, & turned it repeatedly to loosen any gunge. 

I decided to try the per carbonate of soda & clean the cassette, as a first step to resolving the stiffness of the parts. It fizzes in warm water, being the active ingredient in all the laundry soaking products. It’s oxygen related cleaning & safe to use. I mixed up a big batch & filled the cassette to half & went for a drive to shake it up, after carefully cleaning around the blade & seal area.

After emptying the cassette I filled it with fresh water & forgot the chemicals that break everything down. I won’t do that again. Smelly is an understatement! Ammonia in a camper is a strong smell! Some people use the per carbonate instead of the traditional chemicals, as it’s much cheaper & works really well. I’ll do that when I run out of chemical, as the biomagic isn’t cleaning the cassette, like it’s supposed to do. Anyway, for now the job is done to a satisfactory level. It’s necessary to spend on things that are urgent only, otherwise the bank account gets emptied at a rate of knotts. (Like running water)