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Old 07-25-2009, 08:00 PM   #1
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toilet question

Hi, Two days until I leave on my first camping trip, and I have a dumb toilet question. I have a Thetford Agua IV toilet and was wondering if the water from the bowl empties into the base of the toilet before going into the black water tank, or is there something missing? In my old trailer there was a tube that ran from the bowl into the holding tank. It was a clean system, and easy to maintain.
With this Aqua Iv, it seems odd that everything from the bowl would empty into the base of the toilet before going into the black water tank. When I flushed it, I held the valve open to get a look, and the inside of the base was disgusting.
If it's missing something I will just replace the whole toilet, but maybe this is how it's supposed to be? Any feedback would be appreciated. Ronny
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Old 07-25-2009, 08:45 PM   #2
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Shut off the water pump and disconnect city water. Get a toilet brush or whatever, and clean the area of the toilet directly below the valve.

When that is clean, you should be able to see down past that area into the black water tank. If that hole is plugged, you have a "dreaded black pyramid."

Run some water (about 10 gallons) into the toilet and get a disposable stick or something to bust up the pyramid. If you have one of those RV wands that hooks up to a garden hose and shoots streams of water out at a 90 degree angle, that is perfect.

Clean out the tank. You may have to drain and partly fill it several times to get it cleaned out.

When you are done, whatever you put in the toilet should drop directly into the black water tank below.

You may not have to do all this before you leave. If the tank is about half full, do a day's travel. The motion of the trailer will slosh things around and begin to clean it up. Dump when you get to your first campground before you set up. Dump when you leave, and then put about 10 gallons of fresh water in the tank. Do your day's travel and then repeat as needed.

Since you are travelling to Colorado, you have at least two days travel to do this.

I hope you've tested the drains and such before now.
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Old 07-25-2009, 08:52 PM   #3
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Hi Ronny

I do not have the Thetford, I have the Sealand china 2 piece type. But I think the same end result will occur that I think you are describing.

http://www.thetford.com/HOME/PARTS/P...0/Default.aspx

Is this yours?

The instruction manual shows a cut away exploded view of the parts.

If you mean, that when you flush the toliet and look thru the ball valve you see a short lower piece of the toilet pipe before it reaches the top of the tank. And that lower piece of the ball valve housing is full of yuk?

Did I describe that right?

Well the Sealand is made the same. It look likes Thetford Aqua Magic Style 2 on page 5 of the manual above. China bowl on top of a plastic lower base.

I always make sure that lower valve body is clean and flushed. It is technically part of the black tank side of things as is everyting below the upper part ball valve seal.

Hopefully someone with your brand will chime in to confirm yours works the same way.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 07-25-2009, 08:58 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Collins
If that hole is plugged, you have a "dreaded black pyramid."
H'mm... Learn something new every day on Sunline Club.

Steve, it that the offical name for it? I never heard it called that but know exactly what your are talking about.

Every time we dump the tanks, that tank is totally cleaned out. If not at the campground because the line is backed up, I dump and run and then I come home and redump/clean. I'm fortunate I can connect into our aeration sytem and flush/dump at the house.

I'm still laughing....

John
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Old 07-26-2009, 05:30 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnB
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Collins
If that hole is plugged, you have a "dreaded black pyramid."
H'mm... Learn something new every day on Sunline Club.

Steve, it that the offical name for it? I never heard it called that but know exactly what your are talking about.
Before the internet got going, there was Usenet and the news groups. In alt.rv the official acronym was DBP and whenever someone wrote it out, it was always properly capitalized and italicized.

What mystifies me here in SOC is that there is so little talk about this problem. In the old news groups this was one of the top ten topics.

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Old 07-26-2009, 08:39 AM   #6
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Steve, your icons and out house are really comical..... DBP..... I'm still laughing....

H'mm, maybe this is a plug for , EMF.
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Old 07-26-2009, 10:46 AM   #7
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You guys are great! Glad I found this site! The icons were hilarious!
If my system doesn't work properly, I am sure I will be utilizing one of those glorious outhouses!
I can see the bottom of the black water tank, and I do not have the "dreaded black pyramid." Thank goodness for that.
Just to be safe, I think I am going to load the tanks half full before I leave, and let them clean themselves while driving. Need to get one of those cleaning wands too, before I go. Should be stopping a couple of times overnight before Colorado, so it hopefully will give them plenty of time to clean. Hopefully no worries with the tanks. Thanks again, Ronny
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Old 07-26-2009, 01:43 PM   #8
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Ice

If you're going to put something into the black tank I would suggest putting less water and adding a bag of ice just before you begin driving. This seems to do a good job of cleaning the the surfaces and simply melts and drains away.

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Old 07-26-2009, 05:01 PM   #9
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Norm - you beat me to it....we ALWAYS dump ice into the tank before taking off on a trip....preventive medicine for the dreaded DBP.

Kathy
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Old 07-30-2009, 06:28 AM   #10
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I'm still a little disturbed about the whole event......It's hard to talk about it to this day. When we bought the fiver it came with a DBP. The only thing worse than a DBP is having a DBP manufactured by another
person(s) . I just kept telling myself I was Mike Rowe, and I was starring in another episode of Dirty Jobs. And with the way the black tank is set up in the fiver it was a real pain to clean it up. The toilet drains into the pipe, which takes a bend (45 degrees) into the black tank. I won't get into many details but I can assure you it was a very, very, very, bad day.
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Old 07-30-2009, 06:48 AM   #11
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You guys are funny!

So happy I am reading this over breakfast. I would think a DBP is not fun knowing who manufactured it!

Not only have we not discussed DBP's before, but we have never discussed the (geo method) (sp?) for black tanks.

MM
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Old 07-30-2009, 11:47 AM   #12
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Quote:
... adding a bag of ice just before you begin driving. This seems to do a good job of cleaning the the surfaces and simply melts and drains away.
I have honestly never heard of this, but now that I think about it, it sounds like a perfect way to help clean the black tank.

I love this place... I can learn so much.
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Old 07-30-2009, 01:37 PM   #13
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For full size trailers, you'll probably need several bags of ice, and when you add water, make it as cold as possible so that the ice doesn't melt away before it has had a chance to do it's work.

There should be enough water in the tank for the ice to float freely about.
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