Toilet Won't Empty

This past weekend when we were ready to fold down and head for the dump station, I attempted to empty the contents of the TM toilet. When I pulled the lever at the bottom of the toilet the contents did not drop. The level indicator did not indicate that the level had dropped any. I tried working the lever several times to no avail. When we got to the dump station I opened the black water valve first and did get some flow but I can't be sure if the contents of the toilet actually dumped completely. I plan to open up the TM in the morning to check the toilet again to access the situation.

Anyone else ever had this problem and if so how was it handled.

Thanks
Mike

Thanks for the reply. My first problem is getting the "stuff" out of the toilet. Any ideas on this one? Sounds like a potentially messy, stinky operation.

i had a similar problem and thought the worst. our toilet did exactly the same thing that yours has done. we only use ours for liquid waste. when ours did not drop the liquid after engaging the handle we could not figure it out so i went and dumped but did not dump the black water in that i was sure there was no black water to dump. did this for three weekend trips before i could work on it. after each trip i used a black and decker hand crank sump pump that worked extremely well to remove the liquid waste. not pretty but it worked well. i ordered all the new parts and talked to several people at trailmanor and also the toilet manufacturer and everyone was stumped in that if the rod was broken more than likely it would pull completely out from under the stool. upon starting to take the stool out, which i hope i never have to do because i doubt that i can do it, i discovered that a rock had gotten wedged behind the pull rod which allowed the original fill water to seep past and fill the dump drain. so when you pulled the handle the new liquid had no place to go. once the rock was removed mine worked fine and has ever since.

to get to the point to see behind the handle you need to take off the bottom trim piece which is easier on the right side of the stool. i don't think i will ever be able to get the trim off of the left side do to the narrow space.

hopes this solves your problem because i can attest to how we depend on the toilet to always work. thankfully, we made an agreement to only use it for liquid waste because i knew that something like this would happen to me! we use our 3023 about 150-180 days a year for pleasure and business so i want to minimize all potential problems.

dennisu

Originally Posted by MMARFISI

This past weekend when we were ready to fold down and head for the dump station, I attempted to empty the contents of the TM toilet. When I pulled the lever at the bottom of the toilet the contents did not drop. The level indicator did not indicate that the level had dropped any.

Just a thought here...did you check to make sure that the gauge is not stuck? You didn't hear anything drop? since you indicated that you...

...did get some flow...

Could you have misjudged the amount of flow?
Hate to see you have to disassemble the whole loo if its only a sticking gauge.

Well folks...I lucked out! This morning we set up the TM to tackle our toilet problem. When I checked the level guage it read empty. I refilled and emptied the system several times and all worked well. I still can't figure what happened when we did the original dump. The liquid did not seem to drop and the level guage did not indicate a level change.

Is it possible for some kind of vacuum to form preventing the liquid from dropping till the outside dump valve is opened? That's all I can think of.

Anyway, everything seems to be working ok now. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. You folks are great!

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by MMARFISI

Well folks...I lucked out! This morning we set up the TM to tackle our toilet problem. When I checked the level guage it read empty. I refilled and emptied the system several times and all worked well. I still can't figure what happened when we did the original dump. The liquid did not seem to drop and the level guage did not indicate a level change.

Is it possible for some kind of vacuum to form preventing the liquid from dropping till the outside dump valve is opened? That's all I can think of.

Anyway, everything seems to be working ok now. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. You folks are great!

First of all, it's really, really unlikely that you had any kind of vacuum preventing the liquid in the toilet from dropping when you pulled the slide valve...that's a very large opening and highly unlikely to develop any vacuum issues.

My strong suspicion is that the slide valve in the bottom of the toilet was not fully closed from the beginning and that your outlet pipe was already filled before you pulled the toilet's slide valve fully out in your dump preparation. If that was the case, you would not have seen any drop in the gauge level nor would you have heard any sound of fluid dropping. And then after the outlet pipe had been drained, your toilet correctly showed that it was empty. The outlet pipe only holds about a quart and a half of liquid so it would be very easy for it to have been filled when you initially charged your toilet.

The bottom line is I strongly doubt that you have to worry about being able to dump your toilet. I would, however, suggest you very carefully verify that your toilet is not dumping into the outlet pipe through a leaky slide valve before you intentionally pull the slide valve to dump it.

[truesdac]

On my first test camp, I forgot to close the inside valve before charging. The outside valve was closed. I noticed after I had already put in a couple of gallons of water and closed the valve. When I was closing up the camper I pulled the inside valve and there was also no noise because the pipe was already full as has been stated. The rest of the draining was uneventful and has worked correctly since.

Charlie

________
1995 2720SL

[G-V_Driver]

From my sailing days, I remember that the marinas have suction hoses for terlit holding tank waste removal. I don't know if you could find one where you could get the TM close enough to the pump to use it, and don't know if similar services exist elsewhere, but maybe a septic tank pump company could provide some help if worse comes to worse. Wouldn't take long if you could get the hose in the Thetford.