Help! Leaking under the toilet, plus....

Preparing for a trip on Thursday, I was charging the toilet in preparation. The charge indicator only got up to "charging" on the dial, because I read on the seat cover to add water up to the "c", but I saw no other "c". The Thetford manual says to charge it up to the "blue" indicator. Well that is just explanation as to why I stopped.
I was going to add the Calgon and Laundry Detergent and let it work while travelling, and to test how to get the solution into the tank, I pulled the dump valve under the toilet, then pushed the valve back in. Went away to do other things for about an hour. When I came back, I noticed that the ground was wet. I looked under the trailer and saw what appeared to be water dripping down around the main sewerage pipe, but of more concern to me: I also saw some dripping from the bottom of the sidewall in the area where the tub/shower would be. It wasn't a steady stream, just beads of water.
Any ideas of what could be wrong? I had to go out for about an hour and having just come back after two hours, the dripping has stopped.
"

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by EAKlebe

Preparing for a trip on Thursday, I was charging the toilet in preparation. The charge indicator only got up to "charging" on the dial, because I read on the seat cover to add water up to the "c", but I saw no other "c". The Thetford manual says to charge it up to the "blue" indicator. Well that is just explanation as to why I stopped.
I was going to add the Calgon and Laundry Detergent and let it work while travelling, and to test how to get the solution into the tank, I pulled the dump valve under the toilet, then pushed the valve back in. Went away to do other things for about an hour. When I came back, I noticed that the ground was wet. I looked under the trailer and saw what appeared to be water dripping down around the main sewerage pipe, but of more concern to me: I also saw some dripping from the bottom of the sidewall in the area where the tub/shower would be. It wasn't a steady stream, just beads of water.
Any ideas of what could be wrong? I had to go out for about an hour and having just come back after two hours, the dripping has stopped.
"

I've used Calgon and "Dishwasher Detergent". I've never used laundry detergent. It may be that the laundry detergent was too strong for the seals or something.........just a guess.

[wbmiller3]

It's common for blowouts to damage the external plumbing. Since it appears your trailer had blowouts, I'd check the pipes carefully for cracks, etc.

Was the black water dump valve ( on the 3" drain uner the TM) closed tight?

[Bill]

Re the initial fill. You need to add water to the toilet until the pump works, but you don't need to add any more. When the gauge starts to rise, just tap the FLUSH button every 10 seconds or so. You will either get a quiet hum (meaning not enough water), or a loud solid surge of water into the bowl (you've got enough water). The gauge may not go up as far as the "C" or the blue indicator, but it won't be too far below it.

As for the leak, I suspect that the seal between the toilet and the floor is leaking. No fun to replace, but not a disaster. You can find lots of threads here in the Plumbing Forum about how to replace it. As a temporary measure, a much easier answer is "Don't pull the handle under the toilet until your dump hose is in place, and the outside valve on the big pipe is open/pulled." If you pull the toilet valve last, the whoosh will pretty much bypass the toilet-to-floor seal.

On the other hand, if you don't pull the toilet handle, and the leak you described still happens, then the valve on the bottom of the toilet isn't sealing, and needs to be replaced. This valve is called Slide-EZ, and there are a lot of posts on this topic, as well.

Bill

[Wavery]

The reason that I brought up the "laundry detergent" issue is, laundry detergent makes suds. If you drove the trailer around with this in there or ran the toilet pump, you may just be experiencing the residual of the suds.

I get this in my apt building a lot. People will put "dish soap" in their dishwasher instead of "dish-washing detergent". The dish soap make suds and the suds go all over the floor. The tenant writes me a Maintenance Request" that the dishwasher is leaking. 100% of these complaints have been due to the use of the wrong detergent.

Dishwasher detergent makes NO suds.

Originally Posted by wbmiller3

It's common for blowouts to damage the external plumbing. Since it appears your trailer had blowouts, I'd check the pipes carefully for cracks, etc.

I suspected that, but I could see that the water was actually running down from up where the sewerage pipe went into the floor of the TM. I didn't get under the TM to check the far side, I'll have to do that.

Originally Posted by harveyrv

I've used Calgon and "Dishwasher Detergent". I've never used laundry detergent. It may be that the laundry detergent was too strong for the seals or something.........just a guess.

I didn't actually put anything in. I was going to put some in so it would agitate around while on the road, but I just pulled the dump handle under the toilet just to see how it worked.

Originally Posted by rumbleweed

Was the black water dump valve ( on the 3" drain uner the TM) closed tight?

Yes both the black water and the gray water valves were and are tightly closed.

Originally Posted by Bill

Re the initial fill. You need to add water to the toilet until the pump works, but you don't need to add any more. When the gauge starts to rise, just tap the FLUSH button every 10 seconds or so. You will either get a quiet hum (meaning not enough water), or a loud solid surge of water into the bowl (you've got enough water). The gauge may not go up as far as the "C" or the blue indicator, but it won't be too far below it.

As for the leak, I suspect that the seal between the toilet and the floor is leaking. No fun to replace, but not a disaster. You can find lots of threads here in the Plumbing Forum about how to replace it. As a temporary measure, a much easier answer is "Don't pull the handle under the toilet until your dump hose is in place, and the outside valve on the big pipe is open/pulled." If you pull the toilet valve last, the whoosh will pretty much bypass the toilet-to-floor seal.

On the other hand, if you don't pull the toilet handle, and the leak you described still happens, then the valve on the bottom of the toilet isn't sealing, and needs to be replaced. This valve is called Slide-EZ, and there are a lot of posts on this topic, as well.

Bill

Is this a different seal than the slide valve that you pull to dump the toilet?
I get the impression that the one I pulled is the "Slide-EZ". I kind of thought, after reading some posts here, that perhaps that Slide-EZ (which I understand has some sort of gasket on it) had distorted the sealing gasket and that it was now leaking. I did notice, when I checked this afternoon, that the toilet charge seemed to be lower than before.