Problem with Thetford toilet

[Gareth E]

Strange one this. I have a Thetford cassette toilet. Over the past week or so I've had a developing problem with it. I don't know which model it is but if you sit on it there's a lever on the left hand side that you move to the left and backwards to open it.

 

Basically... at first I had to move the lever further than normal for it to open. Now, moving it all the way doesn't open it but if I 'pump' the lever up to 10 times it will eventually open. The interesting thing is that once opened if you close it then open it again it works perfectly, any number of times. It seems that leaving it closed for a number of hours creates the problem.

 

Any ideas about what's going on here, is it something I could maybe service? 

[MoominPapa]

First thing to do it to determine if the problem is in the toilet or in the cassette.

 

Take the cassette out of the toilet, slide the cover back so you can see the black disc which covers the hole. Now find the thing which drives that:  it's a yellow circle 2-3 cm in diameter with  a bar across it. Turn that. I can't remember the direction so try both. A half-turn should open the disc fully, and a half turn back again should close it. There's very little free play in the mechanism normally, so it you get the same sort of problems you're seeing with the lever, then the problem in the mechanism in the cassette. If it's nice and tight, then the problem is the mechanism in the toilet between the lever and the thing that turns the yellow disc on the cassette. Pray it's the later: the only way to fix the stuff in he cassette is to get your marigolds on and insert a hand inside....

 

MP.

  

Edited June 19, 2018 by MoominPapa
typos

[Jamboat]

There are some excellent videos on you tube on servicing cassettes. 

[Jerra]

Just now, Jamboat said:

There are some excellent videos on you tube on servicing cassettes. 

I was thinking that along with I haven't seen one on fixing anything other the cassettes.  Personally I would be hoping it was the cassette.

[Gareth E]

OK I've narrowed it down: I took the cassette out after not opening it overnight. The yellow slide driver had a fair amount of free play, echoing the slackness I felt at the lever on the toilet. When I opened the slide then closed it it became tight the next time I opened it. Very strange! At least I now know that there's nothing wrong with the mechanism in the toilet. Might this yellow driver be serviceable, or should I just buy a new one? 

[Lily Rose]

6 minutes ago, Gareth E said:

OK I've narrowed it down: I took the cassette out after not opening it overnight. The yellow slide driver had a fair amount of free play, echoing the slackness I felt at the lever on the toilet. When I opened the slide then closed it it became tight the next time I opened it. Very strange! At least I now know that there's nothing wrong with the mechanism in the toilet. Might this yellow driver be serviceable, or should I just buy a new one? 

If you would benefit from having one more cassette than you have now (my boat came with one but I now have three) then I'd suggest buying another and fixing the old one at your leisure.

[WotEver]

8 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

If you would benefit from having one more cassette than you have now (my boat came with one but I now have three) then I'd suggest buying another and fixing the old one at your leisure.

And the cheapest route to buying another may well be to buy a ‘freshen up kit’ which includes a cassette, new seat and some cleaning fluid for less than the cost of a stand-alone cassette. 

[Lily Rose]

I bought my two kits online from Jackson Leisure two years ago so other places may be cheaper now. The cleaning fluids will be handy to give the old one a thorough clean before trying to fix it.

 

The spare seats have, so far, been less useful. You could always place one on top of a bucket in an emergency I s'pose!

 

[Sea Dog]

On 19/06/2018 at 08:23, Gareth E said:

I don't know which model it is but if you sit on it there's a lever on the left hand side that you move to the left and backwards to open it.

Rule number one with human effluent: never use anything which has a lever to "open it"!  Once it's gone, you never want to see it again.   ?;)

 

Anyway, someone told me these things never go wrong.  Paging Mrsmelly!  Paging Mrsmelly!  

 

 

[Gareth E]

I thought about getting a spare cassette when I bought the boat, not least so I would have more time between elsan emptying stops. The price put me off though, over 100 quid, really? I compromised by buying a plastic jerry can from Aldi, 8 quid. It has large diameter spouts, ideal to pour the contents of the full cassette into. It lives happily in the engine bay.

[Richard10002]

Our boat came with 2 cassettes. I soon bought a freshen up kit with a 3rd cassette, having let them both fill up before emptying. Never had a problem since having 3.

 

i think most parts are serviceable, albeit some are very fiddly. I watched some YouTube vids when I replaced the main entry point lip seal.

3 hours ago, Gareth E said:

I thought about getting a spare cassette when I bought the boat, not least so I would have more time between elsan emptying stops. The price put me off though, over 100 quid, really? I compromised by buying a plastic jerry can from Aldi, 8 quid. It has large diameter spouts, ideal to pour the contents of the full cassette into. It lives happily in the engine bay.

Sounds like a horrible solution, (to me), when you can get a spare cassette for about eighty quid or so.

[mrsmelly]

7 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Rule number one with human effluent: never use anything which has a lever to "open it"!  Once it's gone, you never want to see it again.   ?

 

Anyway, someone told me these things never go wrong.  Paging Mrsmelly!  Paging Mrsmelly!  

 

 

They  rarely go wrong and if they do just bin the cassette its MUCH cheaper than WHEN a macerator bog goes wrong!! You old sea dog you. Thee worst though and I am sure you will agree is having a pump out bog and a self pump out kit  simply horrific and the worst of all worlds combined. I  watched a bloke using a mechanical one at the elsan point a while ago, he was slowly pumping it into a large plastic water carrier then pouring it down the elsan  time and time again. We were filling with water nearby and the smell was unbelievable and he was still at it when we had filled and made off!!

[ditchcrawler]

8 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

I bought my two kits online from Jackson Leisure two years ago so other places may be cheaper now. The cleaning fluids will be handy to give the old one a thorough clean before trying to fix it.

 

The spare seats have, so far, been less useful. You could always place one on top of a bucket in an emergency I s'pose!

 

Nicked from Facebook

[Lily Rose]

Perhaps we need a new thread on the subject of ideas for what to do with the spare seats from Thetford Fresh Up kits. Or perhaps not.

 

My two are just wasting storage space under the bed.

[Richard10002]

I fitted the one I bought, and threw the old one away.