Crap!!! It finally happened. Does anyone know of a way to retrieve a small, round object (~ 5/8" diameter) from the down-turn in an electrically operated toilet bowl....without pulling the toilet and disconnecting it from it sanitary hose and/or macerator? Or does this need to be dirty, stinking and unforgettable? I've got a feeling there is no easy solution but I'd be crazy not to ask.
This is a Tecma/Thetford marine head if that matters.
Thanks,
Mark
Good luck
I can share the Exploding head story if you wish, but its better told over a cold beer crossing some awful foul weather situation.
I say leave it alone and wait until your 200 miles offshore in eight foot seas! Much more fun and what an experience!
Ed
Ed, I did read your story and got seasick tied to my dock. You get the Cruiser's Badge for "Nightmare at Sea", and I pray never to have your experience. So, while I'm here and long before going to sea I might as well do the job, at least until I can get this thing out of here and buy a good hand operated head. Any tips you want to offer will be appreciated. The issue is that the head has the macerator attached to the sanitary hose and it appears to all be tucked up beneath the unit and the cavity below the toilet. Of course the hoses are stiff as pvc and I'm afraid to lift the damn thing off its bolts for fear of everything coming undone where I can't get to it (again, as you know better than me). I have all the water out of the bowl of course but can't get down the rabbit hole going to the macerator. Do you suppose there's a way to suck the bottle cap out? Hmm, I wonder how long I can procrastinate on this one?
MF
OMG
Do not envy you this job, will the macerator not chop up the bottle cap? can you still flush water through the head? if you can I have found that using hydrogen peroxide in a couple of passes will get rid of most of the organics (poop) residue and make working on the system a little less nasty, flush with H/P allow to sit for a while and then rinse out with clean water.
Last year on an offshore passage we had a blockage that I traced to calcified hose and Y valve so it may not be a bad idea to pull the head out of the boat and just check the old hoses for calcification.
Good luck but if the pump will not digest the cap then I think you will need to remove it manually.
Ed
The pump/macerator works but will not empty the bowl and nothing is passing through the hoses either to the holding tank or the seacock. The macerator will definitely not handle a plastic bottle cap. Damn, I wish I'd known I was supposed to add white vinegar or peroxide from time to time. More proof it's what you don't know that gets you.
Thanks for the tip though.
MF
Wanda read somewhere that fabric softener worked well to clean up the system. It won't get rid of calcification, but it will generally clean up the system. I tried it when I replumbed ours. I pumped some into all the hoses, poured the rest down the pumpout on deck and filled the tank with water. Let it sit overnight, then pumped out. I replaced all the hoses, pulled and washed out the holding tank. There was very little odor- I recommend it if you are going to tear into the system.
Hi Ray,
Well, I just spoke with the fellow who sold me the boat and he believes its a recurring stoppage that he has cleared in the past and is not too big a deal. As for the small bottle cap that is now ready to be sucked into the macerator, the local chandlery that sells this head has told me that the macerator will chew it up and spit it out so I'll probably give that a try before doing a lot of unpleasant tearing-apart.
The fabric softener does make sense, but I wonder if it should be alternated with regular does of white vinegar. For the moment I can easily live without the head so I think I'll scope things out before diving into this job.
Thanks for your suggestion.
Mark