Toilet Replace and Odd Electrical Behavior

[Jim Stoltz]

Rather than continue to hijack Paul's thread, I figured I'd start my own.

Dometic 310 toilet and the "adapter kit" are on the way. The adapter kit allows me to use my existing flange, which is cemented to the tank (don't want to have to cut it out).

And this is why I hate carpet in bathrooms.

I guess the toilet had been leaking. The only soft spots are under the flange - only 2 of the 6 bolts were gripping anything. 

They screwed the flange down through the carpet and padding, so I need to put 1/4" underlayment down in order to bring the floor up to the flange anyway. There's some carpeted trim that covers the pipes in the back. I may fabricate my own and try to tile it rather than put the carpeted pieces back in.

Also, some curious electrical behavior. It started when the hot water heater blew a fuse. There was a green wire running from the HW heater to nowhere. According to the wiring diagram, it's the *ground* for the indicator light. Well the indicator light works like it should without this wire hooked up. This wire is hot and had grounded out on a copper pipe. I taped it up and replaced the fuse. But I didn't have any fuses so I took one out of a spot marked "SPARE". Despite this marking, there was a red wire attached to the lug that runs into the wall somewhere. More on that in a minute.

I was working in the bathroom and the lights started to flicker. They eventually went out. All the lights on one of the two light circuits were very, very dimly lit. They were getting a little bit of juice from somewhere. I unplugged it from the shore power and plugged it back in. All the lights came back on. But, it did the same thing this morning.

So I took the fuse out of the HW slot and touched it to the slot with the mysterious red wire. All the lights came on! Even without the fuse installed - it just needed connected briefly. Assuming that the lights would eventually go out again without this fuse, I installed it and everything seems fine. Any ideas? It's only the one light circuit that goes out.

[Jim Stoltz]

I've been thinking about this and would like to avoid what you see in the first pic in the future. The wood was soaking wet. Since this was the first trip in 7 years with the thing, I assume the wet was from our recent use of the toilet.

It's clear in that picture that the toilet was leaking outside the flange. The question is how or why? It was a Thetford Aqua Magic IV. It was obvious that it wasn't holding water, but I assumed that the water (and other fluids) were simply leaking into the black water tank. So when a toilet isn't holding water, should you also assume that the water is also leaking where it shouldn't be?

[paul nevitt]

The water could have and must likely came from the inlet valve on the back of the toilet. Mine had a small leak at the valve before it finally let go. From what I have read and seen it seems to be a normal problem with this toilets as they got older. From what I can see on my old toilet even if the seal to the flush valve is bad it can only really go into the tank. If you fill the bowl with water just look to see where the water is coming from. That would be a quick test to see if it was the main seal or if waste did get on you floor. just my 2 cents 

[Jim Stoltz]

Thanks. The old toilet is gone. Or at least in a place that I don't want to dig it out (missed the garbage guy last week - whatever was in the can has liquified and the stench and flies is unbearable). 

I'd like to think it was the fresh water inlet rather than the "exit". I'm going to run with that :)

[paul nevitt]

LOL!! Yeah I was happier when I found it was my fresh water inlet leaking and not the waste water. Hey at least you know it wont be leaking now and if it does you will see it right away.

[Jim Stoltz]

Toilet arrived today. Yay. <golf clap>

[paul nevitt]

I think that might leak!!! WOW!!!!

[Jim Stoltz]

Yep. Leaky in just a couple spots. Funny because I was in the driveway when the UPS guy got there. He set the box down on the camper steps and was unusually chatty. Talked to me about the camper, asked what year it was, where do I go with it, etc. as he was walking back to his truck. Then he jumped in and took off like he had just robbed a bank. He had to know that box should not have sounded like a bunch of broken china plates inside.

I contacted the eBay seller but haven't heard back yet which isn't a great sign. The seller has a good rating and over 20,000 transactions though. If they give me any trouble I'll dispute it and get one from RV Parts Country. They have one with a sprayer for the same price.

[paul nevitt]

I get most of my stuff from RV Parts Country. Never had a problem with them. Good luck man.

[Jim Stoltz]

So here's an interesting turn of events. The eBay seller is "rvexit". Naturally they don't have a phone number on eBay so I googled them. Turns out they have the same address as Colaw RV Salvage. The phone number that came up for R V Exit didn't work so I called Colaw. I asked the parts guy if they sold stuff on eBay under the name rvexit. He said "yeah, they might still be doing that". Then he took my name and number and said someone will call. Not encouraging.

[Jim Stoltz]

I should have looked at the box sooner. It was drop shipped directly from Dometic, with a bill to: Colaw RV Parts. There was a phone number on the packing slip, too, but it put me back to the same person at Colaw that said "someone" will call me back. And, while most of their feedback on ebay is positive (99.5%), all of the negative feedback is due to slow or no communication. Great.

[John "T" Nordhoff]

 I've bought a ton of stuff on E Bay and anytime I OPENED A CASE I always got response and satisfaction. HOWEVER its still a huge hassle to get the Return Authorization (RMA Number) and then fool with shipping and cost and to get the new one it can take time and work and running grrrrrrrrr. Often if an item that's fragile isn't too much more at the local RV Dealer I pay the extra bucks to buy it local. E Bay is good to work with, if contact the seller doesn't bring immediate satisfaction Id open a case, that gets their attention.

 John T

[Jim Stoltz]

I spoke with someone at Colaw. He says they're sending another one. He wasn't really sure what to do with the broken one. I asked if he wanted to arrange for UPS to pick it up. He had sort of an "I guess so" response.