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tecma toilet flush probs .


chubby

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Hello ,

 

Can anyone help with a very annoying problem with my toilet . Its a tecma macerator toilet thats not flushing basically . It just fills with water , theres the grinding noise of the macerator but no vacuum pulling thru to the holding tank . I ve been testing it using just water but its just filling the bowl & staying there .

 

any help please as i m wearying of the constant problems ,

 

cheers lots

edit . i m the only user so i know for certain theres no blockages

Edited by chubby
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That's the symptom my Sani macerator loo had which turned out to be the result of a build up of scale in the pipes. Assuming you've tried flushing it with the engine running (to be sure there's no voltage drop) buy some descaler from Lee Sanitation. Flush it through the system, leave it for 72 hours then flush through with water. Hopefully things will come back to life.

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That's the symptom my Sani macerator loo had which turned out to be the result of a build up of scale in the pipes. Assuming you've tried flushing it with the engine running (to be sure there's no voltage drop) buy some descaler from Lee Sanitation. Flush it through the system, leave it for 72 hours then flush through with water. Hopefully things will come back to life.

I'll bet he hopes that dose'nt happen!

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Thanks BSP ,

 

I'll get some descaler as you mention . The strangest thing is if i disconnect the water inlet and the rubber " joint " that connects to the pipe to the holding tank and the refit them inexactly the same way the flush works ( using only water to test ) and the water is drawn into the holding tank but subsequent attempts fail & the water just remains in the bowl .

I ve been trying this several times this afternoon and each tie the same thing happens . I ve read thru old threads here & nothing seems relevant to this problem .

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thanks for this advice . I read about this leesan descaler on some old threads . I hadn t yet looked to see how much it is but will look on ebay too . Ideally i'd like to find a shop where i can go in and get it as i'd like to get this toilet fixed asap .

 

cheers again .

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I haven t called them no as this problem began today . Apart from trying

the phosphoric acid i ' m stumped for ideas .

edit to add . I ll call lee sanitation on Monday to see if they have any advice - thanks for that

Edited by chubby
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The boatyard who serviced my macerator loo did phone Lee Sanitation for advice. The advice they gave is what I passed on above! And I now have a working toilet. By all means phone them too. If you buy phosphoric acid, make sure it has corrosion inhibitors in it and you use the correct dilution. More important if you have a loo tank that's integral to the hull, admittedly.


By the way, are you sure you've been using a very easily broken down loo paper (eg. Not posh loo paper) and that there's no chance there could be long hair finding its way into the macerator (no Rapunzels or Iron Maiden fans brushing their locks in the bathroom, without the loo seat being down?) Apparently these can cause partial blockages in the macerator too.

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I've had a look at Lee Sanitation website but they don't seem to deal in Tecma - bloody Italian shite ! However they're likely to know a bit about them....and why not to buy them..........

 

The Wyvern hire fleet have Tecma macerator loos installed. They insist the only suitable loo paper is Happy Shopper loo paper - better even than Tesco Value loo paper for their Tecma loos, so the fellas at Wyvern told me. Using that has reduced the number of problems they've had with their loos.

 

A call to Wyvern might also help Chubby to resolve the problem.

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Cheers again ,

 

BSP - please don t think in any way i was doubting your sound advice , for which im very grateful . I ' ll be getting some asap and doing precisely as you suggest .

One thing occurred to me first thing this morning , which i mentioned earlier and sruck me as strange & frustrating .

When i disconnect the pipework from toilet to holding tank , drain it & put back together it works first go but not second . The light on the panel is green . I ve wondered whether theres a prob with the light or whatever it is that senses full / empty & infact the tank is pretty full .

this may explain why go no1 works - the flush is refilling the drained pipework , but go no2 fails to flush . The bowl fills , the grinder grinds but the water goes nowhere .

So i ' m going thru the unenvious task of self pumping out a couple of plastic containers. to see if it will work when an amount is removed from the holding tank .

If it works then i ll know that the tank i thought to be empty is fuller than i thought and will get the rest pumped out asap .

Regardless of what happens i ll be buying a porta potti as a backup .

 

cheers again for your help

cheers

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well ,

 

Quelle surprise . it hasn t worked . Still no toilet . Can anyone suggest where i might buy phosphoric acid other than online ? I doubt its poss . If no joy i shall investigate further online .

I 'll also get in touch with the hire company to see what they have to say . Even if i get it working i m going to dump the acid in anyway ,

 

cheers for now

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Ok ,

 

Just to update this thread as all the old ones i read thru when trying to figure out what to do next seemed to just end abruptly .

All fixed and working now . I called both Leesan & Wyvern boats and the two chaps i spoke to were very helpful indeed with thier suggestions and i 'm extremely grateful to them so thankyou for suggesting these two companies .

 

To test the macerator i was advised to disconnect the pipework to the holding tank and put the pipe from the toilet into a bucket , cover with a towel and try to flush as normal . This ascertains whether the macerator is operating as it should . When tested water rushed out into the bucket . So the macerator was fine & i would not need to buy any descaler .

I then removed the breather hose to check for blockages . No probs there . I then pumped out the holding tank .... grim but not much in there . This left the hose connecting the toilet to the holding tank and after a few test attempts it seemed likely this was blocked . Pushing a wooden broom handle down the pipe confirmed this . Mr muscle only partially worked and whatever it was that blocked this pipe i did manage to dislodge after a very vigorous beating from the broom handle . This however damaged the hose so i replaced it and now everything works fine .

The test of the macerator that iwas advised to do was very useful and put my mind at rest that the toilet was fine and that there must be a blockage elsewhere , after which it was a process of elimination as to where the blockage must be . Sorry for the lengthy post but i wanted to end the thread by reporting back so hopefully it canbe of help to others . Thankyou to everyone who helped me ,

cheers

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there is another problem with some models of Tecma toilets that can give these symptoms. On some models there is a short, small bore ballance pipe between the two bends in the rubber "U" bend section and if this scales up it can cause this symptom. I have had this happen with my loo, A good warning sign is that when you fill the bowl with water you can hear a bubbling sound, de-scaler at this point does seem to keep it under control. Once it has blocked completely de-scaler doesn't seem to work, possibly because the small bore doesn't let it get to the right spot.

 

edit to add the blockage of this little pipe causes an air lock in the "U" bend so the macerator only has air to pump

Edited by John V
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  • 2 years later...

I know this is an old post but I just wanted to to second John V's point on the small bore pipe.

 

My toilet has been suffering from the same symptoms as the OP.

 

To fix it I turned the water pump off, and flushed the toilet a number of times until the water stopped flowing and bowl was clear. It was necessary to massage the pipe coming out of the u-bend to make sure all the water had cleared. This step is very necessary to avoid getting covered in the brown stuff.

 

I unclipped the top end of the small bore pipe. Don't be tempted to unscrew what looks like plastic nuts, you wont get anywhere doing that, you need to pop the pipe off the plug. The plastic nuts are to secure the pipe to the black plastic u-bend.

 

Having got the pipe off I then pushed a long wooden kebab skewer into the pipe which was blocked solid with a plug of scale. It took a bit of pushing to shift it but it went eventually. I gave the inside of the pipe a good scrape, put everything back together again and tightened it all up.

 

I then whacked a good glug of concentrated phosphoric acid in the bowl and left it overnight,

 

All sorted now.

 

Now, as far I know, the concentrated phosphoric acid will do no damage to metal/rubber/plastic parts and if you use it when you have a half full pump out tank then when you flush the toilet afterwards any acid that hasn't reacted will get neutralised.

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Blimey

 

I started that thread yonks ago !!!

 

In the end having gathered a bit more liveaboard boating experience i did the very thing i ought to have done all along .

 

Take the fecking fuse out , disable the poxy thing & stick a cassette toilet in !!

 

cheers

Edited by chubby
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