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Thetford toilet leak - Georgetown 327DS
A couple of years ago, I started noticing water appearing in the basement storage compartment just forward of the rear wheels, on the driver's side. This compartment has a wood box attached to its rear wall which is the receiving box for the AC/DC power lines to the slide when the slide is extended. The water appeared to be dripping from inside this box.
On our current trip, I apparently levelled the coach one time with the passenger side a trace lower than the driver side. The DW announced to me that there was water on the bathroom floor, around the toilet. After some investigation, I discovered that water was running down the fresh water supply line to the toilet.
I assumed that the problem was the fitting where it connects to the toilet and tried tightening the nut, recrimping the pex tube clamp, and replacing the cone washer in the fitting. I dried the connection area and wrapped it with toilet paper in different places to see if I could determine where it was leaking from by which pieces of toilet paper were getting wet. Nothing worked. In desperation, I finally called my dealer and spoke to their senior service technician. He told me to get into the area with an inspection mirror and watch for something leaking above the hose connection. Fortunately, if we shut off the water pump, it didn't leak so we were turning on the pump only when needed.
When I checked for the leak, I was surprised to discover that water was slowly dripping from the valve stem. The valve housing is translucent and it appeared that the stem was sealed by an O ring. I found a replacement valve assembly on Amazon, and with a prime membership, would have the replacement part by Friday, two days away. I then called Thetford to see if the O ring could be replaced using one from a local hardware store. Their answer was "not a replaceable part, we can sell you a new valve."
Friday afternoon, the UPS delivery status was changed from "out for delivery" to "delivery delayed". I called UPS and they stated that the address portion of the mailing label was destroyed and it was returned to the distribution center, almost two hours away from me. UPS used the tracking number to generate a new label and delivered it Monday. When the package wasn't delivered Friday, I contacted Amazon to complain. Amazon gave me a $10 credit on the order and shipped a replacement overnight, with delivery Monday. Monday afternoon, I had two new valves for the toilet.
Thetfords's instructions state that you need to remove the toilet to replace the valve. The bathroom in my unit has enough space behind the toilet that I was able to replace the valve without removing the toilet. No more leaking and I have a spare valve.
Once fixed, I discovered that the valve can be easily disassembled to get to the O ring. I'll be replacing it at home, after this trip, where I can hook it up to my house's water supply to check if the O ring replacement fixes the problem. If it does, I'll have two spares!
Phil
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