Toilet smell water leaks / no seal

ywgbear · 09-11-2017, 01:13 PM

Seems that our new trailer's toilet leaks water thru to the black tank. At 1st it worked as regular with a little water being held back when flushing to create a water seal to stop toilet smell from coming up. Matter a fact we could hold the pedal slightly to allow more water to be held in the toilet bowl. But now no water will stay in bowl. Is there a valve or pedal adjustment one can make to get back to where it was??? Looks pretty sealed up.

Thanks

A32Deuce · 09-11-2017, 01:23 PM

May just need a good cleaning. Ours did that till I cleaned it real good with bowl cleaner and a brush. Holds now. Also there is a freshener liquid I use in the bowl when it sits for a while. Seams to also help.

ywgbear · 09-11-2017, 02:39 PM

I did a wipe down and around, thought I got to the inner seal, under and over the closer. Can't hurt to try again, thanks.

andymil · 09-11-2017, 08:08 PM

Ours didn't hold water on our first time out. RVW sent a tech out on a Saturday afternoon (day after we bought it). We were only four miles from RVW. He fixed it but said it may happen again. He was right. When we got home, I called RVW and they sent me a new toilet. I changed it myself. Problem solved.

ywgbear · 09-12-2017, 07:06 AM

Thanks for the heads up, When I call my dealer I'll offer the idea to bring out a new toilet as a back up. We're a park model so they have to come out to us, real pain as they need to be prepared.

Thanks for the insight, have a great day,

Cover Dog · 09-12-2017, 07:42 AM

We also had that problem but here's what I did and it worked. Instead of releasing the pedal slowly as the water was coming in, I would let my foot slip off the edge of the pedal and the valve would slam shut, this took care of our problem.

houstonstroker · 09-12-2017, 07:47 AM

Ours also needs to be slammed shut. Sometimes build up of crud and minerals will cause the leak. I have had good luck with adding some CLR to the bowl. It will dissolve the crud and seel again.

ben31 · 09-12-2017, 07:53 AM

Plumber's Grease (silicone) works very well at keeping the valve seal working. Turn off the water, put on some gloves, open the valve, wipe down the seal with some paper towels, then apply a liberal amount of grease to the seal. That should solve your problem.

**KyDan** · 09-12-2017, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ben31

Plumber's Grease (silicone) works very well at keeping the valve seal working. Turn off the water, put on some gloves, open the valve, wipe down the seal with some paper towels, then apply a liberal amount of grease to the seal. That should solve your problem.

That's a reasonable suggestion but we've had RVs for 12 years- 4 different
trailers and never had one potty that failed to hold water.
IF I had a new rig and the potty wouldn't hold water I'd want it fixed rather than
to keep applying more silicone grease every few days.

Just my 2¢

Good luck!

**Flybob** · 09-12-2017, 08:16 AM

Check to insure that the black rubber seal that the gate valve seats into did not get accidentally pushed down into the black tank. This can happen if cleaned improperly.

ywgbear · 09-12-2017, 08:46 AM

Thank you everyone, appreciate the insight. I've tried a few things, but I'm a bit pissed with having to do anything on a unit we got in May and used maybe 8 weekends. I'll do a retry on the slamming, & wiping, the grease idea I will keep in mind for a few years down the road. I'm going to have the dealer come out on some other issues they need to address and I'll throw it at them and suggest a spare toilet could be a good idea.

Cheers everyone

latner · 09-12-2017, 02:54 PM

I bought a ceramic toilet to replace the plastic one the camper came with and right out of the box the new one would not hold water. After reading the instructions

, it said that if the toilet will not hold water to go ahead and fill the bowl with hot water and let it cool to "reshape" the rubber seal to the valve...over a year now and it still holds water the way it should.

eye95 · 09-12-2017, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by latner

I bought a ceramic toilet to replace the plastic one the camper came with and right out of the box the new one would not hold water. After reading the instructions

, it said that if the toilet will not hold water to go ahead and fill the bowl with hot water and let it cool to "reshape" the rubber seal to the valve...over a year now and it still holds water the way it should.

Great tip, but how hot? HW tank hot, or from the stove hot?

Thanks.

A32Deuce · 09-12-2017, 08:43 PM

Tank hot.

ProfChuck · 09-12-2017, 09:04 PM

When we got our trailer, I bought an extra toilet seal. The instructions were pretty simple for removing the old one and installing the new one. We haven't had to do that yet (no leaks), but, on the instruction sheet they showed you how to remove and clean the old one as well. It was just a snap in seal, so you might be able to pull it out and clean it and put it back in (with nitrile gloves, of course). That may solve the problem without buying a new seal.

herbike · 09-12-2017, 09:11 PM

Our toilet wouldn't hold water in the bowl and we were getting black tank odors. I may have caused the problem myself using a wand to rinse the black tank. What I found was the "ball valve" had slipped off the hinge on the left side (looking at the toilet standing in front of it). I finally got brave and reached down through the hole and put the leg back on its pin. I'm wondering if it had something that came off that was supposed to hold it on that side. It's still working fine since that incident.

Good Luck with your fix.

ProfChuck · 09-12-2017, 09:41 PM

Sounds like you may have fixed it. When our toilet was new, (and never used) I checked the seal and found it to be just fitted into it's space and even a little "floppy" in there. It hadn't looked right, so I wanted to check it before it was used. I think the plastic ball shaped piece just pushes the seal against the bottom of the toilet bowl to keep the water in. You may be able to find a blow up diagram on line or in your instruction manual that would show the parts and see if you are missing one for that side catch. They way they design these things, it may not need any fasteners to hold it except the pivot pins and the seal just snapped in. I keep waiting for it to leak, but, after 5 years (with a 6 month full-time use period) it hasn't leaked at all. My wife cleans it with a dobbie (not sure how it is spelled) pad on a stick (like you would use for pots) and a little Dawn dish soap. We don't even use anything else in the tank anymore except a little Dawn (like about an ounce) every once in a while and the Scott tissue 1000 sheet stuff. Only had one clog that worked its way out during the flush the whole 5 years we have had the trailer. I use a wand to clean it at the end of the season and it has worked well (made the want from 1/2 in copper pipe). Just put my foot on the pedal (water in trailer off), stick the wand down into the tank and blast away. Takes only a couple of minutes and even cleans off the sensors. After it drains for a couple minutes the sensors read empty. The only time I get a smell is when I forget and leave the bathroom vent fan on when I am flushing (duh!) and it pulls up the air from the tank. Other than that, we actually get less smell than when we regularly used the commercial tank cleaner/deodorizers (mainly the enzyme type). Wish I had known that 40 years ago when we had our first trailer. Would have saved a lot of money and smell. By the way, the Scott tissue slides down pretty easily and doesn't "dissolve" and cake up like paper mache' and clog the tank. We have been using it for about 7-8 years now with no problems.

DouglasReid · 09-13-2017, 06:50 AM

I tried everything suggested here to repair the toilet so it would hold water.

Nothing worked.

Finally I just replaced the black rubber seal, a 5 minute job, and the problem was solved.

I thought it was overpriced at $28.00 but it solved the problem.

eye95 · 09-13-2017, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A32Deuce

Tank hot.

Thanks.

ProfChuck · 09-14-2017, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DouglasReid

I tried everything suggested here to repair the toilet so it would hold water.

Nothing worked.

Finally I just replaced the black rubber seal, a 5 minute job, and the problem was solved.

I thought it was overpriced at $28.00 but it solved the problem.

Great! They are pretty easy to put in and you shouldn't have any trouble with it now that it holds water. I agree, it's a bit pricey, but, if it solves the problem, it's probably worth it. At the end of the season, I dump a cup of antifreeze into the empty bowl and it is usually there (most of it) the next spring.

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