Removing the toilet, replacing with PortaPotti

I have posted before about the crappy recirculating toilet. Check my older posts. Since you already have the toilet removed, cover the hole in the floor with a piece of rug, and place a Porta-Potti over the hole. It is so easy to dump, and you can toss the 3" sewer hose along with the recirculating pit toilet.

I perface these comments with mentioning that we have had absolutely no problems with our Thetford and it works as advertised. My "nasty" comment came after I saw the insides through ShrimpBurritos excellent pictures. I see no way to adequately clean the thing...I can imagine what must get caught in the screen. I try not to think of what must be going on inside!!!

I agree with harveyrv regarding the cassette toilet. You would have to pull it out and empty it with the TM open. So what is the major difference between that and pulling the handle to dump now? Granted, you can pull the handle, close up, and dump. But you can't add additional water to try and rinse the thing without opening up. This is only a problem if you don't have a dump on your site and have to move to do it. A cassette toilet would entail a major redesign as much of it is below floor level, so I don't know if it would work.

My current rinsing regimin is to dump, fill with clean water and dump again, then add several gallons of water to slosh around on our next drive. When I get to our next site or home, I dump again. Hopefully the sloshing will have loosened everything and it will be at least marginally clean. I hope I will never have to take the thing apart to find out! I have also reevaluated my use of the SewerSolution product, but that is for a different thread...

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by Scott O

I see no way to adequately clean the thing...I can imagine what must get caught in the screen.

We back-flush our toilet when we dump. I do it several times and I feel pretty confident that it gets most everything out

A cassette toilet would entail a major redesign as much of it is below floor level, so I don't know if it would work.

Actually, a cassette toilet is 100% on top of the floor. The only re-design would be a door on the outside of the lower shell.

harveyrv...I could have sworn that the cassette on our Starcraft was below floor level. We haven't had it for over a year so my memory may be faulty. Also, without being too graphic, could you explain your backflush method? I also do this using the SewerSolution, but wonder how much water is actually going into the tank since it is so much higher than the hose connection. The water does come back out relatively clean, so maybe this works better that I think. Thanks.

In my opinion and 1 year experience so far was to remove the thetford piece of junk and replace it with a regular fresh water rv toilet. It uses very little water and produces NO stink. There is no need for the noisy pump either. We are thrilled with it. My neighbors even praised the transformation. I tapped into the cold water line under the bathroom sink and we use a tote for the waste removal. Very easy and clean. The waste is directly dropped into the tote. The thetford is no more than a bucket with a screen/motor and chemicals to mask the stink of the pile of stuff that is growing in the bottom of it as you can see. We love our 3023 but the toilet was a nightmare from the beginning!!!!!!

[Bill]

You've been talking to Yendor!

Bill

I would like to remove the toilet and replace it with a portable "porta potty". I know I need to cap off the electrical wires and cover the opening in the floor. I plan to keep all parts for reinstall for resale of my TM in the future. My question is: What is the procedure to remove the toilet from the floor from start to finish? I can see from this forum that there is possibly some silicon gasket material I may encounter which could prove difficult. Any help would be appreciated.

[Virginia Deacon]

Once you've disconnected the electrical connection and removed the four hold-down slide latches, you should be able to lift the toilet right off. As for saving the toilet for future use, I suggest you get new gaskets and other worn parts; don't re-install the toilet with old gaskets.

The silicon should be easy to remove.

[ShrimpBurrito]

A nice tutorial of removing of toilet written by our moderator Bill can be found here:

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=5889

Dave

Thanks to the both of you. Great suggestions and I printed out the tutorial. That should be helpful. I'll post my results. Just waiting for a warm day.