head choker valve

[trailertrawlerkismet]

We began to have foul odors in the head of our R27. We have a charcoal inline filter to ward off odors from the cockpit and we use holding chemicals every time we pump the holding tank out and yet the odors persisted. I ordered a choker valve, the black rubber piece that all toilet debris needs to exit thru to get from the toilet to the holding tank. Today was the big day for dismantling the toilet and boy it was not a pleasant task but doable in a couple of hours. I found the discharge hose going to the choker valve to be overgrown with stuff and the choker valve was indeed caked with a hardened composite of you know what. I cleaned everything up, installed the new choker valve and reassembled everything back to new. The choker valve being deformed was the culprit that was not able to close so odors were able to float back into the toilet bowl. Sooooooooo, if you have an unwanted odor coming from your head and the toilet bowl does not hold water between a flush then you'll be wise to replace the choker valve. A $12.00 part and loads of fun but in the end...no pun intended.....the results were no odors.

Jim

 

[baz]

So Jim, this will be a repeating problem for you given your description. It seems you simply replaced the choker valve and did not make any further modification to avoid the valve from getting clogged up again in future. Based on toilet use I suspect this choker valve will deform and clog things up again in a year or two. If this is true, what is your advice to avoid this from happening so that the horrible task of fixing it time after time is not required.

I converted our manual toilet from manual to electric flush a couple of years ago and so far have not had this 'smell' issue. I did plumb our electric flush toilet to use fresh water and not salt water.

I'm wondering if there's a solution by threading a flexible line which has a bristle end down into the toilet bowel to engage the choker valve to clean any crud out. The only issue I see with this is if the bristle end goes beyond the choker valve it may be difficult to extract as the choker valve presumably has a one way flap that would close onto the bristle end and keep it from being extracted.

What about pushing a water hose into the toilet bowel and work it down a bit and then turn on the water pressure to flush any built up crud off the choker valve. This could be done after placing some kind of solution into the bowel to soften up and loosen the crud.

So, if I understand from your OP the symptom for a stuck open choker valve is when water will not stay in the bowel.

Any chance you could post a photo of the valve here ?

BTW... Is it Choker Valve or Joker Valve ?

 

[Hydraulicjump]

Jim,

Would something like this:

http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?pa ... id=1294172

which cleans hoses have helped? At least on the crud in the hose line?

Ugh. A crappy job, indeed.

Jeff

 

[HRowland]

It is a joker valve. A report in Practical Sailer last year recommended the Jabsco valve over Raritan or Groco. They are all close to the same size and interchangeable according to the report. They also recommend replacing the valve every two years.
An interesting point in the report was that propolyne glycol antifreeze can damage them. They recommend ethylene glycol antifreeze for winterizing heads.

Howard

 

[Levitation]

Regular treatment (like weekly when in use) with a cup of vinegar followed a bit later with a half cup of cooking oil will help put off the inevitable day. Thanks to Peggy for teaching me that.
And on the comment about RV antifreeze (pink stuff). We have found here on the farm (the hard way) that pink stuff is hard on rubber, some plastics, and corrodes some metals. I had to replace a one year old $400 pump on our seed planter after the first winter of using pink stuff. I have gone back to saving regular antifreeze (green stuff) from radiators and using that for winterizing everything except potable water.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Yes it is joker valve and not choker....I guess I was just so choked up having to do the job that I got confused!!! Seriously thou lots of good advice on this thread. Barry you could not get any kind of line thru the toilet bowl that would go to the joker valve, vinegar, dawn soap and lots of flushing are probably best. I like the information from Howard about how the pink antifreeze can damage rubber when we winterize, so go back to the ethylene glycol for winterizing the head will help prolong the jokers life.

Jim