Uh oh...Tecma toilet clogged! Advice please

[PuffinStuff]

Fellow Tugnuts,

The day of reckoning has come - I always knew there'd be a day I'd have to address a marine head issue and that day has come. Our 2012 R29 has a great vacuum flush Tecma toilet that has worked flawlessly since we got the boat. We turn the water pressure off every time we leave the boat and I'm guessing the lines were not primed in someway or there was a lack of water when someone recently used the head after some time standing idle. Now we get this horrible grinding sound as the water cavitates and slowly is sucked down into the holding tank.

We've tried the usual dish soap to lubricate the clog, plus some light plunging, but with a vacuum toilet that doesn't seem to have helped. The next step may be removing the toilet to inspect the line and send a snake down or try and unclog the macerator.

As a newbie, can anyone walk me through the best steps to handle this and what equipment is needed. I got rubber gloves as item one, so that is covered!

Thanks,

Paul
Puffin R29

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Hi Paul, sorry to read about your head problem. I've had some up close and very personal relationships with our head so I'll share my experiences and remedies. Up front thou we have a Jabsco so yours may be different. With that said we had a grinding noise and no flushing last summer. After replacing the choker valve we still had the problem, but this is good place to start. If you have not changed this it should be done anyway. Back to the grinding noise I took the toilet apart, with the help of the manual. I did this so I could get to the pump assembly, which is at the inside and bottom of the bowl on our boat. I took the pump out to disassemble and found the impeller was broken and therefore the grinding and non flushing on our toilet. The impeller on ours was plastic. Bottom line is I had to order a new pump assembly as Jabsco does not sell just the impeller part. Approximately $300 later I had a new pump assembly, cleaned all of the incoming and exhaust lines and reassembled and had a working toilet again. Hope this helps in some small way. Let us know what you end up finding out to be the problem and or fix.

Jim F

 

[Kenny Marrs]

Hello Paul,

My first question is how much water do you have in your tank and are you 100% sure the water pressure breaker is on? Second, how full in the black water tank?

If it's easier to troubleshoot over the phone you can call my direct office line, 206-212-4026.

Thanks,
-Kenny