We decided yesterday that we would probably stay put today, and it was a good decision. Apart from a short break of about half an hour this morning, it has chucked it down continuously all day. We managed to make use of the break in the rain this morning and walked down to the services at the top of Buckby Locks to get rid of rubbish and empty a cassette. The rest of the morning was spent trying various remedies to our toilet problem! The Dometic Vacuflush loo that we had such high hopes for has been playing up for over 12 months now, with varying degrees of severity. The bloody thing will now not vacuum up properly – the pump just keeps on pumping and you can hear the leak of air going in all the time it’s trying to vacuum up. I spent quite a long time on the phone to a really helpful bloke called Mike at Lee Sanitation, who are the only people who seem to actually know anything about this loo. He suggested lots of various remedies, none of which have worked. The next thing is to buy a set of new caps for the cassettes and new ‘O’ rings for the docking station. We will order them when we get home. At the moment the loo is still useable, but we have to turn it on and off at the fuse-box whenever we want to flush it. Lets hope it stays that way until we get to Gayton. If the new caps and ‘O’ rings don’t work, then we are ripping the bloody thing out and buying a Thetford! We don’t feel inclined to go to the expense of having it serviced (it costs £100 to service each cassette, and we have 3, and goodness knows how much for them to come out and service the docking station!) just for it all to happen again in a year or two. The whole system has now been dis-continued by Dometic so that tells you something! Lets hope we don’t end up in a shower of s**t over Northamptonshire!
We had exactly the same problems with our vacuflush and ended up ripping it out and fitting (forgive the pun) a bog standard thetford and have never looked back. Go for it now, it won't get any better. Good Luck
ReplyDeleteHi folks
ReplyDeleteWe have the same system on Nb Valerie and just recently after 6yrs have had a few problems.If the bowl has water in and the pump won`t stop it will be the caps. These are common caps fitted to all sorts of containers so don`t go paying a fortune from Lee. £100 to service a cassette!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The caps have a removable seal that you can find some where. Failing that take out the old seal and run a THIN bead of silicone inside the cap then replace the seal and let it set before screwing cap back on. Now you will get a good seal.
If the pump runs and the water in bowl is draining the bowl flap needs cleaning.Sometimes there is a build up of limescale like in your kettle Should have been a tool supplied. It looks like a large ladies nail file. Just give it a good clean.(switch off water supply while doing this) I find that when flushing it pays to remove foot quickly and then the flap will locate firmly under the rubber seal.
Hi Les and Jaq. We have tried to turn the seal around on the caps, but found it wouldn't go back in properly, and made the situation worse! Can you think of any particular containers that have the same size cap? We haven't found any yet. We will try the silicone trick with one of the caps, but suspect that the real problem lies in the 'O' ring on the docking station. It's weird that you have had the same system for 6 years without any problems until recently, but we've only had ours since mid 2009, and it's not been used all year round - perhaps therein lies the problem - things dry out when not used every day! Thanks for the advice, will give it a go - be sure that I will give you full credit on the blog if it works!
ReplyDeletePip & Roger
The seal is usually flattened so turning is not always the answer,silicone acts as a mini rubber washer, use sparingly.
ReplyDeleteI never screw the cap on mega tight as this will for sure crush the original seal.
With the `O` ring put on a pair of latex gloves and push in the plunger by hand instead on the cassette and give it a good clean.Also clean the docking station part that goes into the cassette. As with the bowl flap seal silicone GREASE not the stuff for the caps repeat GREASE, NOT sealant is the lubricant to use after cleaning.
The caps are common and can be found on the square 20/30 litre containers that seem to be in fields and floating in the canal, i have 2 spares.If you get a spare or 2 you could try doubling the seal in one on your cassette. Not tried it but just thought of it.
Don`t give up as the Dometec system is nice with the china bowl and i`m sure will respond with some TLC
Our system seems to be working again after a little clean up. I have read a lot of negative things about the system but i am happy.