Disappointed with Thetford Toilet

botts12 wrote:
Just before the 1 year our Thetford also broke the same way. We had a new one installed since the first one was basically unrepairable. So far so good on this one. If it should break again, we will get a Dometic.

Before you buy a Dometic I suggest you do a search on here. Several issues with the Dometic 310s noted on this forum.

Just before the 1 year our Thetford also broke the same way. We had a new one installed since the first one was basically unrepairable. So far so good on this one. If it should break again, we will get a Dometic.

Sorry to hear of your toity's failure.
FWIW, I have a SeaLand that I installed when my TT was new (to replace plastic junk). It uses a lot of water but has been flawless otherwise.
The water usage doesn't bother me because it's good to use lots during flushing. If we are dry camping then I have a valve I installed on the supply line and I just turn it down so not so it doesn't dump so much in the bowl.

The other thing that may have happened is before last winter's freezing temps after the water system was drained, no one drpressed the flush handle and held it down to drain all the water in the valve and line backwards and our the RV water drain spigot. When the water in the valve freezes it expands and stretches the plastic and thus weakens the valve walls or sometimes even cracks or breaks it.

I've seen several that were not drained of our friends alone and the constant spring pressure plus the water pressure together the next season finally blows the weakend valve apart. That's just what they do too and the parts fly all over. Helped 2 of our friends fix theirs this spring. The toilet valve is very often forgotten to be drained as few will think about it.

Sometimes things just break, after just about two years its hard to access blame on the product or the installation…

I have never had to call CS for Thetford so don’t know how they are, but I would expect it isn’t unusual for many companies to turn down a claim on something almost a year out of warranty…

I am not familiar with the style II, and haven’t read a rash of complaints about them either… so I won’t rush to judgment about them…

My own experience, if my old one still worked fine, I would still be using it… almost all of my trailers that have had toilets in them have been Thetford Toilets (I think one Sea land) , and I have never replaced one yet or needed to… I have never had to replace even a seal yet, so for my money they must be doing something right, and doing it right for over 40 years now… before the RV toilets I had Thetford porta-potties at least 2 of them and I still have both of them…

this is beginning to sound like a bad install. ours has been great.

I am curious: did you have a pressure reducing unit on your incoming fresh water line?

We are on our second trailer with a Thetford toilet and never have had a problem

jack L

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the toilet problems. I have to say that I've had 2 Aqua Magic 5 toilets in 2 different rv's and they turned out to be very dependable. This particular model has only 3 or so moving parts, they are plastic but what the heck, right? Anyway, I just wanted to say they were both great- you might want to reconsider your decision and get the 5 model unless it really bugs you for some reason. Hope all else is well.