Forum Discussion

am1958's avatar
am1958
Explorer
Jul 09, 2016

Dometic toilet blocking in the down tube

We've had our Bullet Premier 31BHPR for 2 1/2 years with zero issues. In that time it has been "accidentally" pooped in by our now 9 year old three times.

Ten days ago we went camping and everything was fine for the first 5 days and then the toilet began to stink. Looking down it with the water off the downspout was blocked with toilet paper, (the RV friendly stuff not the home stuff). On trying to dislodge it with a stick I found there seemed to be a plastic "shelf" below the paper. I've looked online for a "schematic" of the black tank so I know whether its supposed to be there or whether there's something down there, (I've read about cutouts being left in the system but it seems too solid for that).

I don't spend a lot of time looking down that hole so I'm unsure what I should be looking at. I thought that once the flapper valve was open at the top then there should be a straight drop to the bottom of the black tank. Thus, to find an obstruction is a little perturbing.

Could someone please tell me what I should be looking at when I look down the hole so I don't go trying to remove something that really should be there...

Thanks in advance...

18 Replies

  • Keep in mind an RV toilet is not like your house where there is a gallon of water ready to flush the waste away. It's up to the toilet user to make sure enough water goes into the tank with the solid matter. Holding the valve open as you make your 'deposit' doesn't really add that much water to the mix and puts a solid pile right under the drop tube. The guaranteed way to keep things flowing after toilet use is to move the lever/pedal partway to fill the bowl without opening the flush valve then, once full, move the control fully to open the flush valve dumping the bowlful of water in one big slug. This 'water impact' will break up the solids and disperse them in the tank. Even a second flush like that is a wise idea. Try to get all the users into that routine and you will never have a problem. Of course this doesn't work if there are already 5-6 pre-existing piles blocking the drop tube. In that case, you just have to deal with that and get things moving first.
  • Thanks for all the responses...

    The most "awakening" one was the fact that I'm probably hitting the bottom of the black tank that gets it's volume from being wide and long but not very deep. For some reason I was seeing a hugely deep tank that would have really been about a foot below the ground the trailer was sat on.

    RoyB's picture was most enlightening and will prevent me from trying to forcibly remove that piece of plastic.

    I now have to determine why, when we don't poop in the trailer, the paper is blocking up. Fortunately, I have one of those "snake cameras" that I bought for an issue in my home that I will use to further advantage tomorrow...

    Doxiemom:

    I think we use enough water but since I don't use paper and it's the two females that do I really can't comment though I have to say they've, seemingly, been using enough for the last couple of years and must be getting a bit lazy... Durned Gals, eh?
  • Our pipe is also on an angle into the tank. We have had only 1 clog. After that we made sure we used plenty of water and in the 3-4 yrs of fulltiming since, no problems. You may not be using enough water and everything is sitting right where it drops until it is clogging the pipe. If you don't use enough water, you may also get a clog of stuff/paper stuck in the valve so it doesn't drain when you try to dump. Not sure where you are indicating your clog is.
  • My toilet has a pipe which is on an angle into the black tank, not straight down. Have snaked it when it clogged up, also cut off a piece of hose, attached it to a 25' garden hose, with a cutoff valve at the attached area. Shove the cutoff hose down below the clog, open outside black valve and slowly start water so it will fill beneath the clogged portion. Crappy job, but someone has to do it.

    The wand with the flexible piece on it is better, but for temp fix, the hose will work, too.
  • The tank is only as thick as the trailer frame. The bottom of the tank maybe only about 6 or 8 in. below the floor of the trailer.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Your tanks should look something like this...



    What works good is to use a flex water wand going down inside the POT and wash out the long slope bottom of the tank. Maybe have some build up there...

    Something like this (didn't find a good photo of what I really wanted to show here but you can get the idea I think)...


    Even a water hose will work too but the flex wand works best...

    Roy Ken
  • You should be seeing the bottom of the tank. Have you attempted to put any additional water in the tank through the toilet?
  • Mine goes into the black tank but the part it drops into is at about a 60 degree angle. Kind of like this \. Kind of like a turd slide. :B I think it's to keep the "plop and splash" factor down?