Thetford Toilet Help

Great Info! Thank you! It's good to see that I'm not the only one to have this problem. It costs $20-$25 to dump where we are in Florida currently, and we have to dump at least once a week to keep the smell down. Thank you for your help! I think I'll go grab a new toilet before we head up the east coast. You all rock!! Thank you!

Our 2003 Minnie came with an AquaMagic 4 toilet. We found that we couldn't drive with the cab windows or roof vents open because we would get black tank odors. The source of the odor always seemed to be the toilet, but no amount of sealing around the floor connection resolved it. The only thing that helped was installing a 360 Siphon on the roof vent.

Two years ago we drove across southern Colorado to Mesa Verde. When we opened the bathroom door at the campground the stench from the black tank was unbelievable. To save our trip, I did some creative sealing with masking tape over all of the toilet front and back openings. I sealed ziplock bags with tape over the foot pedals so they could move and still be sealed off from the opening. Thankfully this solved the problem temporarily.

When we got home, I did a lot of online research to find a replacement toilet. All of the available toilets had some negative reviews, but I finally settled on the AquaMagic Style II. This toilet had a drop pipe into the black tank and the only seal is on the shaft for the waste ball. We have had no issues with the waste ball holding water in the bowl and no issues with odors any more.

We can now ride with the windows open!

The flaw is that AquaMagic is the cheapest entry level bottom of the line Thetford RV toilet. By design (make that cost cutting) there is not a pipe where you'd like it to be. It just "dumps" as you've described.

We have that toilet and have actually been far more pleased with it than we ever thought we'd be. Daughter has one in a travel trailer and same experience.

This may help: Your toilet may have a VENT on the upper edge of the bowl, as you stand facing the toilet. Thetford has eliminated that vent, and recommends that we plug the vent on those AquaMagic's that still have one.

This assumes nothing else is wrong. Tank vents are properly installed, and the Dump Valves are Closed. If you're on a hookup and Valves are Open, odor from the campground sewage system will fill your holding tanks and flow into the coach when you flush.

FYI, the blade seal in our AquaMagic is original, from 2003, and it still holds water in the bowl. That, given it's a cheap design, is pretty amazing. Cheap Design? Yes, many Blades pass between two sealing surfaces. AquaMagic seals only to the Top of the Blade.

you need a new blade seal