I love my new toilet. On our last trip we really got to appreciate it a lot… NO MORE STINK like with that abominable Thetford stench puking re-circulator… however like anything thing else there is a learning period on how to best operate and maintain it. So I am still learning the when and whys of this toilet.

What I have found out that if you let it get too full, it will discharge some bit of waste out the vent tube (or hose in my case…  image 2587). When it does, it can be a mess especially since I have a blowout cage around my plumbing discharge valves right where the vent hose ends. A couple of times when the toilet got too full and when I went out to discharge the toilet's little holding tank that it sits on I discovered this. What I did the first time is get a pan and fill it with water from the cold water drain valve and throw it on the plumbing cage a few times to wash it off. Then I got the idea that I if I had a 3’ long piece of ½” ID hose (image 2581), I could just fit it over the barb fitting on the cold water drain valve with a hose clamp (image 2582) and then I would have a hose to wash down any mess that would occur from the toilet or from the plumbing itself when you disconnect it from the sewer hose. So I went to the local hardware store in Bryson City NC (where we were staying at the time) and purchased the clamp and hose and went back and put it on.

The next time I had an overflow out the vent tube, I got the hose and turned on the cold water drain valve (which now became a faucet) and simply hosed the mess away. It worked great (images 2583, 2584). As it turns out, the blowout cage is the perfect place to store the hose when not in use (images 2585, 2586).

Then I got another idea… when you discharge all the toilet waste, you can (with the toilet valve open) you can stick the end of the washing hose up the vent pipe (images 2588, 2589) and put clean water back into the toilet to rinse out the little holding tank. Water will not flow into the toilet this way unless the flush valve or the discharge valve is open. This is because with all valves closed there becomes a back pressure that won’t let water into the toilet. This is good because it shows that the ball flush valve is working and won’t let the smell out of the holding tank. So either someone needs to be inside stepping on the flush valve or the outside discharge gate valve needs to be opened just a crack to allow water into the holding tank. This worked so well that I went and bought a double ½” ID brass barb fitting and placed it on the end of the hose to make it easier to stick the two hoses together.

After looking at this set up I realized that one could use the outside shower (image 2590) for this same task, however that would require one to have their keys ready to unlock the door to the thing and not to mention the fact that mine is a hassle to put back up inside the box. Frankly I’d rather not mess with the thing if I don’t have to. The little hose is much more easy to use and it’s handy… like me!