Episode 205 – RV Toilet Problems: Leaks, Smells, and Simple DIY Fixes

In staying on the road today, we're going to talk about RV toilet problems, leaks, smells and simple DIY fixes. And then a quick tips solving RV water heater winterizing issues. Even though we're in June, they're still out there plaguing us.

And then in RV Envy, we're going to talk about this coolest RV toilet shutoff valve kit that's available. I'm Eric Stark. Welcome to the Smart rver podcast. If you'd rather be camping than sitting in a repair shop, you're in the right place. Every episode.

Episode I'll walk you through practical DIY maintenance and repairs that keep you on the road. Almost said 105. Why we've been going back in time, now let's stay in the current time. Episode 205.

So let's just get into the driver's seat and get this show on the road, right? All right. One thing first. If you own an RV and you have General Electric appliances on it, call, commonly known as ge.

If your RV has General Electric appliances, I'd love to hear about your experience with them. If you could, you go to the smartrver.com the contact us page and contact me.

You know, use that form to let me know your experience or heck, even call me if you want. The number will be in the description of this podcast. We're going to start having some interviews with General Electric, some people from there.

So before we do that, I'd like to get a little information from you guys what your experiences are. Sounds fair. Alright, so let me know. Use that contact Us page and reach out to me and let me know what that experience is.

Now let's get into staying on the road. RV toilet problems. Leaks, smells and simple DIY fixes. RV toilet problems are common. And you know, there's the typical suspects, if you will.

There's clogs, there's worn out seals, there's loose fittings, there's cracked parts, there's broken valves. Sometimes there's mineral buildup around the seal and the bowl and then there's damage from when the RV froze if it wasn't winterized properly.

These things just happen as part of owning an RV and that whole toilet. Now, most RV toilet problems are simple.

Once you figure out where you're going on the toilet, you know where you're going on the toilet, hopefully in the bowl, right? You know, well, let me be more specific.

Whether it's the water valve, the flange seal that keeps, you know, the toilet sealed to the floor, whether there's A black tank issue. The water supply line's leaking. Maybe there's something there. So before we jump into this, though, let me tell you, not all RV toilets are equal.

They're different each brand. You have Thetford and Dometic for the most part. Envision now has jumped into the game.

Camco, Lipperton now Camco and Lippert and Domatic and Envision. You know, the 300 series toilet looks like the Camco, Lippert and Envision toilets. So they're very close. Okay?

But they're still different in their own little ways. But each brand has their own models and like Thetford has their own models.

And we've talked about in this previous episode how they have different valves and different parts. Not one Thetford toilet part works with all the Thetford toilets.

So before you dig into your toilet and start buying parts, you have to know which one you have. And remember, make a note of that someplace. Hopefully you got a journal or a book going somewhere where you can write down this stuff.

That way you got it under control. When it's time to get parts or replace the toilet.

It's nice to know what you have when you go into the store and get the right toilet or the right part. Let's start in with one of the things that's kind of common, fairly common, is the bowl will not hold water.

So in other words, you put water in the bowl and you, you know, and it's supposed to stay in there because that's the gasket, basically. So any fumes from the tank or even the septic system do not come back up into the rv.

Now, when you're using your RV and you're not, or when you are hooked up to sewer, you should keep the black valve closed. That way you don't getting back from the septic system, but you can still get odors from the holding tank. So that's where that seal comes in.

It's actually a safety mechanism. It's very important to have that. Now, if it's not holding water, there's a couple things you can try before you go nuclear and replace the seal.

Nuclear. That'd be more like replacing the toilet. Right. So if the seal, if the seal has paper around it, debris in it, it might not be sealing correctly.

So sometimes you can, you know, put on a pair of gloves, get a tissue, wipe it around in there and clean it out really well and get anything out of that seal, and that might resolve the problem. Or if that's not it, you could try putting some Vaseline on that seal and that might fix it.

And Thetford makes a product that actually works really well, is for restoring a seal. So you put that in the toilet and you let it sit in there and it'll actually bring that seal back to life, especially if it's dried out.

If you let the toilet sit all winter long, the stuff really works well. So that might just be the option you have or the best option without replacing the seal. But try those things first.

Clean it, wipe it and make sure it's got some life to it, it's flexible. Then test your toilet. If it holds water. You did it, man. You don't have to replace that seal.

Now, replacing the seal on some toilets might require taking the toilet out, taking it apart. Whereas a, let's say a dometic 310, you can do that toilet or the seal while the toilet still installed. It takes just a few minutes.

It comes out from the top, don't have to take anything apart. So depending on your toilet, it may or make that may make that job easier or harder, depending.

So typically though, Thetford is a little bit harder versus a Dometic. Now Lippert and Camco, they're going to be the same as the Dometic and the Envision because the seal is going to be removed from the top.

So just depends on your toilet. Now that's just one aspect of a toilet repair. So my toilet is leaking is quite often what I hear.

My toilet's leaking, so the bowl could be one part of it. Now what if there's a water leak and you see fresh water coming on the floor? Now where is it coming from? Is it coming from the back of the toilet?

Well, let's just go ahead and go to the back of the toilet for now. So in the back of the toilet you have the water supply line coming into the toilet. Then it connects to the water valve on the toilet.

So is the supply line the problem or is the water valve the problem and it makes a difference. And especially if it's an intermittent type leak, you know, it leaks a few drops, nothing happens for a few hours, a few more drops.

See that could be something as simple as the supply line has gotten a little bit loose and you tighten the nut up on it and that'll fix the problem. Or maybe the seal on the supply line is bad. Now if the toilet valve is leaking, always replace the seal in the line.

The supply line, then that has a seal in there and you can replace that. You have it apart, you might as well. Now those, the, the water valve Generally they crack.

Sometimes the supply line will actually where it attaches to the water valve, it'll pull off there. It's a fitting that's glued on there. It'll just break off on A310.

The water valves are notorious for cracking, and so it'll kind of split or sometimes come off all the way as well. But generally it's pretty obvious what is leaking. But you just want to go into the store and make sure you got it right.

You're not just replacing a water valve when it's just something as simple as the supply line seal. You know, these parts cost money. It takes you time. So you just want to make sure you're getting it right and not throwing money away.

So that's a pretty basic thing. And everything I'm talking about is a do it yourself project. None of this stuff has to go to the repair shop.

So it's not always super simple, but they are pretty simple to do. You know, if the toilet has to come out like Thetford, all their valves, all their parts have very clear instructions in them.

Okay, so we're going to go past that water leak now. You fix that, or maybe that's not your problem. Maybe your toilet rocks a little bit. Maybe it's leaking.

Only when you flush it, it leaks onto the floor. Maybe you're getting an odor. Well, that could be the floor flange seal and that's pretty basic too.

So it's just knowing what model toilet you have and you would buy a new flange seal and you'd lift the toilet up. I mean, you're going to have to turn the water off, disconnect the supply line. You know, you're still taking the toilet out, if you will.

So you're going to take the toilet out, you're going to take off that old seal and put the new one on. While you're there, inspect the flange, make sure it's not cracked or broken, and that's where it goes. Maybe the toilet is rocking.

You might have a problem there. Make sure the bolts are in there the way they should be. Nothing crazy is going on.

Dry up any water that's still there, clean it up, put in your new seal, set the toilet bound, you know, first check the bottom of the toilet to make sure there's nothing on there that's going to make that seal leak. You want to be nice and clean and ready to go so there's no leaks once you put it back down. And keep this in mind, whenever you take the toilet out.

I mean, unless it's within an hour of the last installation. Maybe you're having a problem. Replace that seal. You know, putting it in the old seal. It might seal, but it might not be the best seal.

Sometimes the water won't be an issue, but the odor will become an issue from the holding tank. So that's just do it. And you know, the seals are expensive, so you don't want to just be careless with them either.

And by the way, these are not wax gaskets. Do not go to the hardware store and buy a wax gasket. All right? Okay. So now that's pretty basic there. So we've covered three areas now.

So the bowl's not holding water, the water valve on the back, or the supply lines leaking. And now the floor flange has had issues. Now let's move on to. You're getting a bad smell in the bathroom, and you're pretty sure it's from the toilet.

So it could be the bowls not holding water. Right. That seals bad, that could let that smell in. Or the floor flange seal, which we just talked about, could be bad and it's letting that air in.

Or seeing those two, you know how to fix. Or it could be the holding tank treatment that you're using just isn't working well. Or your tank has just never been flushed out.

You maybe emptied it, but you've never flushed it. So make sure your tank is always flushed after you empty it. And make sure you're using a good holding tank product.

You know, we recommend SolBio or Pure Power. So bio first and then Pure Power for the holding tank treatment.

And now another thing that's pretty common in RV toilets, when people are mostly living in the rv, they leave the black tank valve open. And what that does is when you're using the toilet, it's going to build up.

All the human waste is going to build up and it's going to create what they call a poop pyramid. And it just plugs up the toilet. It's not. Or the holding tank. So eventually the holding tank will not drain. It just holds everything in there.

And that's usually what happens.

RV holding tanks, or, excuse me, RV toilets very rarely get a clog like you would in a residential system where you put too much stuff down there, you try to flush it, it doesn't work, and you get the plunger out and it clears it up. Generally just the holding tank is filled up, it's not draining the way it's supposed to. Creates that poop pyramid. Right. So that's a no. A no go.

And typically we've recommended pure Pure power to solve that problem. You pour in a like a 32 ounce bottle, depending on how bad it is, how long it's been sitting there.

Sometimes people will put the RV into storage with that happening. And now that things got a, you know, it's got to get wet, it's got to get moist again.

So you might have to put in a half a gallon of pure power or so. Bio can be the solution as well, but you have to put a lot in.

And that's the thing, you got to put a lot in and let it sit maybe for two, three, four days. And you know how you know this is happening? When you pull the valve on your black tank.

Well, you already have it open, but let's say you close it and you put water in there as much as you can and you pull that valve and only the water comes out or some of it. That means that tank is plugged up and generally you got to just let it sit with something like pure power in there.

Now some people, you know, they'll stick something in down in there like a stick and start stirring it up like they're making a pot of stew. Rather disgusting, but it helps break things up and gets that process moving along quicker because you got to get the tank empty. That's the thing.

You can't just leave this in there. So poop pyramids only usually only happen when you keep the valve open.

When you're using the rv, keep that valve closed and always keep water in the tank. You know, add a couple gallons once the tank's empty to keep it helps keep everything broken down and going.

And put your holding tank chemical in right away after you empty the tank, you know, so it's not later on thing. I'll just add it after I'm a few days into this. No, add it right away so that holding tank product can start working right away.

Now the reason why I bring up these things, these do it yourself repairs is quite often the knee jerk reaction is to just replace the toilet for a simple valve replacement. And we hear it all the time and you know, hey, I love selling parts, right? Selling a toilet $350 part versus a $40 part.

Yeah, a little more money in there. But it's not what you always need. So think about that.

Don't just replace the toilet because you have a problem with it, because the new toilet eventually will be in the same boat. Now if you want to just replace your toilet every few years, go right ahead and do that. That's up to you. Maybe you need to.

I mean we do have some customers that replace their toilets. One guy has two RVs and every two years he just puts in two new toilets. Doesn't care. It's the way it is. But I don't think you need to do that.

That's overkill. And most toilets are very repairable, even going back to the sealant toilets before Dometic bought them.

The parts are expensive, but they're a really good toilet and they're worth putting the money into it. And now every toilet should have a compact water valve on the back of it.

So when you have to turn off the water to the rv, well, rather than turning off the water to the RV to do a toilet repair, you just turn the valve off and. And the toilet will still run. Now these compact water valves are very small. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see what I'm holding up here.

A line of pex with a little valve in literally adds about an inch and an eighth or an inch and a quarter into the line. So you'd cut out about an inch of line and put this valve in.

And with the clamps, we recommend the Esco flare it clamps where you just squeeze them with channel locks. Bam. You are literally done in a couple minutes. Real simple to do. And so I highly recommend that.

And those are available on sunpro mfg.com I'll have a link in the description here. But you don't have to do that. It's just easier than having to shut the water off to the whole RV to do a toilet repair.

Especially if the toilet repair turns in a little bit more than what you thought. You got to run into town, get a couple parts, whatever it might be. All right, so I think we covered that.

So if you have any questions about that, you can always reach out to me at the SmartRver website, thesmartrver.com use the contact us page and you can find me there or you can call me. Either way, it doesn't matter. Alright, so now let's jump into the quick tips solving RV water heater winterizing valve issues.

Alright, so what does that mean and why are we talking about this in June? Well, believe it or not, there's still a lot of areas in the United States where people haven't de winterized.

You know, they winterize their RV so things don't freeze in the wintertime and then they don't de winterize until they're getting ready for their first trip. Some people Travel a little bit later in the summer, some people a little bit early, so they'd come across this sooner. But we hear about this a lot.

In fact, we just recently had several.

A little run on this where people having problems, they don't have hot water in their rv, they don't understand why, or they don't have water, period. You know, there's an issue. Not every RV gets winterized and de winterized the same way.

Some have valve systems that are put in at the factory, like a Nautilus panel where you'd bypass your water heater there.

Other ones might have a water heater bypass kit right on the back of the water heater or a couple valves that you turn a certain way and it bypasses the water heater.

And the reason for the bypass is when you're winterizing the rv, whether you're using antifreeze or you're blowing it out with air, it closes off the water heater tank.

So if you have a six or ten gallon tank, you're not filling it with antifreeze or blown air through it, which you're just going to lose your, your air volume and not really blow out your RV properly. So it bypasses it and it's just two valves. Usually, you know, like I said, not every RV is the same.

So you might have to check to see if your RV is this tight. But either way, it's always a valve issue. So we just had one in the other day.

The guy was going to use the water heater for the first time this winter. The RV is relatively new, and when he bought it, they really didn't go over anything with them. Or at least that's what he said.

And probably, you know, I mean, the dealerships sometimes do, sometimes they don't. I know when I bought mine, I was like, here, here's the keys. Get out, get out of here, go. That's fine.

Doesn't matter because I know how to use everything. So it came in because he thought his water heater didn't work. Now just for. We're going to get a little sidetracked here.

When you turn on your water heater, when you have a Suburban especially, you hit your water heater, the red light comes on and then it goes out after a few seconds. That doesn't mean the water heater is not working. That means the water heater is working. The red light only comes on when it's not working.

So he thought it was the opposite. So the red light was going off after a few seconds. Oh, my water Heater is not working.

And then of course, he used Grock to find out what kind of water heater he had. And Grock told him that it was a on demand water heater, which was wrong. It was a conventional suburban water heater. So anyways, he brings it in.

The water heater worked fine. He just misunderstood the switch. But the anode rod was still out. The valves weren't turned to out of the bypass mode.

So we put the anode rod back in, adjusted the valves, turn them the way they should be. Water heater fills up with water, turn it on, works great. So the thing is, the valves were in the wrong position.

And in most cases, if you have two valves on the back of the water heater, the valves turn like a quarter turn valve. If you turn the lever facing the water heater, more than likely that will close or open up the the line so the water heater will fill up.

And then the bypass is no longer bypassing the water heater. The water heater now is getting water through it. Now, your bypass valves might be different, and there's different styles.

There's plastic, there's brass, there's black ones, white ones, gold ones. So silver ones. So understand how that works.

And after you de winterize your rv, if you're not getting hot water before you take it to repair shop, see if those valves are actually in the right position. Okay. It's pretty simple. A lot of people just mark it somewhere on the back of the water heater or the valve itself, which way it's supposed to go.

If you can't see it, sometimes they have a little label on them, but depending on that valve, it ends up being installed. You can't see it. All right, just a little tip. I mean, that's pretty basic stuff.

A lot of guys have been doing this for a long time, already know that. But for the newer ones, or maybe things have just changed. Got a new rv, couldn't. Didn't really make sense. Hey, my hot water is not working.

What's going on here? So that could very well be it. I know it's a little late, like I said, but that's all right. People are still de winterizing.

All right, so now let's jump into RV envy and we're going to talk about this cool little water valve kit for the toilets. Now, this valve, you know, like I said on YouTube, you can see me holding this up. Got a piece of pex line here in the valve.

It adds about an inch, inch and an eighth to the, to the water. You Know, it's in, that's the length of it. So you'd have to cut out that much to install it. So it goes behind the toilets.

And this thing's just absolutely cool because it's quarter turn, it's brass, doesn't take up any space. It's easy to install.

You know, the flare, it fittings, the white plastic ones that are compression style, they work well for that, but sometimes they're hard to get in the space behind the toilet. You just don't have the room. Little harder to install. This one is really simple. Anybody can do this.

I mean, anybody can do the other ones too, but this one's just a lot easier. Then you use the, the clamps, the ones you use channel locks on, they're made by Esco.

We'll have that information in the description of the podcast as well. And you just clamp them down with channel locks and you're done, it's installed. You need quarter turn on, off.

And what else is sweet about this valve is it can be used or is used in a lot of places in an rv. Like if you have low point drains on your RV and you have a cap on there and you'd rather have a valve, this valve is the guy for you.

It's just easy to put in. A lot of RVs come with a valve that's similar to it on those low point drains. If anywhere you need a valve in the water system, this is the valve.

It's real small, easy to install, sweet little deal. But I like it for the toilets just because it's compact and easy to get in there. We sell a ton of these valves just for that alone.

In fact, you know where we're at in Montana, we run ads on the radio just doing these valves, talking about the valves and we sell out. It's amazing. So, yeah, this is my little thing.

A lot of shops aren't ever going to talk about it, but heck, you know, you got to have a valve on the back of that toilet, pure and simple. All right, so we are coming to the end of the show today. We kind of went through this pretty quick today.

A little shorter here, which is nice, you know, now we can just listen, learn and take the rest of the day off, right?

Hey, and by the way, you know, a lot of the stuff I talk about might not be what you're facing right now, but it will be something you're going to face down the road. So don't discount the information. It's always important. It helps you learn one of your buddies has a problem, you can help them walk through it.

If you've listened to one of the podcasts, we've discussed that. Just a reminder, you might not be facing a toilet issue today, and that's the point. You probably won't be, but you will be tomorrow.

And now you're prepared for it. Maybe you come back and listen to this episode and, hey, okay, I got it again. Or you can call me. Either way. All right, everybody.

So just a reminder to sign up for our newsletter and we send out useful information in there. Podcast information, information we're not going to bombard you. None of that kind of crazy stuff. So we had a great show today.

It's just a pleasure being here talking about this kind of stuff. I love sharing what I know with everybody and helping you enjoy your RV that much more. RVing is such an awesome part of a life. If you.

If you enjoy it. Some people don't, which is understandable, but if you enjoy it, come back, you know, every couple weeks, we got a great episode.

You'll continue to learn more about your RV so you can be that smart RVer. All right, so that's going to do it for today's episode of the Smart rver podcast. Thank you for listening.

I'm Eric Stark, and if you'd rather be camping than sitting in a repair shop, you're in the right place. Until next time, take care of the little things and enjoy the trip.