Workin on the brown line.

[DickWells]

Put in a brand-new Sealand porcelain flush, taken out of a new park model, a year 1/2 ago. Lots nicer looking and lots easier to keep clean. Lately, the half-ball, which is supposed to rotate under and close-off water tight to a neoprene seal, with a round hole in the bottom of the bowl, has been leaking out, slowly, after flushing. This leaves the potential for things to stick, in sight, and, more importantly, to allow smell to waift up out of the black tank, if left dry for too long. Took one last look at it, early this morning, and resolved that things must change.

We had gone through the toilet spray routine. So, I went to the old stanby. Dawn dish detergent! Shut off the supply, poured about a tablespoon of Dawn in there with the residual water. (maybe a half-cup) Opened my Wenger Swiss Army knife, put on some rubber gloves, and with another tablespoon of Dawn on a corner of a micro cloth, I partially opened the back of the half-ball, and slipped the wrapped knife blade under the rubber, and worked it all the way around. Withdrew, looked at the results, re-positioned to a new area on the cloth and repeated in the opposite direction. Did this about 3-4 times, each way CW and CCW. The results prompted the above title.:D Gotta come clean about this.:D
No ****!:D Please, don't get me started.

Results? You bet. I wiped until the cloth came out without stain, rinsed everything down well, opened the supply and let in about a pint of water and poured in some more Dawn. Hey, if a little is good, a lot has to be better. I left the thing closed on blue water and went outside and used, ta-dah, Dawn, to wash my knife, gloves and micro cloth. Put everything in the Texas sun, to dry, and went back and looked at that beautiful blue water, and it was just sitting there. No more leak-down. Wonder if the Brownsville Public Service people will notice all those suds, when they finally hit the Rio Grande?:D

Seriousely, after helping my neighbor change his whole ball and gasket, a year ago, in a unit identical to this one, I can't help but wonder if the same process might have saved us the expense and agravation. So, for anyone listening, who might have one of these, and hasn't already tumbled to the Dawn thing, maybe this little dissertation just might be useful, sometime.

[DmaxMaverick]

I like the SeaLand porcelain toilets (for all the reasons you said). Been using them for about 10 years. About 1/2 cup of Liquid-Plum'r every so often will keep you from that dirty-duty (and helps keep the tank from fouling). Pour it in with a little standing water, let it soak in for an hour or less, flush. You may have to repeat if it's a corrective action, versus periodic maintenance. I use it about every 4-5 (tank) dumps. Otherwise, the pedal does get a little sloppy, so to speak, after a while. Just lift the pedal a bit, after a flush to position the ball to a better sealing position. I've also heard that using the dry/granulated formaldehyde deodorizer helps, as the stuff is a good detergent, and has a temporary (mild) abrasive quality. It is what I use, so maybe a combination of the two is a good practice.

[DickWells]

Thanks, DMAX. Ours won't seal as well by just pulling up on it, as it does by side-slipping the pedal, and letting the ball snap back. It just moves a bit farther back that way.
I'll try the Liquid Plumber thing. Still, it's been well over a year that I haven't had an issue with the sealing. Liquid Plumber just might have made it pretty-much permanent.

[arveetek]

The Sealand/Dometic toilets are bad about doing this (allowing water to drain down into holding tank). I sell a LOT of rubber gasket kits for these models.

Thanks for this tip. Will have to try this sometime.

Casey

[DickWells]

Just as an added bit of history on our unit: I had a problem with this drain-down, almost immediately after we bought the toilet. BTW, I paid $50 for this brand-new take-out, which I thought was pretty good. Anyway, since the Sealand was something new to me, I went ahead and bought a new half-ball and seal. The dang thing was so tight in the cross shaft bore, that it wouldn't turn under the coil-spring force! Of course, it wouldn't seal as well as the old one, even if you pulled up on it, and, that was with a new spring which came with the retro kit. I was back at home, at the time, and had access to my lathe and all the other tools that I don't have with me as a full-timer. So, I ran a reamer through it, to try and get more clearance and easier rotation. No luck, the plastic just expanded over the reamer and went back to it's original diameter on withdrawal. I chucked the shaft up in the lathe, and dressed it down, carefully, with fine emery (IIRC), until the thing would turn freely in the bore. All this, while hoping I didn't over-do and create a leak by the "O" rings. I didn't, and the mechanism is still working like it's supposed to. This lttle episode left me more than a little curious as to how often the same thing might occur with these units, and how often an RV owner may find themselves swapping seal kits, and driving themselves nuts, trying to find out what the "true" issue might be with a SeaLand toilet. For sure, the kit that I had bought was a long way from being compatable with parts that are supposed to mate together.

[Inspector]

Been there and done that. I have use three kits on my Sealand and so far the third is holding up ok. The problem now is that sometimes the water valve will not close completely and the bowl will fill. So have to watch that closely. I suppose that this life with the Sealand.
Denny