small bore mashy toilets- advice needed

[Jimjams]

You know those toilets that churn up everything and mash it up before passing the water through to the sewer drains. Well we have one downstairs. You're only meant to put toilet paper down them. I'm 99% certain that ds1 has flushed his pants down them, the motor was sounding very loud and now its sounding very quiet (and doesn't seem to be motoring tbh). Can't find ds1's pants anywhere. Any tips on how it can be unblocked- and if I need someone to come and remove the pants who on earth do I call? We didn't install the damm thing......

it's my own stupid fault- I decided to have a shower before putting the toilet barrier up downstairs (goes up each day- has to be taken down at night to put on ds2's room to stop ds1 jumping on him). Aggghhhh could kick myself. Came downstairs to find a bunch of bathtoys floating around the toilet, missing pants and ds1 trying to replace his pants with one of my tops (legs in armhol/through neck etc).

agggh I am such a fool!

Sorry Jimjams, can't help....but glad its not just me having a bad day!

This was a couple of days ago- it just seems to have given up the ghost now having churned noisily on for the last couple of days. Somehow its still preferable to wiping shit up from all over the walls and floors - which was last weeks little repeated fun and games- so to be honest its a bit of an improvement. Just wish he's put them down the upstairs toilet- that's a normal one- loads of stuff HAS gone down there- just unfortunate he chose pants for the downstairs......

Jimjams. We have one of these and had to replace it just recently after more than 12 years when the motor gave up the ghost. I,m afraid it did the same as yours.....very loud then very quiet.

I'm afraid the service is quite expensive but if you are handy, it is a reasonably easy (but smelly and dirty) job to do yourself.

Start off by emptying the toilet as much as poss with a soup ladle. The get as many bath towels as possible and pack them around the floor of the unit. Next, MAKE SURE THE POWER IS OFF AT THE MAINS, and disconnect the power supply. Then you have to work your way around the unit disconnecting all the inlet hoses and jubilee clips. (ours had 2 inlets, some have 3 some have 1).

Be ready with the bath towels to catch the water out of the pipes as you disconnect them, but you shouldn't get any foul water out of the unit as it has internal valves.

Take the whole thing (it is VERY heavy) into the back garden. Take the lid off. Be VERY careful!! There is a seal which must be returned exactly to where it came off so watch where it is when you are dimantling the unit.

Now tip the yucks out onto the grass/ onto the compost heap/ over the neighbours wall ...only kidding!

At this point we used the garden hose to clean it out which is quite high pressured which promptly blasted back into DHs face! DS started running aroung shouting 'Daddy's covered in pooh!'

Okay, you now need to reassemble the whole thing, plumb it in and re-connect the power. If it doesn't work after all this, it is knackered and you need a new one.

We managed to plumb in the new one ourselves aswell.

Good luck!

Oh JimJams - what a fiasco! Wouldn't the manufacturers know of the type of maintenance people to call?
Oh dear - and I can't help but visualise the funny side, either....

OMG Pacific! You have a handy husband. I don't- not sure I fancy all that myself. Will ask my dad tonight to have a look. What's the point of these things btw- is it possible to replace them with a normal toilet? I'm sure this sort of fragile motor and an autistic ds1 are just going to keep colliding.

Wonder if this counts as accidental damage on our household insurance.....

Our house is falling down around our ears at the moment. We have a flooded cellar, lighting circuit needs to be completely rewired (whole house) and lots of work needs doing all over the place. The previous owners seem to have had a succession of cowboys in. I had someone in to repair a minor leak on a balcony and found that they are waterproofed by binbags (seriously) so they need redoing. The cellar is leaking as someone has contructed a patio which slopes towards the house- so rainwater just gathers.

BTW Pacific- do you have a ball park figure for "expensive"? I feel like our finances are in desperate decline atm and there's so much that needs to be done. DH is useless at anything like this as well.

Jimjams, they have two purposes. You only need to run a small bore pipe to the main stack or sewer which can be hidden in walls, floorboards etc. as opposed to a large 4 inch bore pipe which normal toilets need. Secondly, as it has a pump, you can have a bathroom in a basement for instance and it pumps the waste upwards into the sewer ie you avoid the need for a long down-running gravity slope which most normal toilets have. So I think it would be very unlikely that you could replace it with a normal toilet as there will be some reason that you have this pump system.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but we were quoted well over £100 for a call out about 7 years ago when some daft woman put plastic tampon applicators down ours. At that time the motor wasn't knackered and after we cleaned it out it worked fine.

As I said, there is nothing very technical about it. I could have done it myself but DH likes to thin he is better at these things than me and I don't argue.......otherwise it would have been bee covered in s**t!

It' s called a saniflo system, I once worked in a hotel that had about 80 of these in different bedrooms, and they caused all sort of problems. Nightmare.

I've also been thinking. If the actual unit is reasonably accessible you could take the lid off in situ and have a fish around with a wooden spoon and see if you can find the pants. But remember to SWITCH OFF THE POWER AT THE MAINS! Otherwise it may liquidise your spoon or worse, your fingers! It sounds horrible but in actual fact, it is not that smelly or pooey. If you have changed nappies you have handled worse!

If it is still making a noise, it is probably OK, just bunged up with pants. Ours died completely... no noise at all.

Yes, they are usually called Saniflo although our new one is a different German make. They are generically known as 'macerator pumps'.

Sympathy jimjams, they're a nightmare those loos. I was told by the engineer who came to fix mine that you shouldn't put anything in it unless someone's eaten it first. Eeeew. Dynorod will do it (and don't charge unless they fix it IIRC but are expensive) but you're better off looking in Yellow Pages until you find someone with experience of those loos.

Ugh ugh ugh. I take it all back. Clearing up shit that ds has smeared on the walls and floor is preferable to fishing around in a saniflo!

It's because we're in a basement (well that bathroom is) so no alternative Anyway dad came - cursed the installer- access is very very hard. Anyway fished around and pulled out the missing pair or pants, a flannel and a large felt tip pen (?) I don't even want to think about what has gone down the upstairs one....... Difficult to get back and a valve is impossible to get in without dismantling the whole thing. For now it will empty etc but keeps going so has to be turned off at the wall. Dismantling will involve taking the toilet apart as well so is a job for another day.

Went straight to the bath afterwards. Ugh. (oh and found out that is was emptying earlier because it was flowing into the bath- doh!)

Sympathies, Jim jams and PMSL! Welcome to the world of DIY Saniflo service!

Been there, done that, got the s**t stained t-shirt to prove it!

At least you retrieved the pants.

The pants went in the bin (along with the toothrush and toothpaste he'd chucked down the toilet- although luckily they hadn't reached the motor).

Only problem now is that all bathrooms are permanently barricaded and I'm having to lift him over every time he wants to go to the loo. He's a very big 5 year old. He's gone 4 times this morning already. So hope he loses interest before my c- section! That would do my stiches good.

Our downstairs bathroom smells lovely and clean now though- its been heavily bleached- its gleaming!

just had to see what this thread was about after reading the title. Sorry nothing useful to add jimjams, hope you get it sorted.

Pacific - you sound like a very DIY savvy lady..