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Old 04-21-2019, 02:05 PM   #1
LHaven
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Are all toilets this slow now?

We just got back from our inaugural trip in our 2019 Cougar. The experience we had with our brand new toilet is concerning.

When you step on the pedal to drop the contents, there's no discernable water flow from the rim. As you keep the pedal down, the flow slowly builds up over about five seconds until you get a trickle that just about wets the surface of the bowl. But nothing like what is needed to flush tissue or the like.

Are all today's RV toilets this weak, or is it just ours?

Our previous trailer was a 1999, made well back before the "green" jihad that imposed wimpy showerheads, low-flow toilets, and dim lightbulbs on us. It worked like a toilet ought to work. This one just doesn't.
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Old 04-21-2019, 02:42 PM   #2
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No, they don't work like that. You should get plenty of water. What brand toilet is it? What is your water pressure? Do all the water faucets get good flow?
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Old 04-21-2019, 02:44 PM   #3
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It is NOT normal. I’m willing to bet some construction debris is caught. Find where the supply line attaches. Relieve system pressure by opening the bathroom faucet. Some water will still drip when you take the supply line loose. There is a screen in the fitting in the toilet and I’d bet it’s got a bunch of junk in it.
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Old 04-21-2019, 04:45 PM   #4
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Thanks for the tip about the intake screen. After much sweating and grunting trying to remove the intake fitting without first removing the two invisible screws that the manual insists do not actually exist, we got this collection of sludge out of the screen. Looks like more leftover styrofoam from the construction process.

Now the toilet works like a champ, every bit as efficient as our previous one.

After our recent trip, we had to vacuum significant quantities of sawdust out of the top of the pantry, the under-TV cabinets, the bathroom floor, and every one of the closet areas. We also had to screw one of the speakers back into the ceiling when we got home. We had the rig into the shop earlier for an inoperative furnace; the sail switch had been fouled by sawdust and styro chips. I'm beginning to believe Keystone's motto should be, "Buy the finished trailer, and get all the leftovers at no extra charge!"
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Old 05-15-2019, 09:08 PM   #5
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I had a thought yesterday -- is the shower faucet assembly likely to have one of these screens on it as well? That might explain some of the poor shower performance we've encountered. I don't want to take it apart unless there's a good chance of it having a screen in it. Thanks.
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Old 05-16-2019, 06:39 AM   #6
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Hi,

I have to clean out that same screen on my TT at least once a year.

Material looks exactly the same as stuff I flush out of the hot water heater when I winterize. Appears to be anode breaking down.

Crazy part is how does this material get from hot water tank to the cold water supply line to the toilet?

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Old 05-16-2019, 10:53 AM   #7
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Pretty sure it's construction debris. Not reasonable to assume this is anode degradation on a rig that was less than six months old and had the electric HW heater running for less than four weeks of that period (plus, as you say, the cold leg crossover dilemma).

Still interested in knowing if I would be likely to find one of these intake screens in my shower feed...?
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Old 08-01-2019, 02:44 PM   #8
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Last night we "camped" with the grandkid in the RV in our driveway (since our new truck won't activate the trailer brakes, forcing us to cancel the actual camping trip we had planned). Absolutely no flow to the toilet. (Luckily for the wee one, an actual toilet was just across the driveway.)

So this morning I was back on the floor disassembling the intake valve. Plugged to the brim with gray sludge again. Cleaned it out with a screwdriver and a Q-tip. Just for kicks, found an old fitting and some soft tubing in our Big Box o' Crap, and with some electrical tape, cobbled together a hose that would let us blow out the feed line into the shower drain without leaking much (image). Yuk! Got plenty more out that would have ended up in the screen yet again. You'd think I was filling my fresh tank from the Mississippi. (In fact, it's been filled once, at the dealer, on delivery day, and just used ever since.)

I thought to check the faucet aerator on the bathroom sink to see if any sludge had backed up behind it as well, and it was pristine. However, I did notice some weird water delivery behavior (short video), where the hot faucet delivered at quite a nice clip, while the cold faucet delivered at the same anemic crawl I get from the kitchen faucet and the shower hose.

I don't understand much about RV plumbing, but I'd sure like to get them all running that aggressively, and given the "silt problem" I've been having with the toilet, I'm wondering if there may be some other debris filters somewhere that are causing this flow reduction. I'm especially puzzled to see different behavior from two faucets on the same fixture, which I would expect to share the same filter and the same flow-reducer.
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Old 08-01-2019, 04:23 PM   #9
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Are you in the drive using the water tank or city water inlet? If the tank, have you tried the city water intake? Sounds to me like your water tank was left open to a ton of debris and it's clogging everything up. If using the tank have you tried to just fill it and dump it a couple of times? It may clog the drain nozzle but you could unscrew it and keep pushing a rod or something up into the tank to relieve the clogs if they continue. I'm thinking from looking at that you're going to have to pull all the fixtures (that don't work) and go thru them unfortunately. Wishing you the best.
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Old 08-01-2019, 04:28 PM   #10
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Good catch. We usually use city water on trips, except when physically on the road, but we were using the pump most recently. And it never dawned on me that city water doesn't touch the tank. I'll give it a flush tonight. Thank you!

I still don't understand how one side of the same faucet can flow lots and the other flow slowly. If there is stoppage in the actual tubing, I don't know how I would handle that. The clamps I saw on the toilet weren't like anything I was familiar with, looked like they had to be cut off and needed special crimpers to replace.
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Old 08-01-2019, 04:40 PM   #11
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Each valve in a 2 handle faucet is independent and dictates the flow of water for that valve. Judging by what I've seen in your posts you very well may have crud in one of the valves.
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Old 08-01-2019, 05:09 PM   #12
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Do you have a strainer on your water pump?
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Old 08-01-2019, 06:14 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by ctbruce View Post
Do you have a strainer on your water pump?
Do Cougars come with them? I haven't modified the pump. Given how often I've had to clean the toilet intake, if there is one, it's not very good.

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Each valve in a 2 handle faucet is independent and dictates the flow of water for that valve. Judging by what I've seen in your posts you very well may have crud in one of the valves.
To followup on that, I attempted to clean the cold water valve in the video. When I got under the handle, I realized that the valve doesn't come out separately, I have to take out the whole faucet and filler assembly, and possibly just reverse flush it.

It looks straightforward, but the black fittings in the photo are tighter than Jack Benny. With my fingers, they just aren't budging. I'm reluctant to take a wrench to a plastic fitting, plus I'd need a sink wrench anyway because there's no room to swing anything.

They're just standard female fittings that should unscrew, right? No surprises like LH thread or anything? If so, I'll just work with my fingers until I beat it, though I have no idea how I will ever get them back on that tightly.
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Old 08-01-2019, 07:54 PM   #14
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You need a facet wrench.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/BrassCraft-...ench/999903617
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Old 08-01-2019, 08:26 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by LHaven View Post
Good catch. We usually use city water on trips, except when physically on the road, but we were using the pump most recently. And it never dawned on me that city water doesn't touch the tank. I'll give it a flush tonight. Thank you!

I still don't understand how one side of the same faucet can flow lots and the other flow slowly. If there is stoppage in the actual tubing, I don't know how I would handle that. The clamps I saw on the toilet weren't like anything I was familiar with, looked like they had to be cut off and needed special crimpers to replace.
Your plumbing in the rig is PEX pipe, and those clamps are what keeps the fittings and connections attached and also keeps them from leaking. The fittings and other parts have a barbed connection that is pushed into the end of the pipe and a special tool is used to crimp the stainless steel band.
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Old 08-02-2019, 05:10 AM   #16
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For the amount of use most RV owners would require, you can buy a faucet wrench at Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/12-inc...nch-91958.html Cost is $5.99, but with the "ever-present 20% off coupon" the cost is only $4.79 (and you get a "free LED light).....
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Old 08-02-2019, 06:22 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LHaven View Post
I had a thought yesterday -- is the shower faucet assembly likely to have one of these screens on it as well? That might explain some of the poor shower performance we've encountered. I don't want to take it apart unless there's a good chance of it having a screen in it. Thanks.
Shower has a screen as well as all the faucets just like at home. If you had the toilet inlet screen full of crud, time to go hunting screens!
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Old 08-02-2019, 06:25 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JRTJH View Post
For the amount of use most RV owners would require, you can buy a faucet wrench at Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/12-inc...nch-91958.html Cost is $5.99, but with the "ever-present 20% off coupon" the cost is only $4.79 (and you get a "free LED light).....
I hired a plumber awhile back to install a new kitchen sink faucet in our home. Our sink is one piece molded to the counter top (Corian I think it is called) and couldn't figure out how to get my fat fingers up behind the deep sink back. Plumber used one of those gizmos and I was stunned. Would have saved me a couple hundred bucks if I had seen this post!
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Old 08-02-2019, 09:11 AM   #19
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I've got a sink wrench... if the fittings were metal, I would have used it without a second thought, but if I chew up or even break these plastic fittings with a metal tool, I'm in deep kimchee, because I don't have whatever it takes to replace them.

I don't think my pump has a filter. It's real hard to tell, since it's in a tight compartment and Keystone pretty much buried it under all the leveler wiring. However, I did verify that I get the same flow behavior from the city water feed, so a water pump filter wouldn't be causing this (unless it's also inline with the city water).
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Old 08-02-2019, 10:28 AM   #20
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If you have the same flow rate from the city water connection and the water pump, then the pump (or pump clogging) is not your problem, although trash being picked up by the pump from the fresh water tank may well be the source of all your problems. I'd suspect the faucet screen/diffuser and/or the cold/hot water valves in the handles. Even the ceramic valves can clog, although not as easily as the old "rubber/brass seat valves".

If you have a FloJet pump, you probably have "clip lock connections" and if you have a ShurFlo pump, you probably have threaded connections on your pump housing. You'll need to verify which type of connection you have before ordering a strainer for the pump inlet (from the fresh water tank). Depending on the connectors on your pump, the strainer can be as inexpensive as $10 or as much as $20. At any price, it's worth it to avoid what you're currently experiencing.
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