Cleaning Jabsco Toilet

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Miker

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I've taken my compact toilet apart after over 10 years in order to give it a good clean. The base assembly and discharge elbow are lined with a brown crud that I can't shift.
Any ideas please? As a last resort I could replace the parts which will cost around £35.
 
Go to a builders merchant and buy "Disclean" - its a dilute hydrochloric acid for cleaning off cement stains.
It will eat all your 'crud'.
 
Don't let headmistress hear you!

You are not allowed to use anything to clean sea-toilets, even water melts them into a pile of mushed up ceramic.

In fact, take her advice and buy a bucket, but never ever clean that either.

In fact, sell the boat.
 
Thanks everyone. The problem with the last tongue-in-cheek advice is that the toilet starts to pong after a time. I've tried white vinegar. It reduced the smell but did not touch the crud. Having bought new hoses and serviced the pump, I think that I will take the easy way out and replace the base and elbow.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Don't let headmistress hear you! You are not allowed to use anything to clean sea-toilets, even water melts them into a pile of mushed up ceramic.In fact, take her advice and buy a bucket, but never ever clean that either. In fact, sell the boat.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never said anything of the sort, and you know it! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Distilled white vinegar will work, but will require quite a bit of time and effort in a toilet that's been neglected as long as that one has. Buy something you UK folk know as "brick cleaner" and soak the pump and fittings in a 12% solution of it for an hour. If no more than two applications of that won't clean it out completely, replace the pump (but don't expect a new Jabsco pump to be anywhere NEAR as durable or reliable as your 10 yr old one). If you can clean up the old one, put a service kit in it and lubricate it very thoroughly with a good glob of teflon grease.

As for how to keep the toilet clean...avoid household chemical bowl cleaners...the acids in them are murderous to the soft rubber parts in toilet pumps and also to hoses. A little powdered or liquid cleanser on a sponge should keep the bowl sparkling...a cupful of undiluted distilled white vinegar flushed through the system *once a week*--especially just before the boat will sit--should prevent the problem you're dealing with now from ever occuring again.
 
Yup, Spirit(s) of Salt = Brick Cleaner = Hydrochloric Acid. Robert Dyas sell it in the high street but stock it behind the counter and sell it at a ridiculous price - £2 for half a litre /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. Here in Spain, you buy it in 1l or 5l containers, alongside the bleach, for pennies.

As for vinegar, I don't take issue with Headmistress' advice though here where the HCl is so cheap and readily available it is much more convenient and cheaper to use that. I pour a teacup of HCl down the loo every few days or every week (we liveaboard) and partially pump it through so some part of the piping gets exposed to a decent concentration every week or so. Seems to work for us.
 
Don't use Hydrochloric acid, its much safer to use an organic acid that won't attack any metal parts or your clothes
Go to Jewsons and get some central heating descaler, comes in a huge tub costing about £10
Look for one containing sulphamic acid, make a 10% solution and pour it down the heads. This will attack the crud in the pipes, one tub will last a lifetime. Can also be used for general household descaling
 
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