Tecma toilets intermittent problems

[Dogone]

I’ve got 4 Tecma Silence toilets from 2017 and only one works reliably. I’m worried I will soon be using an bucket. After 5 days of ownership of the new to me boat I have not bottomed this one. (Sorry). One loo is almost always dead. Sometimes the two button light panel is dark, sometimes it shows no tank sensor light but shows lights for the water feed and flush buttons and sometimes shows all three LEDs and then it works, but only very rarely. The other two look normal, but only work first thing in the morning. All day nothing. It’s not at all hot and there are no gremlins seen in the boat.

The working loo has a power saver function set up. The panel goes dark when not in use. The others are always lit up.

One other possible clue is that immediately before the problem a new CZone upgrade was done with new Mastervolt batteries. The problems appeared soon after. That said, the toilets are not on those systems and are driven straight off the DC bus with their own fuses.

The system volts are a bit high, but that never changes. Whereas the functioning does, so unlikely to be the issue. It’s a 27 volt system due to the lithium batteries.

I should contact Tecma I suppose and change controllers perhaps or it should be easy to temporarily bypass the controller and drive the solenoid and pumps with manual buttons.

Has anyone been down this path before or any good suggestions?

 

[jfm]

I think you seem to have the "smooth glass" controllers with blue LEDs -correct?

There are two parts to these controllers - the glass touch panel and a black box behind the scenes somewhere. I think I would swap controllers/black boxes around to determine whether the control panels or the black boxes are faulty, as a first step.

I can see why you think the CZone isn't the culprit, but I think the WCs do communicate with CZone via the n2k bus Not sure about this but I have several Tecmas with glass touch screen controllers on a new boat, and I can see the status of each WC on my garmin screens, so I suspect there is communication of some sort via N2K . Therefore your recent CZone work could perhaps be the problem.

I have Empirbus not CZone but principles are the same.

Good luck.

 

[Dogone]

I think you seem to have the "smooth glass" controllers with blue LEDs -correct?

There are two parts to these controllers - the glass touch panel and a black box behind the scenes somewhere. I think I would swap controllers/black boxes around to determine whether the control panels or the black boxes are faulty, as a first step. I have a spare newer glass controller from 2022, so that will be helpful in diagnosis as you say. Will work on it tomorrow I hope.

I can see why you think the CZone isn't the culprit, but I think the WCs do communicate with CZone via the n2k bus Not sure about this but I have several Tecmas with glass touch screen controllers on a new boat, and I can see the status of each WC on my garmin screens, so I suspect there is communication of some sort via N2K . Therefore your recent CZone work could perhaps be the problem.

I have Empirbus not CZone but principles are the same.

Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestion. CZone may well be involved and it is doing my head in. It is not evident how. N2K is a 4 wire system and the loos have only the + and - wires going to them. Not checked further back though. Defo a possibility if it runs off a networked bus.

For the handover I hired the former owner’s skipper for a week and he spent a whole day of that on the phone to Mastervolt configuring the new battery to work with the system. I can’t be doing with that kind of nonsense. Since then I have discovered it was done incorrectly. The house batteries shut down at 50% SOC and repeat shutting themselves down. For some reason that has now stopped as I continue to discharge, but other problems have emerged. Lights mysteriously don’t function, then they do. The loo problem persists. Some motorised valves don’t function at all. Some bilge pump suckers activate without water sensors being on and others work only with water sensors on. fuel valves are blocked by an undocumented engine switch interlock and no feedback as to function, so you waste time inspecting, which is meant to be one of the things CZone should avoid. It looks like I will have to become an expert on CZone configuration software once I deal with other issues. Ugh! Anyone know a good hands on tech skipper?

Give me a breaker panel any day. I don’t even need LED indicator lamps.

 

[Dogone]

So after fiddling with the network and wiring by-pass switches and excluding that as an issue I finally ordered a replacement new glass two button controller - £500ish. Everything works perfectly. I didn’t think it possible that 3 out of 4 toilet control boxes could have failed simultaneously, but that’s what happened. Tecma tech confirmed this as a possible explanation. I wonder if their built in obsolescence program had the same fail date. I think Tecma know something they are not admitting to….

 

[jfm]

Good going. But, um, see my “first step” above

 

[Dogone]

Sorry, should have said, I didn’t have the glass one until I bought one on the advice of Tecma to see if it would make the problem go away. I have these below, which I am told are no longer made and are irreparable, also not available in split parts, so I’m forced to buy the whole new kit. Pad and controller. I’ll probably get the standard 2 button as I don’t need the disco lights and presence detection of the glass ones, nice as they are.

 

[Dogone]

..

 

[jfm]

Oh ok. Those are the junk controllers. Should be replaced whenever you come across them. You never gave this info in your original post.

 

[Dogone]

Oh ok. Those are the junk controllers. Should be replaced whenever you come across them. You never gave this info in your original post.

I had no idea Tecma made junk controllers, until your post just now. Tecma have a good reputation for reliable loos. If what you say is true and I’ve no reason to doubt it then it would be fair if Tecma recognised that and supplied replacements cheaply. They are not offering to do that. Just the opposite. Not impressive.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

So after fiddling with the network and wiring by-pass switches and excluding that as an issue I finally ordered a replacement new glass two button controller - £500ish. Everything works perfectly. I didn’t think it possible that 3 out of 4 toilet control boxes could have failed simultaneously, but that’s what happened. Tecma tech confirmed this as a possible explanation. I wonder if their built in obsolescence program had the same fail date. I think Tecma know something they are not admitting to….

I had no idea Tecma made junk controllers, until your post just now. Tecma have a good reputation for reliable loos. If what you say is true and I’ve no reason to doubt it then it would be fair if Tecma recognised that and supplied replacements cheaply. They are not offering to do that. Just the opposite. Not impressive.

I think you’ve answered your own question. As you may now have guessed, JFM’s expertise in this is legendary, that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow the fact that some Tecma components are indeed less than 100%.

As we don’t know what age or manufacturer of boat you have (fair enough per your earlier posts) it’s hard to comment about longevity or whatever. In your shoes, personally I’d take the hit and swap the controllers out, and move on. There may be a well trusted but cheaper modern controller than the glass one, dunno.

 

[Dogone]

I think you’ve answered your own question. As you may now have guessed, JFM’s expertise in this is legendary, that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow the fact that some Tecma components are indeed less than 100%.

As we don’t know what age or manufacturer of boat you have (fair enough per your earlier posts) it’s hard to comment about longevity or whatever. In your shoes, personally I’d take the hit and swap the controllers out, and move on. There may be a well trusted but cheaper modern controller than the glass one, dunno.

I have previously given the age actually. 2017, so not old and knackered. There are various controllers from a DIY almost free push button to a £500 computer controlled panel with disco lights and presence detection. I’ll be going for a mid range one for the others.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

I have previously given the age actually. 2017, so not old and knackered. There are various controllers from a DIY almost free push button to a £500 computer controlled panel with disco lights and presence detection. I’ll be going for a mid range one for the others.

Ah ok, I missed that, sorry.

I had Tecmas in my last but one boat, installed in 2017; they had the standard 2 button panel, looked something like this. These seem to be about £200-250 online.

 

[jrudge]

Check the circuit board. In my squadron 65 we had 2 toilets fail within a year ( new boat ) both were corroded pcb which was a simple fix.

Never had any pcb before or since corrode

 

[Dogone]

Ah ok, I missed that, sorry.

I had Tecmas in my last but one boat, installed in 2017; they had the standard 2 button panel, looked something like this. These seem to be about £200-250 online.

View attachment 179789

Yes, that’s the one I’m getting for the two guest cabins. I found two new ones on Ebay for half price. Life on the edge…

 

[Sticky Fingers]

lol. Living the dream