Toilet discharge blocked with loo paper

Heads etiquette - installed a small bin, 'dispose of all used paper etc per the Greek system - in the bin'. That prevented blockages (after one or two messy lessons) over a nine year period.

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Have adopted the same routine, no probs since, touch wood!
 
It is a pity Peggie Poop isn t around as she would give you two answers....On would be how to clear the blockage and two how to prevent it in the future.

The prevention is easy......DO NOT USE SUPASOFT BEST DOUBLE LAYER PAPER.....it has various additives that do wonders for the comfort of your bum but drastically reduce the ability of water to dissolve it:) The best is the el cheepo as sold in Morrisons and The Coop whift disolves PDQ or you could buy the same product from your friendly sanitation company in a Yankee marine wrapper for the cost of a few shots of whisky.

Headmistress.....where are you ??????


John
 
Got the pipe off the seacock, fairly easily with the help of some hot water. No sign of blockage, and water pours in when seacock opened.

Pushed a spring thing with a lump on the end, (plumbers mate??), about 5ft 6in up the pipe and found what seems like blockage. Cant shift it, and not sure how to attach spring thing to drill to spin it.

High pressure boatyard air from toilet end didnt shift it, nor did fairly high pressure hose from both ends.

Boatyard said the whole heads compartment would have to come out to check anti siphon and/or replace hose = very big and expensive job which I cant afford at present.

I've poured limescale remover in the seacock end of the pipe, raised to about 12in above the cock, and we'll see what has happened later in the morning.

I think my next step is to see if I can find out where the anti siphon is, and cut a hole in the heads panelling with fingers crossed.

Little bag policy is in operation in rear heads, but had family on board for first time and forgot to tell them as soon as they got on board - wont happen again!

Thanks for all the advice so far

Richard
 
My father used to remove and bang for the first few years of living aboard then went over to regular hydrochloric down the loo propylactically, for the next fifteen years or so without having to remove the pipe. I fill the bowl with pretty hot fesh water then put a couple of good sized teacups of fuming HCl into the bowl and pump gently out until the bowl is empty. Then I close the lid and leave for 8 hours or so. The hot water is much more effective than cold.

Richard, try doing it hot, but be careful!
 
Richard,

It may or may not help, but in the photo I posted above, the most narrowed tube was the attachment at the syphon break, the other end was the seacock end. The syphon end, of course, dries out, and therefore creates most deposit. It's also the end which you can't get acids to hang about in (too high - unless you fill the whole pipe with acid) which was my 8 litres requirement. Boring, Eh? Gave the acid solution up.

When I re-installed one of my pipes (2 heads compartments) I actually re-routed it completely, partly in new trunk, to reduce the re-building. The other pipe I split into sections so that it was easier to remove and thread back into place. That also minimised the need for re-building.

As a matter of interest, what's Moodys take on this? Have they really put an annual servicing item (syphon break) in an un-accessible place?
 
I cleaned my discharge pipework out last year using fairly concentrated HCl. Very obviously doing something as the bubbling hydrogen could be heard quite clearly as it exited the boat underwater. I did my best to hold the acid in the exit side of the loop, although difficult to arrange positively. Made quite a difference to the effort required to pump out.
 
Re: Use HCL before you block up

Here in Lagos (and across most of Spain and Portugal) you can get HCL in 30% or 50% solutions from lots of the domestic hardware shops. Its sold as "Agua Fuerta" and costs about one euro per litre.
 
Re: Use HCL before you block up

Barry , Janet and all,

I've bitten the bullet and it's coming out. I've found a way behind the bathroom panelling, chopped about 4ft off, so there's no going back.

The diameter has gone from 38mm to about 20mm with the build up, so I'm sure I'm doing the right thing. If the worst comes to the worst, I can pay the yard for 3 or 4 hours work to fit a new one, after I've done the donkey work of dismantling the bathroom and getting the pipe out.

We'll see what happens

Thanks again for all the advice

Richard
 
Re: Use HCL before you block up

If you've got to that stage it would be a shame to pay the yard...the most tricky thing now is to put the new hose on the seacock and toilet. Lots of good advice given here in the past. It depends on what type of hose you are buying (buy the very best you can obtain...do not penny pinch on toilet hose). Rubber hose is a real pain and needs lots of slippery goo (washing up liquid or I prefer KY) and very strong wrists especially in tight corners. Plastic pipe goes on much better after heating it in hot water, or, if you haven't got room, use a hairdryer and again, use KY.

Don't forget to put the jubilee clips on before you put the hose on /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Good flushing might help

The chemistry of the lime scale is interesting.
Urine decays to form ammonia ( in solutipn NH4OH. THis reacts with the Calcium bicarbonate to form calcium carbonate (which is lime scale. The decay of the urine is, I think, bacterially driven and it takes time.
So if you flush thoroughly there will be less urine to decay in the pipe to ammonia.
The amount you have to flush is quite large. I doubt if you get "plug flow "throught eh plumbing system so you need to flush several times the volume of the piping system to get rid of most of the urine. Sorry folks, its an attack of chemical engineering, quite harmless and it is getting steadily forgotten anyway.
 
Re: Use HCL before you block up

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If you've got to that stage it would be a shame to pay the yard...the most tricky thing now is to put the new hose on the seacock and toilet.

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I know, but there is a strong chance I'll be completely pee'd off with it by then, and feeding the pipe seems to be the most awkward part of the job.

I've just nearly chopped my finger off slicing through the pipe... wont do that again!

In choice of pipe, I may be limited to what the local yard have in stock, but they seem to have good stuff in other areas.

Thanks again for the thoughts.

Richard
 
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