Saniflo WCs
Angus
manual. On flusshing the WC it's supposed to run continuously for about
15 seconds, mine pulses on-off 3 or 4 times for about 2-3 seconds
duration. Any ideas?
Also, my system is a Sanitop with the outflow from a washbasin going
into the top of the unit. I find that running the tap for a few seconds
activates the Saniflow. Is there any way of adjusting the sensitivity of
it so that it will only run when a reasonable amount of water has gone
into the unit. I dont see why the washbasin water cant just bypass the
cutter/pump internally.
TIA
Peter Parry
<andrew....@bt-sys.bt.co.uk> wrote:
>My recently installed Saniflo does not behave as described in the user
>manual. On flusshing the WC it's supposed to run continuously for about
>15 seconds, mine pulses on-off 3 or 4 times for about 2-3 seconds
>duration. Any ideas?
Sell the house, failing that give it away, if that doesn't work pay
someone to take it or burn it down.
To give you a clue - these ghastly instruments of the Devil are
French. Add the French and lavatorial engineering - now see why I
say get out while you can. Moreover this particular Frenchman was a
lunatic with strong Anglophobic tendancies and a bad case of
coprophilia.
I am quite sure the designer was also an ex-submariner Frenchman who
missed the strangled screams of seamen who had got the valve sequence
wrong in the submarines toilet and just been rinsed down with a few
gallons of seawater (and the recently donated contents of the bowl).
They break down at the slightest opportunity. The only thing you can
actually guarantee about them is that they will break down - very
frequently.
Basically the only way of maintaining the slightest semblance of
serviceability is to impose on pain of repair the same rules as for a
small yachts sea toilet - if it hasn't passed through you it doesn't
go in the bowl.
They have an interesting design. The motor has poor starting torque
and the macerator lots of tiny teeth. Ergo anything that has strands
in it catches on the teeth and stops the motor from starting. Things
with strands include anything with cotton wool (including cotton wool
buds) and anything with cloth. Females in particular must not be
allowed anywhere near these devices. If you were unfortunate enough
to have the added misery of a sink (oh dear - you were) then add
hair, strands from wooly pullovers and almost anything else thats at
all fibrous.
When they break (which they will - that's an absolute certainty)
their endearing characteristic is that you are left with a bowl full
of whatever which you have to empty back the way it came and more
importantly many feet of 40mm pipe still full of minced whatever.
When you disconnect the pipe I'll give you one guess where its going
to go. Repairing or unblocking them is the most thoroughly revolting
job.
Now to get to specifics - the pulsing is a fault in either
installation or the pressure switch. Does it pulse with just the
cold water tap running from the sink? The way they work is a low
pressure trip switch switches on the motor when the small holding
tank is full. This tank remains partially full all the time. If its
pulsing either the switch has too low a hysterisis or water isn't
getting into it fast enough. The motor should remain on for a few
seconds after everything has emptied so that pulsing you are seeing
shouldn't be happening.
As the failure rate of these diabolical things is worse than that of
a F104 Starfighter I'd suggest you get the installer back (preferably
to remove it forever). If it was installed by yourself then self
flaggelation with a few lengths of barbed wire and a call to the
Saniflo people might be in order.
>Also, my system is a Sanitop with the outflow from a washbasin going
>into the top of the unit. I find that running the tap for a few seconds
>activates the Saniflow. Is there any way of adjusting the sensitivity of
>it so that it will only run when a reasonable amount of water has gone
>into the unit.
No, but if its oversensitive this might be related to the pulsing you
are seeing.
>I dont see why the washbasin water cant just bypass the
>cutter/pump internally.
Because these horrors are designed to be installed pumping upwards -
the raving idiot who designed them thought it would be pretty neat to
have something you could stick in a downstairs cloakroom and run the
pipe upwards to join the soil stack in the bathroom. If that's how
your installation goes cut out the selling the house bit - just burn
it now. When it fails there is 10ft of pressurised whatsit just
waiting for that final turn on the drainpipe.
The other reason the sink must go through the pump is that the outlet
of the thing is at some pressure. Connect the sink a bit downstream
and every time you pull the chain the contents of the loo make a
pretty little fountain out of the sink plughole (I've seen one
plumbed like that - the owner kept a sandbag in the sink on top of
the plug).
Some models have an interesting feature - on the top is a reset
switch, under the top cover is a screwdriver slot on the top of the
motor drive shaft to allow you to clear the (frequent) blockages.
However to get the top cover open to get at the drive shaft to free
it - you've guessed - you have to disconnect the drain pipe.
How they can be called Saniflow when they are anything but sanitary
(as you will soon find out) and rarely flow is beyond me.
As I said - sell the house.
--
Peter Parry. 01442 212597 0973 269132 fax 01442 233169
http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk
Timothy Downie
Peter Parry wrote in message <364a780a...@news.demon.co.uk>...
>On Tue, 10 Nov 1998 16:25:33 +0000, Angus
><andrew....@bt-sys.bt.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>My recently installed Saniflo does not behave as described in the user
>>manual. On flusshing the WC it's supposed to run continuously for about
>>15 seconds, mine pulses on-off 3 or 4 times for about 2-3 seconds
>>duration. Any ideas?
>
>Sell the house, failing that give it away, if that doesn't work pay
>someone to take it or burn it down.
[Amusing tale of the horrors of Saniflos snipped]
In article <364a780a...@news.demon.co.uk>, pe...@wppltd.demon.co.uk
(Peter Parry) writes:
>>My recently installed Saniflo does not behave as described in the user
>>manual. On flushing the WC it's supposed to run continuously for about
>>15 seconds, mine pulses on-off 3 or 4 times for about 2-3 seconds
>>duration. Any ideas?
>
>Sell the house, failing that give it away, if that doesn't work pay
>someone to take it or burn it down.
[Amusing tale of the horrors of saniflos snipped]
Looks like I'm in line for some self flagellation with barbed wire as I
installed one in our house 3 years ago and it's worked perfectly ever since.
Where did I go wrong? ;-)
More seriously, in our house I fitted it in an en-suite shower room that's
miles from the nearest soil stack. Fitting another soil stack and breaking
into the existing soil pipes underground just wasn't a cost effective
option. Our doesn't pump uphill or have the sink emptying into it so that
may be a factor in its longevity.
Being a rather perverse sort of person, I rather enjoy that frisson of
excitement whenever I flush the toilet as I wonder if this is the day it's
going to break down, particularly when I've been, ahem, more "productive"
than usual. ;-)
It seemed the least bad option and, so far, it's paid off.
TD
Graeme Eldred
<pe...@wppltd.demon.co.uk> writes
<huge snip>
>How they can be called Saniflow when they are anything but sanitary
>(as you will soon find out) and rarely flow is beyond me.
>
>As I said - sell the house.
>
>
>
You don't recommend Saniflow then, Peter ? :-)
--
Graeme
Hertford, UK
T1MDownie
>>My recently installed Saniflo does not behave as described in the user
>>manual. On flusshing the WC it's supposed to run continuously for about
>>15 seconds, mine pulses on-off 3 or 4 times for about 2-3 seconds
>>duration. Any ideas?
>
>Sell the house, failing that give it away, if that doesn't work pay
>someone to take it or burn it down.
[Amusing tale of the horrors of saniflos snipped]
Looks like I'm in line for some self flagellation with barbed wire as I
installed one in our house 3 years ago and it's worked perfectly ever since.
Where did I go wrong? ;-)
More seriously, in our house I fitted it in an en-suite shower room that's
miles from the nearest soil stack. Fitting another soil stack and breaking
into the existing soil pipes underground just wasn't a cost effective option.
Our doesn't pump uphill or have the sink emptying into it so that may be a
factor in its longevity.
Being a rather perverse sort of person, I rather enjoy that frisson of
excitement whenever I flush the tiolet as I wonder if this is the day it's
T1MDownie
Apologies for double posting. Too many ISPs.
TD
Tony Polson
On Tue, 10 Nov 1998 18:15:15 GMT, pe...@wppltd.demon.co.uk (Peter
Parry) wrote:
>Sell the house, failing that give it away, if that doesn't work pay
>someone to take it or burn it down.
>
>To give you a clue - these ghastly instruments of the Devil are
>French. Add the French and lavatorial engineering - now see why I
>say get out while you can. Moreover this particular Frenchman was a
>lunatic with strong Anglophobic tendancies and a bad case of
>coprophilia.
>
>I am quite sure the designer was also an ex-submariner Frenchman who
>missed the strangled screams of seamen who had got the valve sequence
>wrong in the submarines toilet and just been rinsed down with a few
>gallons of seawater (and the recently donated contents of the bowl).
>
>They break down at the slightest opportunity. The only thing you can
>actually guarantee about them is that they will break down - very
>frequently.
rest snipped ....
Peter Parry
(Tony Polson) wrote:
>Do I get the impression that you don't like them
Don't like them!!! I hate them passionately. I have a dear friend
who bought a house with one of these. It is a measure of that
friendship that I repaired the damn thing no less than three times.
During that time I came to loath them with a passion normally
reserved for battle. They are the most excruciatingly incompetent
design I have ever seen. If you set a three year old at a drawing
board they could do better.
Only a Frenchman could come up with something so vile. The whole
concept is so mind bogglingly inept. Modify a Moulinex food
processor to eat sewage and pump it all down little tiddly pipes.
Make a motor with sod all start torque. Make the manual release
system inaccessible without dismantling every blasted pipe. Put a
non-return valve on the outlet so the pipe DOESN'T non return when
you undo it. Then to top it all advertise and install them so that
the output pumps UPWARDS!!!!
Even a one eyed piebald pony could do better. It's a plot by the
French to contaminate houses in Britain with sewerage in revenge for
that silly programme about Provence. It's to get their own back for
having to be rescued twice in one century. It must be deliberate.
No one could produce anything this diabolical by accident.
No - I don't like them.
Not even a very little bit.
Paul Steele
Are you a Saniflophobe per chance? Your hatred of these devices is absolute
to say the least. I shall never nay never have one installed now!!
Paul
Peter Parry <pe...@wppltd.demon.co.uk> wrote in article
<364a780a...@news.demon.co.uk>...
pvry...@ovtsbbg.pbz
<tim...@downie999.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>More seriously, in our house I fitted it in an en-suite shower room that's
>miles from the nearest soil stack. Fitting another soil stack and breaking
>into the existing soil pipes underground just wasn't a cost effective
>option. Our doesn't pump uphill or have the sink emptying into it so that
>may be a factor in its longevity.
Ah, then I'm not alone! Ours has now been installed for 8 years. But I
hesitate to say anything further for fear of displeasing the gods, who might
then invoke the sorts of punishments about which Peter has written so
eloquently.
Chris Ward.
Philip Shotton
I can't resist adding my own horror story to the saniflow thread. Our
en-suite bathroom has one of these. We make sure ONLY liquids go down
it after a dramatic incident shortly after we'd moved in.
The imbecile who installed it plumbed the toilet overflow into the
saniflow outlet pipe. Further down it blocked (because the prat had
also put a large number of right-hand bends in the outlet) so when the
toilet was flushed the waste was pumped straight back into the
cistern.
The outflow piping was also installed under the floorboords of the
bathroom behind the bedroom before a plinth was built on top of the
boards with a bath on the plinth - there is no way that I can get at
the piping.
I'm almost tempted to burn the damn thing.
Phil
Douglas de Lacey
>
> On Wed, 11 Nov 1998 11:52:27 GMT, ne...@polson.NOSPAM.demon.co.uk
> (Tony Polson) wrote:
>
> >Do I get the impression that you don't like them
Judging by the number of responses there should be a new entry in the
FAQ: "Does Peter Parry approve of Saniflo?" Perhaps his two passionate
and entertainng essays on the subject could be put on a web page
somewhere?:-)
Douglas de Lacey.
Graham
wrote:
>Judging by the number of responses there should be a new entry in the
>FAQ: "Does Peter Parry approve of Saniflo?" Perhaps his two passionate
>and entertainng essays on the subject could be put on a web page
>somewhere?:-)
>
Well I thought they were very funny, but now I have a very deep
feeling of unease, I'm not sure I'll be able to "face" one the next
time I come across one in a cheap hotel.
Just supposing you have one of these things plumbed in to the soil
stack on the floor above, everybody uses the loo and then everybody in
the house goes on their summer holiday for a month. At best the solid
matter will settle out and form a solid plug at the bottom of the
pipe, at worst it will all brew up creating a health hazard or worse.
Surely this sort of thing can't be allowed.
Graham
Richard Gethin
<ph...@iisc.co.uk> writes
>The imbecile who installed it plumbed the toilet overflow into the
>saniflow outlet pipe. Further down it blocked (because the prat had
>also put a large number of right-hand bends in the outlet) so when the
>toilet was flushed the waste was pumped straight back into the
>cistern.
--
Richard Gethin
Peter Parry
wrote:
>at worst it will all brew up creating a health hazard or worse.
More like biological warfare.
>Surely this sort of thing can't be allowed.
My sentiments exactly :-).
Phil Addison
>Peter Parry wrote:
>Judging by the number of responses there should be a new entry in the
>FAQ: "Does Peter Parry approve of Saniflo?" Perhaps his two passionate
>and entertainng essays on the subject could be put on a web page
>somewhere?:-)
What an excellent idea. I'll start the ball rolling by reposting it to
alt.usenet.reposts. You should be able to see it there shortly. Look for
follow-ups in alt.usenet.reposts.d.
What is alt.usenet.reposts? I quote from it's FAQ...
>The newsgroup alt.usenet.reposts was created to contain articles that
>people have read in other newsgroups that other people might find
>amusing or interesting: There are tens of thousands of groups out
>there, and even if you wanted to, you could not read them all.
--
Phil | Please do not duplicate usenet follow-ups by email.
| Check my address for Anti-Spam measures.
Philip Shotton
No I didn't ;-)
My mistake was to take the lid off the cistern (to see what the funny
noise was) while the pump was still running. I'm not sure what was
filthier, the language I used or the mess on the ceiling.
This happened several years ago but I still harbour evil designs
against the individual that installed this contraption. You can guess
that whatever punishment I inflict will involve a saniflow in some
guise or other.
Phil
Matthew Marks
Philip Shotton <ph...@iisc.co.uk> writes:
> Richard Gethin <ric...@rgethin.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
>
> My mistake was to take the lid off the cistern (to see what the funny
> noise was) while the pump was still running. I'm not sure what was
> filthier, the language I used or the mess on the ceiling.
Good thing the mess was on the *ceiling*...
--
Matthew @rd.bbc.co.uk My opinions, not Auntie's
JK...@softwright.co.uk
mat...@rd.bbc.co.uk (Matthew Marks) wrote:
> > Richard Gethin <ric...@rgethin.demon.co.uk> writes:
> >
> > My mistake was to take the lid off the cistern (to see what the funny
> > noise was) while the pump was still running. I'm not sure what was
> > filthier, the language I used or the mess on the ceiling.
>
> Good thing the mess was on the *ceiling*...
Ah, I think we've just uncovered another Damn Good Idea: Never Lean Over
Questionable Plumbing.
--
James Kew
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
G.M Harman-Balsdon
Parry) wrote:
>
>To give you a clue - these ghastly instruments of the Devil are
>French. Add the French and lavatorial engineering - now see why I
>say get out while you can. Moreover this particular Frenchman was a
>lunatic with strong Anglophobic tendancies and a bad case of
>coprophilia.
>
>I am quite sure the designer was also an ex-submariner Frenchman who
>missed the strangled screams of seamen who had got the valve sequence
>wrong in the submarines toilet and just been rinsed down with a few
>gallons of seawater (and the recently donated contents of the bowl).
>
When the waste system on a ship i,m involved with was adapted to use a
treatment plant rather than going over the side it became necessary
to install a couple of these devices. Unfortunately it fell to me to
maintain them. The worst variant is the wc with the pump built into
the base . one look at told me it could not function effectively
unless you were suffering from dele beli. .If the french diet means
your movements are always in a semi liquid state then no wonder they
are always so bad tempered . Basically a normal movement was too large
to even get through the hole into the macerator section without
mechanical assistance such as an old broom handle.
Eventually i lost my temper with it and lost it of the French coast
complete with large Turd where hopefully one of their trawlers found
it.
The normal type we still have and work reasonably well.
However I do have the advantage that when maintainance becomes
needed it is now been made easy to safely disconnect in about two
minutes,carry it on deck ,check wind direction and blast out from a
safe distance with a fire hose.Not something you can do in a spare
room.