Not Very Pleasant Saniflow Question
Gerry Hooper
Recently bought a new house where the downstairs cloakroom has had one of
these fitted. Everything was OK until yesterday when the macerator/pump
started oscilating every 4/5secs. Spoke to the previous owner last night and
he says that it needs cleaning out because the float isn't falling to the
correct level. He said that after he'd done this once they only used this
loo for 'light' use!!
I'm wondering if there are any chemical that are recommended for use with
these type of units as I don't really want to have to clean it out on a
regular basis and I'd like to use it to the full. I successfully managed to
free it up last night with a alternating cocktail of caustic soda solution,
biological washing liquid and washing up liquid - in successive purges.
Any advice would be gratefully accepted.
Thanks in advance,
Gerry.
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Peter Parry
<g_ho...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Recently bought a new house where the downstairs cloakroom has had one of
>these fitted.
Lets just get this straight - you actually paid money to BUY a house
with a Saniflo? You're sure the previous occupant didn't pay money
to get you to take it off their hands? You actually signed a
contract and exchanged money and _bought_ it?
Didn't read the FAQ's here did you?
Someone saw you coming didn't they?
>Spoke to the previous owner last night and he says that it needs cleaning out
Never in the field of human endeavour has so much been masked by so
few words. "Cleaning out". It's a bit like saying to someone with a
1 in paint brush "Go and paint that ship will you" "Which ship"
"The big one with 'Queen Elizabeth II' written on the back".
You will need:-
a. Prophylactic antibiotic injections and several others available
only from Porton Down Defence Chemical and Biological Warfare Agency.
b. One of those nice yellow contamination suits with pressurised air
feed your local fire department used when dealing with overturned
nuclear waste carriers and spills of Prussic Acid.
c. A bulk road tanker of bleach, another of concentrated
disinfectant.
d. Accommodation for the family somewhere quiet for a few weeks.
e. A reserved bed in the local hospital.
f. A very very very strong stomach. Its advisable not to eat for
several days beforehand, the contamination suit gets a bit slippy if
there is too much breakfast floating about inside it.
>because the float isn't falling to the correct level.
There is no float in the ones I've had the dire misfortune to be
associated with - it's a pressure switch (not adjustable) which in
your case may be faulty. If there is a float - guess what its
floating in and covered with?
If by any chance the microcephalic nincompoop who had this installed
made the classic mistake of plumbing it UPWARDS then guess what's
coming back down when you undo the piping.
> He said that after he'd done this once they only used this
>loo for 'light' use!!
If he kept a straight face while saying this he should take up
politics. Most houses with these things in have the loo door screwed
shut and the room filled with concrete to prevent them being used at
all.
>I'm wondering if there are any chemical that are recommended for use with
>these type of units.
I've heard that Aqua Regia, Hydrofluoric Acid and a good rinse with
Trichlorethylene is quite efficacious and dissolves them almost
completely.
>as I don't really want to have to clean it out on a
>regular basis and I'd like to use it to the full.
You can have the first part of this sentence or the last but not
both. Of this there is no doubt whatsoever.
"Cleaning them out" is a thoroughly disgusting job made worse by the
numerous design defects. Using them (at all) makes cleaning them out
a necessary and completely unavoidable regular event.
This time you were very lucky. It doesn't take too powerful an
imagination to guess at what point in the process they normally fail
(read on to the bit about poor _starting_ torque). You can imagine
what you are confronted with and will have to dispose of even before
you start on the fermenting remains of last weekends curry in the
pipework.
These disgusting devices are the biggest con since magnetic water
devices. Quite simply they don't work. A fuller explanation can be
found in the FAQ's at http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/~ukdiy/humour.html
although quite what the faq maintainer found humourous about these
things is beyond me.
The design (French - do you realise you bought a house with an
electric French toilet) is fundamentally flawed. Whatever the merits
of the French might be, and I'm told they do have a few, neither
their electrical practises nor insanitary engineering are in the list
no matter who draws it up.
The devices uses a motor pinched I suspect from a food mixer. To
keep the embarrassing noises in the house down it's an induction
motor. Induction motors are lovely things except for one thing -
they have poor starting torque.
The mincing device is a stainless steel serrated bowl and disc
affair. The serrations are rough to get a grip (so to speak) on that
which they process. That means anything fibrous catches on the rough
serrations in the discs and stops the motor from starting.
When this happens you have to dismantle the whole device. In order
to do this you have to remove all the pipework. If the pipework goes
upwards guess what's coming down as soon as you undo the connection?
They work (for a bit) if you follow the small boat sea toilet rule :-
Nothing (absolutely nothing) goes down the loo
unless it has gone through you first.
No exceptions, no paper, nothing unless its been digested.
Even then eating nuts, wholemeal bread or anything likely to pass
unchanged through the alimentary tract will cause a blockage sooner
not later.
The following will cause these diabolical devices to fail almost
instantly:-
Children
Females
Vegetarians
Wholefood addicts
Organic food lovers
Visitors
Cotton wool
Q tips
Any fibrous material
Some paper
>Any advice would be gratefully accepted.
Rinse several times with fresh water and then take it out (or sell
the house). They are completely impractical diabolically unreliable
unutterably disgusting devices sent over here by the blasted French
to weaken the British economy.
--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/
Plus net
inadvertantly kill you
Bleach with certain toilet cleaning blocks can give lethal dose of Chlorine
Gas
Andy Hall
I believe that Peter has a way with words.
It only remains to say:
Semper in excretum, sed sole profundum variat.
In this case I think the depth might be considerable.......
.andy
"Peter Parry" <pe...@wpp.ltd.uk> wrote in message
news:ueuq5t88gk0t2eogs...@4ax.com...
Dave Liquorice
> Lets just get this straight - you actually paid money to BUY a house
> with a Saniflo?
<Snip>
Peter, I take it you don't like Saniflos'? B-)
--
Cheers new...@howhill.com
Dave. Remove "spam" for valid email.
Peter Parry
<new...@howhill.com> wrote:
>Peter, I take it you don't like Saniflos'? B-)
You would not be correct. It is not that I don't like them, I hate
them with great passion. Had it not been that the person whose
diabolical device I fixed on a number of occasions was someone for
whom I have the highest regard I would have destroyed the house long
ago.
The designer deserves to be pegged to a heap of particularly hungry
and voracious ants while his parts are painted with boiling honey.
After that he should be punished.
Andy Hall
"Huge" <hu...@huge.nospam.org.uk> wrote in message
news:93kc6j$ltj$2...@anubis.demon.co.uk...
> In article <ueuq5t88gk0t2eogs...@4ax.com>, Peter Parry
<pe...@wpp.ltd.uk> writes:
>
> >a. Prophylactic antibiotic injections and several others available
> >only from Porton Down Defence Chemical and Biological Warfare Agency.
>
> C'mon, it's only shit. I've rebuilt our cesspit pump twice and I'm
> still here to talk about it.
>
> Everything else I agree with...
>
> --
> "The road to Paradise is through Intercourse."
> The uk.transport FAQ; http://www.huge.org.uk/transport/FAQ.html
> [Delete "nospam." to email me]
>
>
paul_...@my-deja.com
have been unable to have fitted a second bathroom when I converted my
basement. In 5 years I have only had one blockage.
Two things I can suggest (after you have taken the unit out and given
it a thorough clean). The first is that every six months, to prevent
limescale build up, you should put a litre of a strong mix of descaler
down the pan and leave it for a good few hours. Second is to use Thin
Economy bleach a couple of times a week. The thickening agent in other,
more expensive bleaches, causes it to foam up, which in turn makes the
motor run every few seconds, as you describe. The same applies to
almost any other type of detergent. There is no float switch as such,
the unit uses a rubber diaphragm at the base of the motor housing.
Paul H
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
Mark Roberts
>to do this you have to remove all the pipework. If the pipework goes
>upwards guess what's coming down as soon as you undo the connection?
>
>
fitting one soon as part of a job though. I think I'll try and find a
valve for the vertical piece of pip[e that will be running from it
though; possibly with some sort of access eye so that the pipe can be
cleaned.
One of our plumbing subbys had mentioned that he just throws em away whn
they go wrong and fits another.
Don't think I'll have one .................
--
Mark
Michael
>Be very very careful what cocktails you put down loos the wrong type can
>inadvertantly kill you
>
>Bleach with certain toilet cleaning blocks can give lethal dose of Chlorine
>Gas
You can simulate the reaction in the kitchen, with ease - Add crushed
Cambden tablets to sodium metabisulphate crystals.
Peter Parry
wrote:
>You can simulate the reaction in the kitchen, with ease - Add crushed
>Cambden tablets to sodium metabisulphate crystals.
I thought that was for improving the flavour of home made wine? It's
always made mine taste much better and the slightly yellow/green
tinge adds a touch of mystery I find.
john
>Hi,
>
>Recently bought a new house where the downstairs cloakroom has had one of
>these fitted. Everything was OK until yesterday when the macerator/pump
>started oscilating every 4/5secs. Spoke to the previous owner last night and
>he says that it needs cleaning out because the float isn't falling to the
>correct level. He said that after he'd done this once they only used this
>loo for 'light' use!!
>
>I'm wondering if there are any chemical that are recommended for use with
>these type of units as I don't really want to have to clean it out on a
>regular basis and I'd like to use it to the full. I successfully managed to
>free it up last night with a alternating cocktail of caustic soda solution,
>biological washing liquid and washing up liquid - in successive purges.
>
>Any advice would be gratefully accepted.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Gerry.
>--
I'm on my 2nd Saniflow device now, the 1st lasted about ten years but I
must admit in the last two years of it's life I did have to remove the
unit on a couple of occasions, carry it very carefully downstairs,
remove the top and hose the thing out.
Mine is fitted in our bedroom en-suite and takes the waste from, toilet,
bidet, wash basin & shower. In my case the culprit for blockage was
hair.
As Paul stated, with out the unit we would not have been able to have
the pleasure and advantage of our en-suite.
Hope this helps.
John.
--
john