Shulamite Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Hi, thanks and advance for your help! The toilet is not keeping water in the bowl & it smells after only about 4 days. Hubby tried a sealant specifically for an RV toilet. It didn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark and Dale Bruss Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 What kind of toilet. Most have a ball or flat valve that engages a seal to create a water holding seal so that a measure of water stay in the bowl after flushing. Obvious the seal is the issue. You don't put stuff on the seal, you fix it. One thing to start is to scrub the bottom of the seal (the surface that engages the ball/flat valve) with a brush/cleaner. The next thing is replace the seal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GR "Scott" Cundiff Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 We bought some plumber's grease at the hardware store and when our toilet stops holding water we take a q-tip and apply some of the grease to the rubber seal. It fixes it for a month or so. Your mileage may vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ray.service Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 X2. Silicone plumbers grease. Sticky stuff applied with rubber glove or q-tip after a CLR soak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk W Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 I agree with Mark and Scott and in that order. First make sure that the seal is clean. If your toilet has one of the blade type valves, use something to hold the blade open and carefully clean inside of the slot the blade fits into. There is an O-ring in the slot so use care not to damage that seal. Once is it completely clean you can use some silicone grease to coat that seal, making sure you get it down into the slot if blade type. I've not owned the ball type of toilet so have no experience with those but any of them need to be clean and the silicone grease will act as a lubricant that stays in place a long time with the use of water and so it helps to keep the seal flexible and helps it to do it's job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathydavidb Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 We have the ball type flush valve. (Sealand brand) When the water leaks out we had to clean it by letting white vinegar sit in the bowl for an hour or two to clean the flush ball area. After a couple of years of that we finally had to change the flush valve. I found the instructions on line for doing that and it only took about 45 min. Now no more leak down problems. If you don't have water in the bowl, you'll get bad odors up from the tank below. The water makes a vapor seal to prevent that. I should have just changed the valve earlier rather than messing around for a couple of years. Lesson learned on that one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docj Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 X2. Silicone plumbers grease. Sticky stuff applied with rubber glove or q-tip after a CLR soak. Our problems with toilet seals have been substantially reduced after we started periodic soaking with CLR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark and Dale Bruss Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 We have a Sealand Ball valve. When the natural spring tension closing the valve doesn't make a water seal, then we know it is time to scour the seal. We are 8 tears on this toilet and do not use any add-on compounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alie&Jim's Carrilite Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 CLR works great on all the water fixtures to keep them flowing and parts turning. The main culprit that causes issues is just plain old hard water. Well water with lots of minerals and calcium are prevalent in older campgrounds and many state and federal parks as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docj Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 The main culprit that causes issues is just plain old hard water. Well water with lots of minerals and calcium are prevalent in older campgrounds and many state and federal parks as well. Like many others here we now use a water softener when we're at a location where the water is hard. We don't bother with it for short stays, but we use it anytime we're in one place for a while. It's pretty easy to recharge it every couple of weeks with a few pounds of table salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBH Posted July 3, 2015 Report Share Posted July 3, 2015 Thetford makes a product specifically for the toilet bowl seals. You pour it into the bowl and let it sit for as long as possible. When my ball type started to get slow to return I poured some in just before a month of storage. Worked perfectly. I haven't had to use any more for over two years but will look for another bottle if I need it. I don't know if that's what you used but it worked for me. Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shulamite Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Wow! You all are fantastic! Thanks for the good suggestions. We purchased the grease silicon stuff, but before we could clean it & seal it the problem stopped!!! All we did was empty the black tank! I was thinking maybe the tank was swelling because of the heat & it being almost full. With the swelling maybe the seal was affected? After we emptied it all was back to normal. So my new rule is to empty the black by the 3rd day! THANK YOU EVERYONE! You are very kind to help us in time of need. It is much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk W Posted July 5, 2015 Report Share Posted July 5, 2015 I doubt that emptying had anything to do with it. Probably there was something small caught in the flush valve that finally let go and went on into the tank or some other coincidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeBeFulltimers Posted July 5, 2015 Report Share Posted July 5, 2015 I would not empty mine on the 3rd day. The tank should be at lest 3/4 full before emptying for best results. We are full timers and just the 2 of us with a 50 gal Black tank. I empty on the 13-14th day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathydavidb Posted July 5, 2015 Report Share Posted July 5, 2015 Mine worked & held water off and on for a year or two. Finally I got tired of all the "temporary" fixes and replaced the seal on the flush valve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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