Thetford "Aqua Magic Style Plus" - won't do water only-fixed

[tyoungs]

Have a foot flush Thetford "Aqua Magic Style Plus" toilet in our half bath. When you depress foot valve half way it is supposed to just put water in bowl and when completely depressed, it flushes. Lately it has been "flushing" as soon as you press on the foot valve. There is a rod in the back of the toilet that is supposed to move down a slot for just water, then at the bottom of the slot it moves the ball valve to flush. Appears that it is sticking at the outer most end and rather than moving down the slot to give you just water, it begins opening the ball valve on first movement. I have tried lubricating (Thetford recommends silicone only grease) and it does not seem to help.

I will be replacing the seal on the ball valve soon as it does not hold water in bowl reliably, and will see if I can scope any issue with flusher.




Wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem and what the fix might be.

[tyoungs]

OP update - fixed my problem. I think the underlying problem was caused by a failing ball valve seal. The water only vs flush issue started last season and thought I had it fixed with a little lube and some relief on the back of the toilet so the rod did not bind up.

De-winterized a week or so ago and this year the toilet would not hold water along with the issue of flushing immediately upon depressing the flush pedal. Talked to Thetford and ordered both a new ball seal and a new water control valve. Replaced both parts tonight and toilet is working like new.

I think the real issue was the ball seal. While playing with the unit to see what the problem might be, I could put just a bit of pressure on the arm that does the water flow and the operation was normal (rod slides down a slot in this lever to add water and when rod reaches the end of the slot, opens the ball valve to flush). I think the new ball valve seal added enough pressure on the ball valve that the rod slid down the slot and worked as designed. Similar to what I did with my finger on the lever arm, the extra sealing tension of the seal to the ball valve allowed the rod to go down the slot, add water as designed, and then open the ball valve when the rod reached the end of the slot. And now it holds water just fine.

So, my suggestion, if your foot flush valve is getting finicky about just adding water, first I would change the ball valve seal and lube the rod while you have it all apart. The extra tension of the new seal on the ball valve may be just enough to cause the "add water" function to return to normal.

[2vrdks]

I had the same issue last year. The rod wasn't sliding as designed, causing the flush valve to open as soon as the pedal was depressed at all. I pulled the toilet and replaced the water control valve that was catching the rod. Simply lubricating it may have solved the problem but since I had the part, I changed it and cleaned and lubricated the old one for a spare. While I had it out, I replaced the flush ball seal at the same time.

While the part description didn't say so, it was packaged with a new floor seal, so you may not need to order that separately. Got the part on Amazon for about $20.

Not as bad of a job as I had imagined.

[gafidler]

Just went thru this on my Aqua Magic Style Plus,, You must take the toilet out so you can get to the back of it , I tried to lub it while still in the RV and could not make it work, after I removed the toilet I was able to lub the plastic part and the wire , Make sure you get a new rubber seal to put in the hole before to put the toilet back in the RV. Hope this works for you

[tyoungs]

ScottG wrote:
Have you tried lifting the pedal?
That's how some of them work.

Nope, this one works by depressing half-way for water to fill bowl.
Have owned the rig for 7 years now and it just started acting up last year, thought the rod was binding on the back of the toilet so shaved away a bit of the area with a utility knife to give a little more clearance and that helped. Not this year though, acting up first time using it. Greasing up the slot does not help.

[rockhillmanor]

.

[ScottG]

Have you tried lifting the pedal?
That's how some of them work.