Saniflow nil, Handyman one.

[The Medway Handyman]

I was asked to repair a Saniflow today. Having read Peter Parry's wonderful article, I was somewhat dismayed.

Made a break for the door, but was cut off. Struggled, but there were 4 of them - so I had no choice. Armed myself with several screwdrivers to poke it with.

Had too remove the toilet cistern to even get the lid off. Problem was it squirted yucky water out of the air intake valve every time it kicked in & wouldn't pump away properly.

Turned out to be two simple problems, one of which was a bugger.

The yucky water squirting was down to a wafty designed air intake valve that was clogged with ooh nasty. Lack of pumping was because a rubber connector wasn't seated properly and had been compressed, so no flow - right PITA, took me around 40 mins to get the piggin thing in straight.

To my surprise it worked perfectly! But what a completely crap design.

Not at all confident though

[Tim W]

The Medway Handyman wibbled on Wednesday 21 October 2009 00:17

You're brave. If it were me, there would be 4 very flat people, stampeded to death...

[David Hansen]

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:17:41 GMT someone who may be "The Medway Handyman" wrote this:-

The design is fine, provided it is installed and used as designed. I don't think the design can be blamed for a jubilee clip being fitted in the wrong place.

Although it may offend the sensibilities of the doom sayers small bore pipework has been used for plumbing in certain circumstances for a long time. I imagine the doom sayers' ancestors once said how terrible the idea of having toilets inside houses was. Far better to keep them outside where they belonged.

That isn't an argument to install it everywhere. If large gravity discharge pipework can be fitted without undue effort then there is much less to go wrong.

[PeterC]

Yup - if gravity goes wrong we're all in the shit!

I like mechanisms based on gravity, springs or magnets as they tend to be less unreliable than other things.

[Neal]

Don't you know Gravity is a lie put about by Atheists. It is actually 'Intelligent Falling"...

[Andy Dingley]

Many gravity mechanisms worked fine when made of brass, then failed when "value engineered" to lightweight plastic.

[John Rumm]

I don't think that claim is supportable! They may work ok, some of the time at least, but that does not mean the design is good by any stretch of the imagination. The fact that they are such buggers to service, illustrates failings of design.

No of course not. However that fact that it took 40 mins of fiddling to get it into the right place suggests it was not well designed.

Nothing wrong with the concept...

[Tim]

Ease of servicing depends on installation and I don't think you can blame Saniflow if you have to remove the cistern to get at it!

My old one could be slid out sideways very easily from behind the pan. Once out there was no problem with servicing. To be honest, in the 10 years we had it, it only needed to be opened once (because of an unminceable "wet-wipe" that had been flushed).

It was only removed when it became redundant but found a ready taker on Freecycle.

Tim

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:13:42 +0100 someone who may be John Rumm wrote this:-

I may have misread the original posting, as I assumed it was the jubilee clip on the outlet hose which was wrongly positioned. I hope this didn't take 40 minutes to rectify. I imagine now that it was something inside. Presumably it wasn't installed properly and the fault developed slowly. Can the design be blamed for this? Debatable.

[chunkyoldcortina]

Who in their right mind would want a used Saniflow?!

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:27:28 +0100 someone who may be "Tim" wrote this:-

AOL. It is a bad installation.

IIRC the instructions say to allow space for the unit to be removed for maintenance. If someone ignores this, or interprets removing the cistern as being the way to allow the space, then that is not a fault of the manufacturer.

How dare you bring facts to a discussion on them. The doom sayers won't like that:-)

[terry]

Yes those pails and occasional shovels of earth down the hole do tend to make a mess within the house! BTW how many have seen that little book 'The Specialist'. Humorously all about how to built 'Privies' (North American term for an earth toilet?). Also btw the simplest one-holer I ever saw was somewhere on the north coast of this island facing out towards the North Atlantic; a simple wooden seat over a hole in the ground. No enclosure open to the four winds; which it would be at many seasons of the year here. While nobody around, one could just imagine the owner/operator at this far off the beaten track location; well it wasn't that far off actually, a situation somewhat similar to say northern Scotland, communing with nature while looking out across the water.

[terry]

[terry]

. Yes but what happens when you get to the edge of Flat Earth? Do you fall off or just float?

[Tim W]

terry wibbled on Wednesday 21 October 2009 12:32

The lava dragons eat you of course, silly!

[dom]

...

It might develop into a Pavlovian bowel-movement response to beautiful natural views.

[Martin Bonner]

At least one. I particularly liked the advice to make sure the path to the privy passed the wood-pile.

[Chris J Dixon]

An excellent little volume.

IIRC, it had a tip to locate the building between the house and the woodpile. If the lady of the house felt she was being observed as she set off down the garden, she could continue, as if she had always intended to fetch some logs. The side benefit was that there was always plenty of wood stacked beside the hearth.

Chris

[John Rumm]

Na, gravity is a myth - the earth sucks.

[John Stumbles]

ROFL! or at least LOL!