Oops sorry missed the "h" off. This is about a hitch not a request for marriage guidance....................

Our beloved Troll is now in it's seventh year of life and we are started to find little things going wrong....................

After getting ready for our first outing of the year (to Burrs Counrty Park in Bury 0nly 45 mins away) and taking off its winter coverings & insulation we found that the pump to the toilet flush wasn't working.

After reading a bit on the Forum and then of YouTube (and change of fuse) I realised that the pump sounded to be blocked or seized up.

Found a helpful video "Thetford Cassette Caravan toilet not flushing" by someone with the exotic handle of Beau Madeline. It looked an identical toilet to our Troll.

I followed the video. Taking the flush top off and getting the pump out - this was really fiddly and painful as I have short stubby hands. After a few cuts and scrapes I got it out and sure enough it was blucked with the black stuff which we see in the flush after we have not used it for a while. I turned the inner with a small screwdriver and got it moving again.

On putting everything back and puttting in a new fuse it flushed again like a dream.

I was really chuffed with myself as I am usually technically useless ...

However I was shocked by how much black stuff there was. On doing further research I was also shocked to read that it appears to be an algae formed by using too much of the pink stuff in your flush. In fact a number of people have said that the y now no longer use the pink stuff but just use plain water instead. I used this approach on site last weekend and it seemed OK but might revert to a very weak concentrate of the pink for our next trip.

If you look at Beau's video and especially his bright red right hand you will see why I don't want to have to do it again for a long time - it took a fair few days for my skin on the back of my hand to get back to normality.

I would say though that if it happens on your flush pump it is worth having a go yourself, despite the pain!

MikeT

Hi Colin

I used the green stuff (instead of the blue) for the first time last week at Burrs and it seemed good. I never thought of putting a dash in the flush.

We are off on our long summer trip soon and I think I will just take the green & try a dash in the flush to see how it goes.

Mike