Macerator

[ppppenguin]

I may have to instal a loo using a macerator. I know that they are horrible things but there isn't a realistic alternative.

Grundfos have a good name for heating pumps so I'm inclined to trust them more than a make I've not heard of. They're cheaper than the best known Saniflo brand. This one is under £250:
http://www.screwfix.com/p/grundfos-solol...ator/7378f

But you can get this one from Germany for under £80: http://www.wiltec.de/wiltec-3-1-macerato...rrency=GBP&gclid=CjwKEAiA9s_BBRCL3ZKWsfblgS8SJACbST7DbbFk6-dkCE3C5ujhao6YHVapuIunL60o_EqAbAescxoC56Pw_wcB

Any thoughts?

[pwdrive]

Only ever used a Saniflow, not for the bog but for the kitchen sink in one of the places we used to live, originally I thought I could be a smart arse and save some money, I had an old header tank and an old float pump, worked great to start with but eventually stunk to high heaven, it was located under the kitchen sink, the stink was from accumulated fat...'orrible, so I lashed out for a Saniflo job, no smell and very reliable.

Can't comment on the Grundfos except to say that when we bought the house we are in now there was a Grundfos pump (three speed) to circulate the CH water, I replaced all the CH as the pipework was a bit of a lash up and some of the radiators were leaking, kept the original pump, it's gently whiring away now as I type, so for me it's hats off to the pump.

Good look whicheverways.

Lawrence.

[ppppenguin]

Also need to make the that the prospective user doesn't put anything except s*** and toilet paper down the pan.

The background is that my partner's dad is 94, lives on his own at home and wants to stay that way. At the moment he can get up the stairs but it's getting harder. The only loo is upstairs, a stairlift isn't feasible so it may mean abandoning upstairs altogether. I've scoped out the hallway and can easily get a loo in there, as a simple temporary job with a bit of ply as a partition wall, to be pulled out again when no longer needed and not leaving too many holes. It would be possible to build a proper loo there but that would be too much disturbance. I reckon I can kludge in a loo in a couple of days.

The only other tricky looking job is cutting into a cast iron soil stack. A decent quality Bosch or Starrett holesaw run slowly with plenty of water as lube ought to do the job. I may try to use an ordinary boss, as used for plastic soilpipe, or just silicone the wastepipe into the stack. I did say this was a quick kludge job.

[pwdrive]

Depending on the diameter of the cast iron pipe, a clamp on plastic boss adapter for 100mm plastic might fit around the pipe, you can get reducers for them as well to suit the inlet pipe size, the ones I had didn't have a sealing gasket to the main soil pipe so I applied a bead of silicone around the hole before fitting the clamp....No leaky.

Lawrence.

[Valvebloke]

... The only other tricky looking job is cutting into a cast iron soil stack. A decent quality Bosch or Starrett holesaw run slowly with plenty of water as lube ought to do the job ...

This has probably already crossed your mind, but consider how you're going to stop the cut-out disc from falling down the inside of the soil stack. It can be surprising how a small, dense, rigid, insoluble object can block a pipe. Since you'll be cutting into a curved surface the disc will eventually be held in place just by two small uncut sections. You might finish those off by hand having poked a coathanger hook through the pilot hole. Or a longer than usual pilot drill might be enough to do the job.

VB

[Craig]

My experience of what happens when unusual things are put into a high powered macerator was ten years ago. I was working on a contract at University College in London. The optics lab was below ground level (on a stable underground concrete platform). However, pressure built up in the pipework from the Student's Union due to heaven knows what had been put in to loos and caused havoc with the macerator and pipes, and blew a manhole cover in the corridor above the optics lab. And filled the lab knee deep in ordure.

I came in a few days later and the place was pretty clean and smell-free at that point. But a first generation echelle diffraction grating (for the project) was in a flight case under the optical bench, and had been seriously under-poo. This large unit took 18 months to manufacture and cost £80k.

I opened the flight case with real trepidation - and the seals on the case had worked perfectly, and nothing at all had got in. Phew. We then relocated all the optics to a cupboard well above danger level!

Craig

[ppppenguin]

Ordure! Ordure! As the speaker of the House of Commons often says. Quite appropriate really when referring the "dense, rigid, insoluble objects" that populate that place. Anyway, enough of politics and cyncism. Back to drains, much more sanitary.

@Valvebloke, I can do better than that. I was drilling a 20mm hole in my plastic soil stack to take the condensate drain from my new boiler. Wasn't too worried about a small bit of plastic going down the drain but the holesaw was slightly loose in the chuck. The holesaw, complete with arbor, went down the stack. I rodded through the whole system and never found it so I can only assume it landed up in the public sewer. In retrospect I should have used a stepped drill like this http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catal..._11970.jpg  though I'm not sure if I had any at the time. The photo shows the 20mm to soil connection.

I'll have a think about how to avoid a lump of cast iron going down the drain. Might be able to devise something to fit instead of the pilot drill once the hole is well started. Possibly something made from a bit of wire coathanger. Or even a powerful little magnet.


Off out soon to the Wood Awards bash at the Carpenters Hall. Well where else? My partner is one of the judges so I'm just going for fun as whatever the male counterpart of a WAG is. http://woodawards.com/

[alanworland]

Use the hole saw by all means but before you get right through and lose the plug, drill a hole in the centre and secure a piece of cord/wire/string to it then tap the middle out being cast iron it should break out well.

Alan

[jimmc101]

The mention of Saniflow reminded me of this piece.

Jim

[Refugee]

That story sounds normal.
Where I live there is a huge one beyond the other side of the main road. At least once a week they have to suck all the brown smelly stuff out of it with a huge sludge gulper. I am pretty confident that a sludge gulper that size can back suck any blockages out of the riser pipe too.
Little plastic ones have got to be much worse. I bet they can't even get rid of dietary fiber.
Avoid...avoid...avoid... or stink your life out.
They suffer with ANHD (acute nose harassment disorder).
Insanityflow would be a better name.