Porta-Potti Clean Up

I've been putting this off for the cold weather and we've got it now, so I drug the porta-potti into the basement and started on it. It quickly became apparent that it would be best to take it apart to some degree in order to get it clean.

So I cleaned the screw heads and took the screws out. Well, I got four of the five. The fifth, the nut which is modeled into the top tank started turning. So I wound up drilling the screw head. It generated enough heat to melt the plastic. So I have the screw/nut to repair and a hole in the top part of the Porta-Potti to fix. I wonder how I'll do that.

Dec 30, 2009

I finished cleaning and putting it back together. I need a new cap or to repair one cap because its broken. I think both caps could use new rubber seals. I imagine old, hard rubber seals are the reason the one cap is broken. It was probably leaking and someone decided the solution was to tighten it and that broke it. I have an e-mail in to Thetford Co. to see if their current caps will fit the tanks. If so, I'll buy a new cap. I can probably repair it, but a new one would be better.

You can see the break in the photo.

Aside from the caps, its back together and ready to go.

January 2, 2010

I took the rubber seals out of the caps this evening and compared the front to the back. You can see how they are worn in the comparison to the back of the ring in the photo below. I think I can just flip them over and be all set for next season at least.

Here's the cap, after I glued it and reinforced it. You can see the aluminum strips I used to span the break. Hopefully that will provide the strength so the the break won't open up. Of course the key is to not over tighten the cap.

I put the rubber seals back in (smooth side out now) but I think the rubber feels pretty hard. I guess I need to try filling the tank and see if the cap seals OK.