My Thetford 465 E Porta Potty is broken.

[billharr]

Lets just say it has crapped out. One of the AA batteries leaked. Yes I did go to long without checking them. If you have a 465 E you need to know if the AA batteries leak the fluid will run down on to the 9v motor. The VOM shows it as a open circuit, so shot. I took it apart and looks like you can replace the pump assembly, looked on line and yes the part is available. But it is almost $100 WTH I can buy a new Thetford Curve for $117 on Amazon Prime. It will be here Thursday. Note my 465 E was 8 years old so not to upset about it. I will be removing the batteries between trips from now on. Plan on making it part of cleaning the porta pot after a trip.

 

[fourwheeldrivekc]

Dang! I do think this is more of a result of bad design than anything else. But thanks for the reminder -- I think we're all so focused on our 12 volt systems that it's easy to forget the little things like AA!

 

[Espresso]

From what I've read, batteries leak when they have a parasitic drain and the voltage gets low. But I've never understood why some batteries leak and others don't. Is it a flaw in the battery when it is manufactured?

 

[DanoT]

I have a porta-poti that doesn't use batteries and has a tiny hand pump for flushing. Works great.

 

[2tallDA]

I have a porta-poti that doesn't use batteries and has a tiny hand pump for flushing. Works great.

Novel concept. Mine works fine too.

 

[cdbrow1]

I recently had a problem with my Thetford Cassette Toilet in my Self Contained Hawk. I have replaced the batteries for the "full" light each year. Normally I empty it every day or two on the road so it never got full, however on a recent trip I could not find a dump site. The cassette ended up filling up without ANY light - thankfully it did not overfill and I found a dump site closely after.

I checked the batteries - still good and no sign of any damage anywhere. Not sure what the problem is - but plan to keep emptying on my normal schedule - rather than trying to push the envelope.