Thetford Toilet Pump

In November the flush pump in our Thetford toilet stopped working, and a friend asked me to let others know what is required in replacing it.

The pump is located under the toilet roll holder which can be simply removed by lifting it up, and you then have access to the pump that is secured by 1 screw.

The only problem with these toilet pumps is, when they fail and you want to test to see if it is the pump or something else, all you can do without cutting wires is to lift the pump out and see if there is anything preventing the impeller at the bottom from turning. If the impeller appears OK then you have to cut the wire between the pump and switch, as the wire CANNOT be removed at the switch end. CUT the wires about 100 to 150mm from the pump end. After removing the pump it can be tested on a battery.

The replacement pump is merely a simple job of joining the wire on the new pump to the wires that you cut and then waterproofing the joint with the heat wrap that is supplied with the new pump.

These pumps are hard to obtain as no-one appears to carry them in stock and the prices I had quoted to me ranged from $120 to $149.

I did a temporary repair by using a small marine bilge pump, but they are not really successful as there is no way of securing it, and they require a lot more water in the tank than the Thetford pump to operate.

Brian