Community Forums

deSanford · 05-19-2012, 06:55 PM

Do you have a picture of your "larger" (bypass) discharge hose? Mine has a small diameter clear tubing "hose". deSanford

RustyTools · 05-19-2012, 07:33 PM

Thanks Bill. Your comments got me to thinking (uh-oh!). I'm now envisioning moving the pump (removed from the SaniCon box) out from behind the valves/etc and connecting it with a clear 3" right-angle and a very short piece of flex-hose. Also plumbing in the little bypass hose and a shutoff valve. It should make for a very compact arrangement.

Sanford - I just bought a new 1.5" to 2.5" reducer from SaniCon and it came with the larger bypass-hose and nylon fitting, which means I had to go back and re-do all of my earlier mods. All's I really wanted initially was new big tan rubber-bands but they said they don't sell them separately.

Thanks all.

deSanford · 05-20-2012, 08:25 AM

Thanks RustyTools I will contact SaniCon, and see if I can improve my "bypass" with a larger size tubing. deSanford

RustyTools · 05-20-2012, 10:09 AM

Sanford - If you're so inclined, you might be able to just modify your existing setup. Most any hardware should carry a complete range of nylon fittings and clear hoses in different sizes, and then all's you'd need to do is enlarge where they connect to the big outlet and inlet fittings.

In any case, if you go to SaniCon/Thetford I think the 1.5" to 2.5" adapter was about $15 and the smaller right-angle fitting was about $10.

deSanford · 05-20-2012, 10:48 AM

I will have to take a closer look at my SaniCon unit. Mine was after market from Camping World. Now I have the idea of what to look for and do. Thanks..deSanford

RustyTools · 05-20-2012, 11:21 AM

Glad a SaniCon macerator came with my coach but never really quite happy with the overall design, I kept wanting something that was compact yet easily removable for those times when I used the big slinky-hose instead of the SaniCon, and also had on-off control for the small bypass hose.

As with a lot of other coaches, the system was initially configured with the pump in the gray plastic SaniCon box and screwed to the bottom rear of the water-bay. The big 3” tank exit-fitting was turned inward and the SaniCon hose was connected way up inside the bay, making it tough to access or remove. The SaniCon discharge hose was flimsy and quickly started to resemble a soaker-hose when pressurized. That entire setup didn’t last long, and I‘ve been fighting it for years til now.

From the pic, you can see that the big exit fitting is now facing outwards, where it’s readily accessible for either the 3” slinky or the clear right-angle bayonet fitting. The pump is connected to the right-angle fitting with a short piece of flex-hose (the cheap stuff now, but I’m going to replace it soon), and can be removed quickly as needed.

It’s kinda tough to see behind the pump itself, but the discharge hose is Tee'd to the bypass hose, and the bypass is fitted with a green-handle ball-valve so I can control the recycling flow and hence the pressure, as I have a long way to pump when I use the SaniCon. It’s almost a flat run, but I wanted to give it all the help I could.

Everything exits the water-bay thru the clear plastic 1” hose, currently routed (and barely visible) directly under/behind the gray-water valve and out a large-diameter garden-hose and the big hole in the bottom of the bay.

Ignore the couple pieces of clear plastic that look like they aren’t doing anything. They really aren’t… I just stuck them there as vibration-dampers for the time-being.

I also removed the base from the pump and flipped it over to get the discharge pointing inward and sloping down a bit. Mine system came with the ShurFlo pump, but I understand that Jabsco and other manufacturers are almost identical in their configuration.

Interestingly enough, when SaniCon put the 1.5” to 2.5” onto the nose of the pump itself, they didn’t cut off the extra 1.5” or so of the pump tip that sticks out for when someone was configuring the pump for a barbed-fitting instead of threaded. So what happens is that the extra tip sticking out into the suction flow is likely acting to reduce the ability of the pump to get a clear ‘bite’ (so to speak) at the incoming liquids and solids. I cut the extra off of mine and I think it helped a little.

BTW, awhile back I also added some Velcro (can be seen as tan strips on the gray and black valves) to ‘lock’ the valves closed when traveling, etc. One day I got to thinking that nothing keeps them closed, except friction, if something was rolling around in the bay and hit a valve. It would then be a very rude surprise to open the bay door and be greeted with an awful mess all over.

{WOW. On edit, I realized how long this was. Sorry}

deSanford · 05-20-2012, 12:12 PM

I'm going to take a ride over to my storage yard and take a few pictures of my set up. deSanford Might have to wait until Monday to post, because my IT aka my son will up-load the pictures.

Dutch Star Don · 05-20-2012, 04:29 PM

My Sanicon has been mounted in the back of the compartment since new and always sat a little higher than the 3" drain hose. A few months ago I decided to service it and replace the impeller since it was 7 years old.

The reason I had never moved mine was I didn't have the room to relocate the box so that the plumbing was pointing in the right direction. When I removed it for the servicing, I realized that big box is just an electrical connection box they modified to encase the macerator pump. I dumped the box which gave me sooo many more options for mounting the pump. I was finally able to bring it forward to a location slightly lower than the 3" drain hose which will always keep the thing primed.

My unit was installed new in 2005. I think they may have modified the grey water bypass since then, but I did my own modifications. They use two barb fittings that screw into the main line. (I did this years ago so some of the info may not be exactly correct). I replaced the barb fittings with slightly larger ones. They also screw theirs in so that they protrude a fair amount into the main line. I installed the new fittings, drilled them out even more and trimmed off the excess that protruded into the main line. I also went with a good flexible clear hose that I carefully adjusted to just the right angle/curve (from one barb to the other) so that there was no pinching of the line.

Since the modification to the bypass, years ago, mine has always drained well. On ocassion, it will plug. I simply close both the grey and black valve, turn on the Sanicon unit until the 3" hoseit starts to constrict because the valves are closed and then open the grey valve. This causes the bypass to purge.