breakaleg Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 thank you very much tracker, i look forward to meeting you. (lol) (lol) pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ike Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 We have a SOG in our old Hymer. Just recently learned that the filter should be changed maybe yearly! We've had the van nearly 4 years! thankfully it doesn't pong but it may start to very soon.Where may I buy a filter? Are they available in all accessory shops or do I need to order from Hymer? Thanks in anticipation of help. ike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandyAndy Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 Hi, we got ours from Outdoor bits, at the price I mentioned above, they give excellent service was here in 2 days. Found on Google, excellent site for many motorhome accessories. Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ike Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 Thanks for that Mandy. Next stupid question. I don't even know where the filter is situated. It's too wet for me to go out and look! Can you help or does it's position vary from van to van? Cheers ike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 The filter is contained in the plastic housing attached externally to the access door to the cassette This may help http://www.outdoorbits.com/system-kits-motorhomes-p-26.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 Is the filter similar to the stuff you put in your extractor fan at home over the cooker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ike Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 Thanks sshortcircuit. Also apologies for the misplaced apostrophe! :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ike Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 Save money now! I've just gone onto the outdoors website to order a new filter and noticed there is 54 pence off a new system!WOW (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Mel B: Depends what sort of cooker extractor-fan you've got I guess, but, if the filter you use at home is a large sheet of thinnish, paper-like material, then the answer is No. SOG uses an 'active charcoal filter' - a small foam-matrix block that fits in the unit's external housing in front of the ventilation fan. Normally the filter-housing would be screwed to the outside of the toilet-cassette locker door, but I suppose it could be installed elsewhere if room were available. I suspect that the purpose of the foam-matrix filter is as much to dissipate the flow of air being extracted from the cassette and to minimise the noise of the ventilation fan as to remove odours. Even when the filter is brand-new odours can be detected from outside the vehicle while the ventilation fan is operating. (People who claim otherwise plainly have a poor sense of smell!) This should perhaps be borne in mind if one has a safari-room awning set-up that encloses the motorhome's toilet-cassette locker door. The recommended filter-change interval is "a year according to use". Obviously, if the filter becomes contaminated by toilet waste (which shouldn't happen if the SOG system has been properly installed) it will need to be changed immediately. In principle, the more use the toilet gets, the more regularly the filter will need changing (just like your cooker-hood filter). In practice (and barring contamination), I think one can happily leave the thing alone as long as it's evident air is passing through it. Mandy: Violently shaking a Thetford toilet cassette to empty or rinse it can not only damage the motorhome owner's working parts, it can also damage the working parts within the cassette itself. I empty as much of the waste as will flow out easily from the cassette's spout, then give the cassette a gentle swirl, then empty the remainder. I then rinse the cassette several times with plenty of water (I carry 10 litres in a plastic container specifically for this purpose). This technique has always resulted in all waste being expelled from the cassette and I've never needed to resort to the Stick Technique, but I fully accept that, when kids are factored into the toilet equation, all bets are off. General: SOG advertising claims are: 1. Decomposition of solid toilet waste is accelerated by the flow of air being drawn through the cassette... Well maybe, but that doesn't mean solid waste will be miraculously and instantly liquefied. Logically, using chemicals that are designed to decompose solid waste rapidly must perform that task more effectively than the occasional few seconds' worth of air-flow across the surface of the waste in the cassette. 2. Special toilet paper is not needed... Do motorcaravanners actually use special toilet paper with Thetford systems? I never used it when I added chemicals to the cassette and I don't use it now with the SOG system. Ordinary toilet paper seems to disintegrate very rapidly once it's in the cassette and I've never had any clogging problems with it. 3. Toilet chemicals aren't needed... This is one of the significant SOG selling points for me, not so much because I'm an Eco Warrior but because I'm a skinflint. When I used chemicals I tended to delay emptying the cassette until it was near full, as this maximised the 'value' of each dose of chemicals. This attitude has inherent and obvious risks: a brim-full cassette is extremely bad news. Nowadays - with no concern about toilet-chemicals monetary outlay to inhibit me - I empty the cassette whenever the opportunity presents itself irrespective of the cassette's state of fullness. I have met motorcaravanners who have told me they eschew toilet chemicals and just empty the cassette on a daily basis. However, this philosophy seems to involve restricting the motorhome's toilet to 'Wee Jobs' and emergencies, and employing campsite facilities whenever possible. This is not a regimen we practice. 4. No unpleasant odours in the bathroom... I don't think it's been mentioned that one of SOG's pluses is that it corrects a situation where the motorhome manufacturer (Hobby for instance!) has not bothered to seal the toilet-cassette locker's interior from the bathroom. Inserting a Thetford cassette into its locker causes a valve to open that allows the tainted air within the cassette to enter the locker and anywhere else it can reach. The SOG system replaces the cassette's air-release valve, so the smelly air can only escape by being extracted to the outside air via a flexible hose. (This principle is not found in Clive's "PONGO" that assumes the locker will be hermetically sealed.) It's not hard to detect an inadequately sealed toilet-cassette locker as your nose will soon tell you. Presumably quite a few Hobby buyers' noses told them and complaints were passed on to Hobby, as 2006-model motorhomes suddenly gained Thetford's external ventilation kit as standard equipment. This kit is like a SOG without the fan - it just deletes the air-release valve and leads a flexible hose to an outlet in the locker door. Drawbacks... Noise isn't one of them in my view. If you find the sound of the ventilation fan intrusive you've probably got your hearing-aid turned up too high. Emptying odours concern me not one whit - raw human excreta is never going to smell like Chanel Number 5. DIY-fitting... The SOG System is designed for electric-flush Thetford toilets, with the ventilation fan getting its 12V power by piggy-backing on the toilet's existing wiring. Motorhomes with manual-flush toilets would require addition of a dedicated 12V feed for the fan, but, as the fan draws only a tiny current the feed could come from anywhere handy (eg. a lighting circuit). The critical decision that has to be made with SOG is exactly where to drill the hole in the cassette-locker door to take the fan-motor. The SOG instructions specify a 36mm-37mm diameter hole, but this is a mite small in my experience. The deeper the cassette-locker the more space there will be for the cassette-to-fan ventilation hose to fit between the outer end of the toilet-cassette and the inner side of the locker door and, consequently, the more latitude there will be regarding where the hole in the door can go. (This is dealt with in the SOG instructions.) It may be slightly easier to install a SOG when the cassette-locker's door hinge is on the left of the locker's opening as this arrangement allows a more natural curl for the ventilation hose. I have been told that the ventilation hose can split, but this is probably due to unsympathetic installation rather than the hose material itself. The SOG kit's wiring harness is supposedly 'universal', but I found it a bit tight cable-length-wise for our Hobby. Probably I could have fudged it but I chose to modify the harness instead to provide extra length. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandyAndy Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Wow Derek you are so good at this!! make the rest of us look total amateurs, really clear and decisive explanations. Thank you :-> I don't have and wouldn't resort to the stick method, but have had occasions where it would have helped. I don't need to shake now either, I spent the first few months doing so till I read on another forum about the yellow button on the tank, now we flow free and smoothly. thanks again Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Derick Do you have any evidence that a good shake will damage the workings or is this just an opinion? I give mine a good "rock and roll" as the fluids only hit the ends which are unlikely to be damaged. Far easier to empty and then only one rinse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Just a couple of things to mention re above. 1) You don't have to have the SOG vented through the door as they also supply a roof vent or you can have the flexible pipe running to 40mm plastic piping which can be run through lockers or double floors etc to the other side of the van and vented there (if your cassette door would be in an awning). 2) "occasional few seconds of air passing through" - Part of the point of the system is that the cassette is open to the outside air all the time and helped when in use by the fan. This is unlike a "normal" cassette which, when the slide is closed, is sealed. This sealing can also have it's problems. If you last use the loo at sea level and then drive up a mountain the outside pressure will have changed substantially leaving the contents at a much higher pressure than outside. The next time you use the loo you could end up wearing the contents. This was the case with older models - thankfully the newer ones with the vent tubes have aleviated it somewhat. 3) Damage to the cassette. Yes you can - Inside the cassette is a swinging arm with a magnet which operates the "full" light - sloshing the contents round in the wrong direction can cause the arm to stick against the side of the cassette which then means the light won't come on when it is approaching full - You really don't want to have to deal with an overflowing cassette! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 Frank Thanks for that reply and I had not considered the float switch. I normally empty mine well before the switch would come into play, so damage would not be to much a problem and with solids broken down its easier to empty. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 Frankkia: Your para 2 comment "This is unlike a "normal" cassette which, when the slide is closed, is sealed." A normal Thetford cassette is fitted with (I'm quoting the Thetford instruction leaflet) an "Automatic pressure release vent: ventilates the waste tank when this is inserted into the cassette toilet. Avoids excessive pressure build up in the waste tank". The automatic pressure release vent (APRV) allows air to pass in and out of the cassette when it's installed in the cassette-locker. The APRV is fitted with a 'float' arrangement that closes (sealing the cassette) to prevent any waste sloshing about in the cassette that manages to reach the vent from escaping from the cassette. Unfortunately, once the APRV is closed by the float, it has a tendency to stick in the sealed position and that's why subsequent air-pressure changes can result in the cassette spitting its contents out when the slide-valve in the toilet-bowl is opened. As long as the standard APRV is retained, this unpleasant experience will always be on the cards. The SOG system dispenses with the APRV and I'm pretty sure Thetford's external ventilation kit does too. (Years ago I fitted a narrow diameter flexible plastic tube into my cassette's emptying-spout cap to provide permanent ventilation and avoid air-pressure variation problems. It seemed to work OK) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.