Replacing toilet in Vista 30W

Floridafran · 07-13-2011, 05:06 PM

Hi all,

My husband really, really, really hates the Aqua Magic V that came in the Vista. We sat on it - closed - before we ordered the RV (our first, ever) and thought it would be okay. We didn't know enough to open it and check out the actual size of the thing.

He e-mailed Winnebago about that and another issue. Someone called us yesterday. (Which was a surprise as we expected they'd just e-mail back.) While the guy was very nice, and answered our other question. He couldn't help with the toilet issue. He suggested we contact Thetford, which we will do.

In the meantime, I searched here and can't find anything about this so decided I'd start a thread.

We looked at the plumbing schematic for our 30W and it looks like the pipe from the toilet slants, but it's not possible to tell which way. We'd be willing to change the size of the hole in the platform our toilet sits on, replace the vinyl, whatever it takes to be able to have a toilet with a residential size seat on it.

Any experience out there with this issue would be greatly appreciated. And not just by my husband. We aren't the only Vista owners who like to do this.

Thanks,
Fran

John Hilley · 07-13-2011, 05:29 PM

Ours came with a Dometic Sealand toilet that seems the same as a regular household toilet and does take a regular toilet seat. You could change to the Dometic Sealand Traveler with out any major plumbing changes. You may need an adapter for the base. This is our second Dometic Sealand Travel and both have worked well. They are also available in two heights and have china bowls.

Sealand Travel Spec Sheet

Jackm · 07-14-2011, 04:08 AM

What he said.

Jack

DuaneMiller · 07-14-2011, 09:10 AM

Fran,

Like your husband, our 09 Sightseer came with the Aqua-Magic toilet that I absolutely did not like. The seat was small and the overall build quality resembled that of a cheap plastic toy.

The 5'er that we previously had came with the Sealand Traveler model that was mentioned earlier. It does not come new with a household seat out of the box, but will accept one with absolutely no modifications required.

Long story short, I ordered the Sealand model, installed it in place of the Aqua Magic, went to Home Depot and picked a household toilet seat, and no pun intended, but all is well in the end.

If you are looking to replace the Aqua, the floor hole is standard, you should be able to do a direct replacement with no issues....

Clay L · 07-14-2011, 09:43 AM

If you go to this SITE
you can download a chart that shows which Thetford and Sealand toilets replace the one you have. It gives the dimensions of the various models and indicates which ones are direct replacements. Of course the water line might have to lengthened or shortened.

When I replaced my AquaMagic I opted for the Bravura. It is a much thicker molding than my old AquaMagic IV and is much sturdier. The bowl is deeper and longer than the old one.
Also, instead of cables it uses rods in the flushing mechanism. The cables were the weak link in my AquaMagic.

taboky · 07-15-2011, 07:32 AM

I have a Itasca Sunstar (Vista sister) and had the Aqua Magic V. The closet flange center is 9.5" from the wall. The only toilet that has that dimension is the Aqua Magic Style II. Installed fine, but needed a 90* elbow as the water inlet on the V is vertical and on the Style II it is horizontal, making hose too close to wall. The seat seems a bit better, but it is really wide, meaning the bowl is much wider than the seat opening. I am in the process of getting a new seat to try. Any residential seat is supposed to work.

Floridafran · 07-15-2011, 09:22 AM

Thanks for all the replies.

Our problem is the amount of space we have from the center of the flange to the back wall. Right now it's only 8 1/2 inches. So far we've found nothing that we can just swap out, with the hole in the raised platform and the pipe to the black tank as they are now. But we are making some progress.

My husband has spoken with two different people in the service department at the dealership where we bought our Vista. Both said that unless Winnebago decided to somehow glue the grommet at the top of the black tank to the PVC pipe from the toilet, we should be able to rotate the entire PVC assembly. Since gluing doesn't seem to be what Winnie normally does, we're hoping they didn't do something different in our case.

From looking at our build sheet from Winnebago, that pipe assembly consists of (in descending order from the toilet) a 45 degree "S" fitting, a 45 degree elbow and a piece of straight PVC which goes through the grommet at the top of the black water tank. From the drawing it's not possible to tell for certain which way it slants but it looks like it goes to the right.

Times like this are when we really hate that we have to keep the RV 25 miles away. We hope to get up there late this afternoon or early tomorrow to pull the toilet. Then we'll discover if we can rotate the pipe assembly. If we can, then we need to see which way the pipe assembly slants and if we can rotate it enough to get the extra distance from the rear wall without putting it too close to the either the side wall or the bath vanity. If that won't work, then as long as we can pull the PVC totally out of the grommet, we can put together our own assembly. (Sure is nice to be a residential contractor and to have a handy husband so we can figure these things out together.

)

I spoke with the Thetford people yesterday and they said the only one of theirs that "might" work is the Style II. Our local Camping World has one in stock and they said they'll hold it for us for a couple of days. That gives us time to go to the Vista and check things out. I'll also look again at the other toilets you guys have mentioned to see if any would fit when we rotate/change the pipe assembly.

Thanks again for the suggestions and I'll post how things work out for others who might want to try this. (I know of at least 2 other 30W owners who will do it if we're successful.)

Fran

taboky · 07-16-2011, 11:37 AM

Looking at the plumbing diagram for your rig, it looks like the 45* is facing rear. So you should be able to move the pipe to the front. You will probably have to extend you raised platform. If you can get the Style II in there, a residential elongated actually fits. It over hangs the front and there is about 1/4" of the bowl showing in the front. Feels just like home now.

Good luck.

Floridafran · 07-17-2011, 07:47 PM

Steve,

Thanks for the info. Another source has told us it may go to the right. We'll know for sure when we pull out the Aqua Magic V.

We've found out that our pipe isn't glued and should rotate. If we can't rotate it enough/the right way, we can remove it and replace with a pipe assembly that will work. This information came from John Canfield (the Winnebago forum moderator at rvforum.net) who got in touch with his contact at Winnebago, and responded to my identical question posted over there.

This last bit of info from John, along with everything else we'd learned, convinced my husband to go ahead and buy the only white Style Plus our Camping World had.

As soon a the thunderstorms stop here, we'll drive up, get the Vista and bring it home. Anxious as we are to get going on this, we won't complain about the rain delay. Even with 2 good days of steady rain, we're still in a severe drought condition.

I'll post how things work out once we're through.

Fran

micd · 07-17-2011, 09:26 PM

Our Aqua Magic IV is so close to a carpeted covering of the heater pipe that we can't really attach and detach the water connection with any way to see what and if it is leaking. So were looking at the Style 2 as it shows it can be closer to the wall so should give us more working room. I noticed in your last post you switched to the Style Plus. Could you elaborate as to why?

Thanks,
Michelle

Floridafran · 07-18-2011, 11:45 AM

Steve,

When you say a "residential elongated actually fits" am I correct in assuming you're talking about the seat you got? That's good to know. Which seat did you go with?

Michelle,

I can't tell you for certain Steve's reason for switching, but I suspect it's the same as ours. The Aqua Magic V is just too dang small - seat/bowl wise - to be comfortable, especially for a man. That's the main complaint I've heard.

We'll be doing/attempting the change-out on ours sometime this week and I'll post an update when we're through.

Fran

taboky · 07-18-2011, 05:11 PM

Floridafran,

I bought an elongated seat from Lowes. Looks funny, but works fine. I noticed you said you were getting the Style Plus. That has the center of closet flange to wall measurement of 11". The Style II has the 9.5" measurement. I attached some pics of the seat. It was maybe $20, and it has the slow close feature which is great with kids

Floridafran · 07-18-2011, 05:37 PM

taboky/Steve,

My mistake on the toilet. We got the Style II, also.

That seat looks great.

Plan to go up to ours tomorrow.

Fran

micd · 07-18-2011, 07:26 PM

We just installed the Style II. To me this is a terrible toilet. The back end extends way more than our Aqua Magic IV and we had to remove the carpeted wood covering to our heater pipes to make it fit. Then when we flushed it we saw what the person who commented on the Camping World site meant when they said the water does not flush the bowl. It only flushes the lower half of the bowl which means you would have to clean the rest of it by hand probably after each and every use. I hope Camping World will take it back as we sure don't want to keep it.

Our Aqua Magic IV shows 11" to the wall while the Style II shows 9.5". So why the Style II extends several more inches into space that we don't have I have no idea.

In addition with our old toilet the water swirled and cleaned the whole bowl. I never once had to clean it by hand.

Michelle

micd · 07-18-2011, 09:42 PM

For those of us replacing our toilets there is a manufactures mail in rebate coupon for $35.

http://www.thetford.com/Portals/0/PD...ate_coupon.pdf

Good for products purchase March 1, 2011 to Aug. 31, 2001.

I will find out tomorrow if I can take the Style II back to Camping World. We didn't use it but did install it and water has gone through it so I'm not very hopeful. The plus side is it is not leaking. The minus is that ours is on a raised platform and we have to buy the low profile version to have it at a usable height. The foot pedal on the low profile version is positioned very high up and pointed up whereas the one on the high profile version is pointed down and looks to be very useable. To operate this one I have to balance on one foot and cannot rest the heel of the foot doing the flushing on the floor.

Michelle

micd · 07-18-2011, 11:02 PM

Fran,
Sorry to keep posting but I'm having a devil of a time with this toilet replacement and hope that some of my observations/experiences will be helpful to you.

I just measured our Aqua Magic IV. It is 8.5" from the center of the hole to the back of the toilet. The water connection is a bit closer to the center of the hole (as it is in a recessed section at the back of the toilet) and it fairly high up on the toilet. It also connects the downward direction. In the Style II low profile the water connection is very low and connects straight back. That is the reason the whole thing runs into our heating pipes. In addition there is a clear plastic pipe at the back that is slightly flexible but ridged enough to also crush the heating pipe. We did manage to connect it by using an elbow connector and crushing the heating pipe a bit but both the water line and the heating pipe are now exposed whereas before they were covered. Were trying to figure out how to fashion a cover but the foot flusher goes so far back that it is almost touching the heating pipe. The movement of the foot mechanism may preclude a cover. If the foot flusher were at the front we might be able to come up with something but the body of the toilet also intrudes on the space that was previously occupied by the cover so I'm not sure how we would craft something.

The Style II I saw at camping world had a water connection that was through an elbow that while still on the back of the toilet pointed off to the side. It was also higher up because the toilet was higher. This connection would have worked better for us but we need the low profile toilet because ours is on a raised platform.

I'm going to try and exchange it for an Aqua Magic V low profile foot flush tomorrow. Our Aqua Magic IV developed a leak that we were not able to fix through replacing parts ($s were starting to add up) so we decided to replace. Otherwise for us it was a great toilet and my husband is now thinking he should continue to trouble shoot it as this new one is causing more issues.

<sigh>
Michelle

taboky · 07-18-2011, 11:06 PM

micd,

Not sure why the Style II doesn't fit. I know in the manual for the Aqua Magic V, it shows 11" from the center of closet flange to wall, but online it shows the true 7 5/8" measurement. I have exactly 9 1/2" from center of flange to wall, and the Style II fits fine. Also, haven't had a problem flush.

micd · 07-18-2011, 11:15 PM

Steve,

Glad to hear about the flush being OK as we've not used it and we may not be able to return it. I just found the on-line dimensions and have kicked myself for not measuring ours and just relying on the published dimensions of the Aqua Magic IV saying 11" when it really was only about 7 5/8" that your on-line site mentions. Since ours was a super tight fit at the 7 5/8" the Style II doesn't really fit. We should have called off the install then (before we ran water through it) and I could likely have returned it but we pushed on because I'm so tired of dealing with this toilet issue that I just want to be done. But now I've created more work for myself with the exposed crushed heating pipe.

Thanks again,
Michelle

Floridafran · 07-19-2011, 01:12 PM

Michelle,

I'm sorry this isn't working out for you. I know how disappointing it can be to think you've found a solution to a problem only to discover that not only does it not solve your problem but it creates another one.

We don't have much room, either but, unlike you, we don't have a heater line thrown into the mix. If we did, then we might be having to re-think this swap out.

Steve,

We went to the Vista this morning and pulled the existing toilet just to see what we'll be facing. The pipe assembly angles almost straight to the right. It is loose in the grommet so we'll be able to rotate/remove it. We couldn't get the flange and the pipe assembly apart but we'll work on that when the bring the Vista home so Tom will have access to all his tools.

Since we feel confident we'll be able to get this to work, we took the Style II out of the box when we got home so we could check out the seat. A trip to Lowe's is definitely in our future. But even with the added hassle of a different seat and having to re-do the incoming water, we're still tickled pink to know that we'll be able to have that "feels like home" feeling, too.

Fran

taboky · 07-19-2011, 01:49 PM

Fran,

If you get a new seat, put it on before installing toilet. I tried while toilet was installed and lost 3 seat nuts in the bowels of the hollow parts of the toilet. Ending up uninstalling it to get the seat on. Don't reacall if I mentioned it, but get an elbow for the water line. Only place I found one was local dealer. Couple bucks. The Style II water inlet is straight back as Michelle mentioned.