Winter seemed to arrive in San Diego last week. Monday and Tuesday we had clear skies and the temperature reached the mid-70s. Wednesday’s high was about 10 degrees cooler and the rain that was clobbering the Pacific Northwest slid down the coast and arrived here early Thursday morning. About an inch of rain fell over the next 24 hours. The high temperatures over the weekend only hit the low 60s. Last night, the thermometer dipped under 50 degrees for the first time since we’ve been here – it was 49 degrees. I know for most of the country this weather is nothing to complain about, but it feels chilly to us.

Luckily we had Sini’s car last week while she and Bill were vacationing in Costa Rica. We used the car to go to pickleball on a rainy Thursday. On Thursday evening Donna said she thought the bathroom floor was damp around the toilet. I investigated and found a small drip coming from the mechanism inside the rear of the toilet. Our toilet was a Thetford Aria II Deluxe electrically operated model. This toilet uses electric solenoids to control the water flow to the bowl. The water flows through an impeller that turns in one direction when the left solenoid opens which then turns a worm gear that jacks the blade valve open in the bottom of the bowl. Then the left solenoid closes and the right one opens, reversing the water flow through the impeller housing to close the valve. Water was seeping from the impeller housing.

I checked the housing screws for tightness and they were tight. It was getting late so the only thing I could do was shut off our fresh water supply and deal with it Friday morning. I searched online and found a kit to replace the mechanism and valve – it cost $125. I was leery about installing a new mechanism in a 15-year old toilet. I was afraid that once I started disassembling it, some of the old, brittle plastic parts might break. There are a lot of parts in this model and I also wasn’t all that happy with its performance. The Thetford toilet is noisy – the worm gear makes a loud grinding noise as the jack screw opens and closes the valve. A lot of people complain about the loud operation of this model. It’s also voltage sensitive – when we boondock, if our battery voltage drops below 12.5-volts, the operation of the valve is iffy.

We decided to go out and look for a replacement. First stop was at La Mesa RV in Kearny Mesa. They had a couple of Dometic porcelain bowl toilets but their prices were high and the model we were interested was bone colored, not white. So we went up to San Marcos to the Camping World store. We bought a Dometic 320 porcelain toilet with a foot pedal operated manual valve. My project for the afternoon was to change out the toilets – so I thought.

Removing the old toilet was easy but I didn’t understand why it was mounted with wood screws through the floor. Looking at the mounting flange, I saw there were actually two flanges stacked together. I remembered when we bought the coach, one of items I had on my list of things for the dealer to correct was the seal for the toilet. Apparently their guy just screwed a flange on top of the original one and mounted the toilet with wood screws. The stack of two flanges was too tall for the new toilet. I removed the top flange and found the flange underneath had been glued with PVC cement to the pipe for the black tank. Even worse, it was glued on in the wrong position – the slots for the correct flange mount studs were cocked about 45 degrees from where they should have been – thus the wood screw mounting method.

Fixing this would entail cutting the pipe to the black tank and installing a new length of pipe and flange. I wasn’t equipped for such a project, so I went forward with the wood screw method. I hate doing things this way – it’s totally amateur.

With the new toilet in place, I had to connect the water supply line. I installed a 1/2″ FNPT fitting to the inlet on the foot-operated valve that had a 1/2″ PEX fitting for the water line. This fitting didn’t come with the toilet, I had to make a run to Ace Hardware in Pacific Beach for it. I re-used a 90-degree elbow from the old line and kept the PEX tubing that was attached to it. Once I started to assemble the line, I realized that I should have bought a different PEX to NPT fitting for the valve. Another trip to Pacific Beach. The fitting I bought is called SharkBite. These things are amazing. You can push the PEX tubing into the fitting and it locks in place. No collar, seal or collet needed. The brass fittings are reusable. A special tool – it’s just a plastic horseshoe-shaped device – releases the PEX tubing from the SharkBite fitting. When you push the PEX tube in place, it locks and has a watertight seal. You cannot pull the tube out. Once you push the release tool in place, the PEX tubing slides right out of the fitting.

First NPT to PEX fitting – I replaced it with a 90-degree fitting

I cut the PEX tubing to length and started putting things together. The SharkBite makes it so easy – it’s like building something with a Lego set – just push things together. When I had it done, I turned on the fresh water pump and saw the NPT fitting was leaking. I quickly shut off the pump and then I realized the big mistake I had made. Putting the PEX line together was so easy, I didn’t give a thought to taking it back apart. To get the NPT fitting off to reseal it, I  needed to remove the PEX line. I cut the tubing between the fittings so short, I didn’t allow room to put the removal tool in place to release the SharkBite fittings. By this time, I had been working on what should have been a simple project for hours – between messing with the screwy flange set-up and trips to Ace, I was worn out. I reluctantly told Donna we would have to go another night without water and I would deal with it in the morning. Luckily our site is next to the restroom here at Mission Bay RV Resort.

With a fresh approach Saturday morning, I was able to cut the PEX tubing with a cutter I had bought at Ace and with a little elbow grease and an extra hand from Donna, I got the old PEX out of the SharkBite fittings. Looking at it with a fresh perspective, I realized I didn’t need the old 90-degree elbow I had used. PEX is flexible enough to make up the slight misalignment between the valve and the existing supply line. I just needed to find about a foot-long section of PEX tubing. Home Depot about five miles from here had 1/2″ PEX in five-foot sections. Between the traffic and the zoo that is Home Depot on a Saturday morning, it took me about an hour to get back in business.

Simple supply line set-up

After cutting a section to the length I needed, I had it done in about 10 minutes. I turned on the water pump again. Success! The new toilet flushes noiselessly – it’s nearly silent in operation. We had become so accustomed to the noise from the old one, we could hardly believe how quiet the new one is. So, my quick toilet replacement turned out to be a full day’s work instead of an hour or so, but now it’s job done.

Dometic 320 – job done!

Donna took Sini’s car to pick up Sini and Bill at the airport in the afternoon and they dropped her off on their way home. For dinner that night, she made something new – roasted chicken thighs with fennel and lemon. She served it with cauliflower risotto and steamed spinach. It was a simple and delicious meal and she made enough for leftovers tonight.

Dinner

On Sunday morning, Donna was up early. She had volunteered to hand out finisher medals for a Girls on the Run 5K race. She ran over to the start/finish line in Crown Point (about two miles from here) and then ran back afterward. She’s been volunteering for this organization for a few years now. Last year, she and Sini were course marshalls for the run and Donna also did several hours of data entry.

I forgot to mention that Donna and I decided to ride over to Deft Brewing Saturday for happy hour. It’s a new small brewery with a nice selection of very tasty European style craft beers. We returned to Mission Bay just in time to catch a gorgeous sunset.

De Anza Cove sunset

The forecast calls for highs in the mid 60s and we might have rain again on Wednesday.