How to Replace your RV Toilet

My day to replace a RV Toilet begins with a good piece of a Sunday to myself. My wife took the kids down to her parent’s house for some fun while I plan on having a couple beers and watching a movie that was not animated and meant for small children. I used the bathroom and saw a small puddle of water under the foot peddle flusher of the RV toilet. I’ve seen small puddles of water there before but concluded it was water from the shower curtain after it was thrown to one side of the shower, the one closest to the toilet. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Remove the Flush Peddle

What could be causing the leak. I pop off the big circle cover on the flush peddle and unscrew the one screw that holds the flush peddle onto the toilet. The peddle pulls out of the toilet with little resistance. I look into the hole that was left in the toilet and saw the part the flush peddle screwed to on the inside of the toilet. It fell down about a quarter inch and is sitting loose. There was no way I would be able to slide the peddle back into the toilet and some how thread a screw into that piece.

There was also a spring that slid into a small plastic ridge so the peddle would act on a spring. I could slide that back in place and the peddle would spring back up to a neutral position after it was stepped on to flush, but I could not hook the cable back on the peddle that pulls the toilet’s flush ball open.

I Broke Our RV Toilet

We have lived in our 30 foot 5th wheel for over a year now and our bathroom has the only toilet we use. I need to act fast! I am in over my head and time is definitely an issue in this situation. The best option for me at this time was to replace the RV Toilet. Remember, it’s Sunday. I need to get a new toilet before any RV parts store, that was open on Sundays, closes. I call RV World and ask if they have RV toilets in stock. The guy on the other end says, “ya”, of course right?

I definitely have the turbo in the RAM whistling down the road as I make my self to RV World with a higher than normal level of cortisol (stress hormone) pumping through my body.

RV World

I grab a cart and make my way into RV World. My first time at RV World I might add. I weave my way through isles and find an endcap of an isle that has three RV toilets on display. The toilet I broke was a Dometic 310 RV toilet that had a small round bowl. Not the most comfortable toilet for obvious reasons. I knew the Dometic 320 RV toilet built for full-time RV life with a deeper elongated ceramic bowl is the right RV toilet for me, much more comfortable. Online I found a similar more affordable Dometic RV Toilet for half the price but the toilet was all plastic.

All of the RV toilets are piled up against the back wall. I grab one of the White Dometic 320 RV toilets and set it on top of the cart, make my way through the store to the register, buy our new toilet, place it in the back of the Ram and take our new toilet home.

Remove the Broken RV Toilet

The first step to replace the RV toilet is to turn off the water. Our trailer has a two way stop valve right by the toilet. The handle will be at 90° or perpendicular to the waterline when the stop valve is closed turning the water off to the toilet. I Grab a towel to catch drips and unscrew the water line from the toilet by hand. Step on the flush peddle to let any water drain from the toilet bowl. My peddle is missing but I would image this would be helpful.

I use a ratcheting combination wrench to unscrew the nuts from the closet bolts holding the toilet to the floor. The next step is to pick up the toilet and walk it outside. But wait! There is water that drains out of the toilet a few seconds after I pick the toilet up off the bolts. Let the toilet drain into the sewer pipe for about 30 seconds and move the old toilet to the empty new RV toilet box I place in the hallway.

The box works perfect to catch the water and make it easy to walk the toilet out of the trailer with out leaving a trail of dirty water. It also looks better sitting outside your trailer.

Get Ready for the New RV Toilet

We have new toilet bolts (closet bolts) that come with the new RV toilet so I remove the old closet bolts from the RV toilet mount, closet flange, or floor flange. The old RV toilet leaves its closet flange seal that has to be removed from the closet flange.

Clean and dry the closet flange well with paper towels. Slide the new closet bolts all the way into the groove in the closet flange so the heads are crosswise and held under the closet flange ready for the new toilet.

Wrap 1 or 2 layers of Teflon tape around the plastic threads on the water line input on the new RV toilet.

Installing the New RV Toilet

The new RV toilet comes with a new closet flange seal already in place. I carry the new toilet into the bathroom and carefully lower the toilet into place, threading the closet bolts through the holes in the toilet.

Put a washer and nut on each closet bolt, hand tightening each nut.

I use a combination wrench to tighten each nut two turns on each side until the toilet is almost in contact with the floor. Then give each nut one turn each alternating between the two until they are tight. Remember, do not over tighten.

Thread the water line onto the water input on the new RV toilet.

The parts are all plastic so I hand tighten so it is just snug. Open the stop valve turning the water on to the toilet. Specifically, the handle will be parallel or inline with the water line when the stop valve is open.

Test the New RV Toilet

Test everything out to make sure the new RV toilet works as it should. I step on the peddle and fill the toilet bowl with water. It holds water and I cannot feel water leaking from the water connection. Then flush the water by stepping on the peddle down to open the flush ball. Everything works as it should and there are no leaks. I can now say I can successfully replace a RV toilet.

Watch Our How to Replace a RV Toilet Video

We Love Our New RV Toilet

The new Dometic 320 RV toilet is awesome! It is much more comfortable than our old, shorter Dometic 310 RV toilet. This RV toilet install is a first for me and it turned out great! This install is not that different from doing a house toilet swap and I believe it is possible by anybody, even those with limited mechanical experience.

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