Among the places you might expect to find water on the floor, the bathroom is definitely one of them. The question of where in the bathroom is a completely different subject. In front of the shower might mean you dripped a bit.
In front of the toilet usually isn’t a good thing. While RV toilets are quite convenient for trip travelers and RV owners, they come with a similar set of issues. They can leak, but the good news is the process of finding the problem and fixing it isn’t too hard.
A leaking RV toilet is usually a symptom of a problem inside the toilet. Water can come out of several pieces of hardware that regulate the flow of water into the toilet. The challenge is finding the source and fixing it.
What could be wrong?
There are a few parts of a toilet that can cause a leak.
Flange Seal
The flange seal connects the toilet to the black water tank. The seal is normally made out of rubber and can dry and decay over time.
The flange seal is very similar to the wax ring underneath most residential toilets. The seal also helps keep the toilet stabilized and held to the RV surface.
If the water coming out of the bottom of your toilet has waste, this could be the problem.
Cracked Water Valve
The water valve is a part that brings fresh water. This valve also has the potential to crack and spray water inside the toilet that will eventually leak out through the bottom.
You are more likely to see symptoms of this after flushing the toilet as that is when the water valve is normally passing water through.
Internal Seal Issues
All toilets have a variety of internal seals. Your toilet bowl is joined to the tank or plumbing by a seal.
The most obvious sign here is that your toilet will leak onto the floor without flushing. This usually means that the seal between the bowl and the bottom is broken.
Cracked Bowl
This should be fairly obvious on the inside or outside. The bowl can crack and cause water to come out through the bottom. Cracked bowls are less common especially for porcelain.
What to do about floor leaks
With all the above issues, the first thing you have to do to fix is get toilet up. RV owners tend to learn their own kind of do it yourself methods to save money on maintenance. Naturally, you have the option to call a plumber to get this done.
In order to lift the toilet off yourself, you’ll need a wrench, a screwdriver, a scraper or knife and to be honest, probably a old towel and disposable gloves. You might also want a second person there to physically lift the toilet off the ground.
RV toilets usually have bolts or screws either visible on the edges of the connection the floor, or hidden underneath the same cover.
Turn the water off to your toilet first. This keeps additional water from entering your toilet and making a mess.
In regards to part, it might be difficult to know which part you actually need before getting your toilet off the floor.
Our suggestion here is to either order a variety of parts ahead of time or assume your toilet will not be functioning while you diagnose the problem.
How to know what’s leaking
The first thing is that if the leak is inside the toilet, water might come straight out of the bottom.
Bad seals should be visible, with the edges of seals worn away. A cracked water valve will have a visible crack. The water valve might also be the easiest part to replace, in part because it leaks fresh water and is usually one piece of plastic with a water connector.
The flange seal will also likely be wet, making it obvious.
Remove the part that isn’t working. The flange seal, whether it’s wax or rubber, might require some disposable gloves as it did directly receive waste and can be pretty gross.
Replace the part
Once you learn which part or piece isn’t working, replace it. For a toilet, these are not especially difficult as they usually only involve removing the old part and screwing a new one in.
The flange seal can be difficult just to make sure it’s flush, level, and installed right. The flange seal is most commonly what will need the scraper, as it is probably rubber and pushed into the floor. The scraper also means you don’t need to attempt to tear the seal out with your hands.
Another option here if you find multiple problems is just to replace the entire toilet. Compared to professional service, this can be more cost effective. You can also upgrade your toilet especially if it’s already older. Many hardware stores and RV supply locations have toilets meant for RV sizing.
Reinstall the toilet
Ready to do things backward? Once you have fixed the leak, get the toilet in position to go back into place.
Ensure the toilet lines up back over the bolt holes that held it in place.
You’ll also want to ensure that neither the water line nor the sewer pipe moved.
Bolt the toilet back into place and reconnect the water line (or just turn it back on) and reconnect the line to your black tank.
Try it!
Conclusion
Discovering a toilet leak isn’t a great moment. Especially when cold or warm waste water touches your feet. Using our instructions, you’ll be able to easily hunt down and fix the problem. We also included some methods of getting your toilet uninstalled because you will probably need to in order to find the problem.
