Review on Aqua Magic Toilet Pedal Flush Profile by Paul Tilden

Thetford VI It's strange to look at a toilet. It seems a little personal, but I have something to say, so let's go. We had Thetford Aqua Magic as original equipment in our 25 year old motorhome. It was a great engineering solution and very durable. The mechanism's seals failed a second time and it wouldn't hold water in the bowl. I was thinking of replacing the seals or replacing the whole mechanism when I saw the 'V' toilet at Revain for a very reasonable price, especially since the mechanism would have cost the same! I was impressed by its 17 inch height and figured the rest was Thetford quality we've come to know. This van toilet has some great features and while it may seem a lot more fragile, only time will tell if it will last for many years to come. I believe the materials are different (hopefully better!) than 1989. However, there are some oddities. First, the bowl is too shallow for all of us to be perfectly happy. Like I said, it's a little difficult to tactfully inspect the toilet, but let me tell you that from a woman's perspective, too rapid (or too much?) "movement" causes some problems with the spray. The male perspective is, well, it's REALLY superficial and things don't fit without the potential "immersion" into the ascending plane. He could attempt a flush "in progress" but it requires some coordination, which he isn't very comfortable with. It also MUST be flushed out completely, which is pretty damn noisy on late-night visits. Our other was able to "leak" liquid quietly through a slide valve, but this one has some sort of spring somewhere that opens that valve and opens the water flush valve. Aside from that, it flushes one hell of a lot, it cleans well with a "tampon" style toilet brush, and we love that the height is a few inches taller than our old Aqua Magic. It snapped into place properly, but only after I rotated the case flange so that the 3 and 9 o'clock screws were at the Aqua Magic's screw positions at 5 and 11 o'clock (supposedly). It's much easier to install because the screws are on the outside of the toilet, just like regular toilet screws. I had no problem connecting the lines behind it with a short toilet hose I bought from Ace for about $6. We haven't had any issues with leaks or odors so far but I have to say we were shocked when we finished this model and saw that there is nothing under this bowl up to a diameter that is out of bounds. housing flange. NOTHING. I'm sure it's hard to see visually here, but what seems to be happening is that when flushed everything falls down through the space where it goes towards the reservoir opening. Again, this isn't like Aqua Magic, which "pumped" it into the bowl. We're concerned that this area is going to be impossible to keep clean, and since you can't force the water/chemical solution to stay in that 'bottom bowl', we wonder if it's going to remain hygienic and odor-free enough. It works and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere, it shouldn't go until there are no more leaks but next time this baby needs to be pulled out I hope I'm still not the one who it does. Since we've had it for a year and a half now, I'm giving it a 3 star rating. My husband just won't let me give it a 4 as he has more trouble with the shallow bowl design than I do. He hates it! And because it appears so fragile and flexible, it certainly doesn't look like something that was built for a quarter of a century. The lid flexes fairly loosely and the seat is only 1 3/8 inches in the front and widens to about 3 inches in the back, and it moves a bit when you're seated, but it works quite well overall. I will come back and revise this review if our opinion changes.