Do I Need A New Sanicon Macerator?

While bleaching & flushing our "never-poop" waste tanks at home for the winter, the macerator pump had jammed.  I got a screw driver and with a little encouragement, worked it free by turning it back and forth with only a little force.  A few seconds of run time more and it jammed again.  After a second attempt to free it, the pump ran fine.  Once finished, I do as always and worked the water out from the hose.  Suddenly out comes two identical pieces of flat black plastic about 1" x 1/2" rectangles with a raised rounded edge on one side.

Are those two plastic pieces off the macerator, or should I assume they came from elsewhere?  They are identical, seemingly not torn, cut, or broken off something, too perfect and identical.  Since I never had the macerator off our rig, I don't know if they belong to it.  I can't rule out that they may be manufacturing debris that finally found their way to the pump.  But it has been 7 years so you'd think they would have found their way out sooner.

Any ideas?  Has anyone here had a similar experience?  Almost always, the end of your hose will be in a dump station sewer, not on a driveway to observe plastic things coming out.

If I need a new pump, I assume the best place to buy one is direct from Phoenix.

ADDING:  Hey, I just found a picture of the black plastic pieces.  They look like segments of this pump part.  I might have answered my own question.

Ron, that looks to me like a couple of blades on the impeller sheared off.  

You can buy a repair kit like in your picture and rebuild it.  Assuming the pump is original to the unit and has seen a lot of use,  you can buy a new whole shebang and be done with it for a reasonable price.  I usually get stuff like that from Amazon.  Even though it has had good maintenance and gentle use those plastic parts do tend to deteriorate over the years and seem to get a little brittle.  

I repaired the pump on our previous RV.  It was located underneath and near the middle of the Class B Roadtrek.  I had the Roadtrek elevated on a couple of 2x10s and could barely squeeze my 180 pounds under it in my driveway    You talk about a mess.  I felt like Ralph Kramden in the old "Honeymooners" working down in the sewer.  When we bought our PC, one of the things that I loved was the position of that easy to get to pump  

Ron,

Thetford Customer Service (800-543-1219) has a very simple procedure to disassemble the macerator pump. If you call them they will walk you through the process.  Once disassembled the impeller can be inspected and replaced if necessary.

Barry

That looks surprisingly like the fresh water pump impeller on our old inboard boat engine.  We replaced the impeller biannually to prevent pump failure while offshore.  What you found sounds like blades from a well used impeller.  Should you decide to replace it, getting the impeller back in the pump can be an exercise in inventing new curse words.  However, there is an easy solution.  Tightly wrap the new impeller with heavy cord so the blades are bound as snuggly as possible against the brass center, but don't tie it off.  The impeller should now slide easily into the pump housing.  Once seated, hold the impeller in the housing with one hand and pull the cord off with the other.  It may take a couple of attempts to get it right.  Liberal use of curse words are optional but recommended.  It doesn't matter if you fold the blades in the wrong direction. They will quickly reorientate themselves to the right way.

Given the pump drips, I will likely just order a new one, and rebuild the old one later if I am motivated.

Ron, we had dripping but it came from the bayonet connector. One of the bayonets had cracked which allowed that collar to slide farther and farther away from the pump. The farther it went, the more it leaked. Several others online have had the same problem. I mention this so you can eyeball that bayonet. I don't know if all those parts come with a new macerator pump. If not, and one of those pieces is cracked, you'll want to order that bayonet kit also (with new seals). We had to use an extending mirror to see the cracks.

My dripping appears to come from a weep hole in the motor housing, but I should look closer at the area to confirm.

I had a slow leak that looked to be from the weep hole, but upon closer inspection there was a crack in the impeller housing.  I disassembled the pump and repaired the crack with epoxy.  The two paper gaskets were shot and instead of buying new ones, I used RTV silicone gasket material that I use on my Jeep axle housings.  I just returned from a trip and there is no more leak, and most interesting is that the macerator repair and and all plumbing between the holding tank valves and macerator hose end cap is leak tight.  This was evident when we arrived at our destination on the Pacific Coast at sea level after leaving our home at 5,000 ft elevation.  The macerator hose would not stretch out to the sewer hook up, it kept springing back to it's shorter stored length.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I removed the end cap on the macerator hose and heard air rush in and the hose relaxed like normal.  So I am confident that since it could hold a partial vacuum that there are no more leaks in mine at this time, amazing in that it also includes the rubber shaft seal on the macerator impeller shat.

Bob

I think what I am going to do is buy & install a new macerator pump from Phoenix for $350 + shipping.  Also their nice pump bracket.  Mine is still the old hardware store perforated metal strapping.  Then later rebuild the original pump if worth it, & carry it along as a spare.  It'll take up very little room in my maintenance storage compartment....our front dinette bench seat.  Since using full synthetic motor oil, I never need a mid-trip oil change, so I have lots of extra room for spare stuff like that.

I was going to buy a new pump from Phoenix for $350.  Then for kicks I searched for macerator pumps and quickly found THIS ONE for $96.  I would like to compare specs but don't know what Phoenix is selling me for $350.  Does anyone have the brand and model number of the pumps Phoenix uses today?  I don't want to buy the wrong thing trying to save $255.

Ron,
I purchased  a new macerator pump from Phoenix. Thetford model 70242

Ron,
I just did a double check on Thetfords catalog. They list the pump in the diagram as 70428, and the model number on my pump 70242 as the SKU number.
Amazon sells the whole kit for about $340.00 complete.

Bill G

Great information.  Thank you Bill.

Ron - I replaced the macerator on my first 2350 5 years ago (I think), and it was a fairly easy job... also, it was cheaper from Phoenix than from Thetford.  Good luck
Jack