Macerating toilet for basement installation; looking for advice

[R Clark]

We're renovating a space in the basement in the house we bought 20 months ago. There's a urinal in a closet in the basement. The original owner built the house with his man-cave area in the basement, so that's why he decided on a urinal down there, vice a lavatory or full-up bathroom.

We want to expand the urinal closet and upgrade to a full lavatory. LOML's craft room is going in the room which was a ham radio room; this room is next to that urinal closet. Man-cave is relocated to the separate shop building which is working out quite nicely.

For a number of reasons, I'm evaluating using a macerating toilet since the plumbing that already exists for the urinal will accommodate it and I would avoid a significant amount of refitting for the plumbing in the basement.

Does anybody have experience with macerating toilets? Good or bad? Brands/models that have been good or bad?

We are on a septic system, and so we're already sensitive to limitations of stuff we should not put into a septic system. We would expect this macerating toilet to only deal with brown waste water and not septic-unfriendly materials.

Thanks in advance...

[crokett™]

I do. Saniflo was the brand. My experience was bad. It really only got used regularly 6 months out of the year when my inlaws were not in Minnesota. In 2.5 years I pulled it 4 times for various reasons. We were much happier when we replaced it with a Zoeller Qwik Jon ( spelling). The qwik jon uses a trash pump that is capable of passing solids through a 2" line. If this is going to get any sort of regular use I'd consider doing the work to re-plumb. Whatever you do, make sure you have access to the plumbing. The Zoeller shipped with a check valve for the waste line. I also added a ball valve so I could shut off the stack and used Fernco rubber fittings so the unit could be easily removed.

[R Clark]

Saniflo is the brand they carry at Menard's. Thanks for that info; if I do it this way, I'll probably do some other brand.

I'm rapidly talking myself out of going with one of these macerating units. I've read a number of reviews, and have not seen many reviews that leave me with the impression that this is a good idea.

My main concern about traditional plumbed lines is opening up the basement floor. I think I need to get over that fear and get on with it. I have a friend who has most, if not all of the tools that I will likely need to do it with a reasonable minimum of fuss. The absolute minimum of fuss would be to pay somebody to do it, and even that's not guaranteed to be trouble free.

I have an existing sump well which collects the waste from an existing utility sink and the AC condensate. I need to pull the cover on that well and make sure the pump will handle a lavatory being added to it, as well as sufficiency of the size of the inlet. I believe it has a macerating pump that it uses to get the accumulated stuff from beneath the basement floor up to the drain pipe to the septic tank/field. This line has a check valve already in it.

I also have another question...but will start that in a separate thread.

[crokett™]

Well, the stuff you are getting from the basement floor isn't raw sewage. The unit I had in the old house was very well sealed and I know the pump was rated for effluent. I'd be loathe to run my sewage int a sump pit, but that's just me. 'Course all the sump pits I've ever seen were just holes in the floor. Is your sump pit lined with a one-piece molded unit? If it isn't there's no way I'd consider putting sewage into it.

[R Clark]

I have two sump pits in the basement. One is for ground water; it ejects directly outside. The second is the pit I was referring to above. It has the urinal, utility sink, and basement floor drain running into it...or at least that's what I have to confirm as soon as I open it up. That sump ejects to the drain line going out to the septic field.

I have three other sumps as well; one each in the three egress window wells.

[crokett™]

ok. if it already has a urinal in it then it should work -if- the pump is rated for solids.

[fishhh4]

David
How old was your Saniflo ? Was it the kind with the tank under the toilet ? Having to put the toilet on a platform.
I too am looking at them .
This one

Or this one
They seem to get good reviews......
I have separate gray water discharge . The septic discharge is like four foot up the wall in my basement . I am about to redo my one bathroom we have . Could use two ,and it sure would be nice to have one in the basement , especially when I remodel.

zoeller offers the 202

[crokett™]

Mine was the one with the macerator built into the base. I bought it in 2008, it was replaced in late 2010 with a Zoeller quik john. The problems I had, in no particular order were

clogged discharge line
faulty switch so the macerator and pump weren't coming on
faulty fill cutoff switch
and one other thing but I don't recall specifics on why I had to pull it.

I will say that Saniflow customer service was pretty good to the point that they honored the warranty 3 weeks after expired on the faulty fill cutoff switch



It was replaced with this

http://hardwareonlinestore.com/index.php...uaOoaAhRq8P8HAQ

I didn't pay that much. I think I paid 750ish from a local plumbing place.
It isn't really apples to apples, but we wanted to add a shower downstairs and I didn't want another macerator. I also had access to all the plumbing. If I had to have a macerator I'd go with the zoeller macerator. We also had a zoeller pump for the washing machine, it worked flawelessly for 7 years until we sold the house this year. As far as I know its still working.

[toolie]

when we finished unfinished basement space, we passed on mascerators. our plumbing inspector suggested it this way: "gravity hasn't stopped working since Genesis" we kept the toilet on a 5 " platform and haven't looked back once.

[R Clark]

toolie said:

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when we finished unfinished basement space, we passed on mascerators. our plumbing inspector suggested it this way: "gravity hasn't stopped working since Genesis" we kept the toilet on a 5 " platform and haven't looked back once.

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Well, since this is a basement, gravity has to be overcome already.

I have discovered that my situation is more complex than I originally thought. I demo'd the work space. The pre-existing fixtures drain to the effluent sump pit in a spot that I didn't expect, and couldn't be seen until I pulled the wall board. The drain into the floor does not appear to be sufficiently sized to handle a toilet; appears to be 2" pipe while traditional toilets require minimum of 3". To make matters worse, that pipe runs to the effluent sump by taking a path under the furnace on the other side of the wall.