Cleaning the Solenoid Valve on Jabsco Quiet Flush Marine Toilets

Jeff: Thank you for watching jabscotech.com. I'm Jeff Lander.

Mike: I'm Mike Irving.

Jeff: And today we're going to talk about the Quiet Flush toilet continually filling the bowl with fresh water.

Mike: Now you'll know that you have a Quiet Flush toilet, because either you'll have two gray rocker switches or a red button and a black rocker switch. That's kind of an indication that it is a Quiet Flush toilet.

Jeff: Just to make sure we're clear about what we're talking about, the symptom is fresh water continuously filling the bowl from the top when the toilet is not in use. So again, if you were to go away from the head and come back and see the water level continuously rising, that's indicative of a problem like I said, with the fresh water supply. If the water is coming back from the bottom of the bowl it would be a completely different problem to diagnose, but again, this video is concerned with fresh water filling from the top of the ceramic bowl.

So, after showing you the symptoms of the problem, it can usually be isolated back to the solenoid valve which has a part number of 37038-1012 for 12-volt systems and a 37038-1024 for the 24-volt systems. What can happen from time to time is debris can get caught up in the solenoid valve and sometimes it needs to be taken apart, cleaned and put back together. Mike is going to show you how.

Mike: All you'll need is a Phillips head screwdriver, pop off these four screws and I'll show you some ins and outs and make sure that it goes back together okay.

Jeff: Let's get at it.

Mike: So, to locate the solenoid valve, you're going to find the hose that feeds the water to the back of the porcelain. Follow that back and you should come across this valve. You'll have the water going to the bowl here and water coming from the freshwater system into this fitting. To take this apart, the first screw we’ll remove will be the screw on the back that holds the metal solenoid housing in place. That one comes out off to one side. Two more. And then the last one what we're going to want to do is put some pressure onto this little housing right here. There’s a spring and a plunger inside that and if we don't put pressure on it, it might pop off and sometimes that spring comes out. It's the only real big hurdle that we have to come across. So, this gently comes off. This peels out and there is the plunger. And here's the spring. But be real careful about not losing that spring, so we'll put that off into a safe area.

So inside here you're going to see a diaphragm. In the middle of that diaphragm, it's going to be a white hard plastic piece. With a Q-tip, soft bristle brush, toothbrush, what you want to do is you want to clean out in between this area, all around here, and also clean this area here. What happens is sometimes debris gets caught up in here and doesn't allow the valve to fully close. Now what you'll notice is that there's going to be two holes on this white plastic piece. Get yourself a toothpick, a sewing needle or something and just pick out any debris that's in those holes. And there's a couple holes in the rubber diaphragm. Same thing. Just make sure there's no debris caught up in those as well.

Also, while it's apart, check this rim here. You might have some debris that gets caught up in that and clean that off as well.

Now to put it back together, diaphragm – big white side goes up. You've got the cup. Spring goes in the cup. The plunger with the rubber side out goes into there. Make sure it moves pretty freely. And this goes right back on there. Make sure it seats itself. Again, put pressure on it. Metal bracket goes on. Now while I do this, if you have an older vessel, and you notice that you have a lot of mineral build up inside the water lines or if it's an old water lines, what you might consider doing is picking up an inline strainer, something that's like a 40 mesh to get any of those particulates out before it hits the solenoid valve. Really anything that gets caught up on that rim is going to cause that solenoid to stay open. And continuously feed water from your freshwater system into the toilet bowl. So, as I when I was putting these together, I waited to do this one last mainly because it's easier access without this in the way to get to those other three screws. This slides in. Sometimes it's a little tricky to get that last one in. And there you go. It's all back together.

Jeff: If cleaning the solenoid valve doesn't remedy the problem, we recommend purchasing a new solenoid valve which has a part number of 37038-1012 for your 12-volt systems. Or a 37038-1024 for your 24-volt systems. Thanks for watching jabscotech.com, I'm Jeff Lander.

Mike: And I'm Mike Irving. Stay tuned for more videos from jabscotech.com.

Jeff: Be safe and happy boating.