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Just moved into a new house which is c.250 years old. On getting there the previous owner said the downstairs loo which is on the same waste as the kitchen, was best not pooped in as they found it caused blockages. It needs a new cistern as the current concealed one is constantly runs I to the bowl so my thought was to get a macerator installed. Am I right in thinking that this will solve the poop issue? Or will a bigger, traditional external cistern which dumps more water into the bowl when flushing sort it?
Maybe...
It might depend on what you mean by "on the same waste as the kitchen" I don't think you would want to connect the macerator to the same 40mm waste pipe but you should be OK if its a separate connection to the 110mm soil pipe.
Old houses can be a bit of a mess when it comes to foul water
Stop the constant dribble as a first move and see if that helps. It could be either a slight overflow or a syphon with a bit of muck caught
Even a "bigger" cistern these days flushes fewer litres than they used to (as low as 6), but you can vary the flush volume to 9 litres if the cistern has the capacity
If neither of these work I would get the waste pipework checked to make sure that there isn't a blockage/belly in the pipe
Saniflo - one of the most poorly named products in the world as they are not particularly sanitary and they hardly ever flow.
They should be called Stinkyblocks
Graham - it's a full 110 mm waste. By connecting to the kitchen I mean that I can see where it joins the 110mm pipe in the basement that comes from the kitchen.
The pipework definitely isn't blocked. The original pipework in the basement which it joins looks like a very flat run which may be the issue, hence why I thought a more liquid solution may work.
The constant flow into the bowl isn't caused by an overflow, it's the old flush unit that seems to leaking as it's also constantly filling.
I've never had a problem with them, even in the well used loo in our student house. It was a badge of honour if you could do a big enough crap to get it to munch twice before flushing.
The new one in our current house is a bit of a letdown though. Its never blocks but the cistern doesn't flush enough so even if your business is flushed away the water in the bowl turns a murky colour overnight as its obviously not completely flushed through the mascerator. Workaround solved with blue cistern blocks.
Just eat incredibly spicy food and a lot less fibre.
I#m told macerators are fine on 'normal' stuff, its when a kid chucks something down there or a guest puts a tampon or the like and basically you are looking at an expensive repair bill
I had a constantly flowing cistern, didn't notice as it had a seperate oveflow - water board contacted me about a leak 6 months into the property and after an hour found it, cost me £150 in extra water, so get it fixed quick
Other thing (from my very basic knowledge of plumbing) is to take a look at the venting on the system, not sure if it effects soil pipes but it can waste