Groco Mystery

[Jeff D.]

Two years ago I rebuilt the Groco HF on my boat. It gets very limited use in fresh water. Today when I went to pump it for the first time this year, thankfully a test, I could not get any suction to bring the water into the bowl. When I took out the six cover screws holding the intake hose nipple and the hose to the bowl, the gasket(part HF1 ) a translucent flapper arrangement simply fell apart into 3 or 4 pieces. Any clue what could attack this piece given it is only exposed to fresh water and the non-toxic pink anti-freeze? Do I have to buy a whole service kit again or is just the flapper available?Thanks

 

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

What are you using to clean the toilet?

Bleach is murder on rubber parts...so are household chemical toilet bowl cleaners. If you haven't used either, your guess is as good as mine as to what caused the flapper to disintegrate. Maybe it was just defective.You can buy it separately, but if it fell apart, none of the other rubber parts are likely to be much better shape...so unless you want to risk a failure, better rebuild it. Meanwhile, give a LOT of thought to what might be in whatever is going through the toilet.

 

[Don]

Groco

Bleach will cause that, but I don't know about anti-freeze. You can buy replacement parts from the West Marine site without buying the whole rebuild kit. You need part number HF-1. See link. Don