GDPH

Another Guest Post by the Captain:

---

When we last left our crappy poo hole, I had determined many things:

• I had no clearance over the poo hole to do any repairs
• I needed a wiring diagram to figure out how to get the fans/heaters wired up and working
• I had a brand new fan/heater drop-in box stashed in the garden shed by the former owners

Back to the poo hole company, Envirolet, I went for information.   

I called them up from the cottage to ask them to email me a wiring diagram so I can figure out if our existing unit was wired correctly and install the new drop in unit of fans/heater. I wanted to be able to have a switch to toggle between running the unit with fans, or with fans and heater at the same time.

Two days later I had received no email, but I was going back into town for the Princess’ dance class as well as to pick up some groceries and run errands.  This was the perfect opportunity for me to go down to their "showroom" and talk to them in person so they couldn’t avoid me.  After getting into town and making a quick phone call to their office I was told they were closing in half an hour but I should drop by anyway.

I hopped in the car and was there in twenty.  To my dismay, not only did they not have the wiring diagram, but I had to endure a lecture on arriving late (they told me to come).  I asked for the wiring diagram, but all they wanted to do was to sell me a new lid with the right switch (cost: $140).  After berating them repeatedly, I finally was able to get them to show me the underside of a lid to take a picture with my cell phone so that I could reproduce the wiring.

Editor's note: I'm not going to offend you with poo photos.

Wouldn’t you know it, but not two days later, the second of our fans in the old box died and fixing the toilet was no longer a nice to have, but a necessity, and that night. The place was starting to smell. Badly. Did I mention we had guests? And that 3 more would be arrived shortly bringing the occupancy of the cottage up to 9 people?

With the photo I took and all the parts I had, I was able to easily wire up an old light switch lying around the cottage (free is less than $140) and have it so that I now had a switch to disable the heater while I was away from the cottage, but still have the fans running. The poo-hole people were aghast that I would dare wire something on my own, because it was no longer CSA approved. The poo-hole is such a franken-beast, I doubt it was ever CSA approved. It's certainly not covered by the poo company's warranty.

Once I had the new drop in box wired up and ready to go, it was back to the poo hole, this time for an extended time with nine people staying over.  After telling everyone to use the toilet or hold it in for a couple hours, I cracked that stinky thing open.  Sure enough, both fans and the heater had gone on the old unit, and the replacement unit was just what we needed. I had to bear the brunt of an endless barrage of poo jokes from my wife's family. They're good that way.

Two hours later I had a toilet which probably worked better than it had in over a decade with both fans and the heater running as designed. 

Or did I…