 |
| You were the only one! |
I’ve just been proofreading the manual – bit late now but
what the hell – and noticed that I completely failed to mention macerators.
When you fit a new bathroom getting the hot and cold water
into the new room is usually pretty straight forward. What can be far more complicated
is getting the waste water out again. This shouldn’t be a surprise but it often
is.
The problem of course is straightforward; the hot and cold
water comes into the room under pressure, so you can take the pipework pretty
much any route you feel like. The waste, on the other hand, leaves the room via
the wonder of gravity and as such has pretty limited options, all revolving
around the word “downhill”. If you’re trying to convert a basement room into a
bathroom this can make the entire project a non starter... or does it?
Well you could opt to pump the waste away via what is
generally referred to as a “macerator”. This is effectively a blender linked to
a pump. The waste runs down from the toilet, washbasin, shower or kitchen sink into
the macerator. Here it is ‘blended’ in a fashion that is best not looked into
too closely and then pumped via much smaller pipework (Usually 22mm) up to the
main waste system. Most macerators can lift the waste about 5m high, which is usually
more than enough to connect to the main waste stack and let gravity take over
once again.
So what are the downsides of this? Well the main one is that
all macerators rely on everyone in the household being vaguely sensible and as
such they don’t work well around children. From the moment they’re born they
cause trouble, many mothers can’t fight the urge to dispose of baby wipes down
the toilet, an act that will bugger up the best of macerators within a few
short weeks, and once the child can walk they find the toilet a magical place
where things just disappear in an exciting roar of water; bracelets, scarves, Tigger,
Postman Pat, the list is endless. Granted most children can block the most
robust of toilets if they set their mind to it but the poor old macerator
generally doesn’t stand a chance. This rule, of course, also applies to the
kitchen sink; you have to be very carefully with what you flush down the plug
hole.
All that said, if you are careful they will work perfectly
for years and if your child is hell bent on flushing away the family jewels you
can at least retrieve them from a macerator - although they may be a little
damaged and you might not be that keen on wearing them around your neck for a
while at least.
The only other downsides are that they make a bit of a noise
when they operate, although they are getting quieter all the time, and, as you
can imagine, they are not the most pleasant things to repair if and when things
do go wrong.
A number of different companies do macerators but the leader
in the field is Saniflo and you can find out more about them at their website.
