Can I drill a hole in the toilet tank?

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CountryBumkin

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I have a china toilet in my motorhome. It has an electric flush switch on the wall behind toilet (a dumb place for switch). This model toilet also was available with a flush handle. They stopped making this toilet 10 years ago so I bought some used parts just in case. These parts included the flush handle mechanism.

I would like to convert my toilet to the flush handle style. Can I drill a 1 inch hole in the toilet tank (not actually a tank like home toilet as these (motorhome units) don't hold water in tank. But same material as home toilet). Of course, I don't want to damage this as it is impossible to get a replacement bowl/tank - so if it is very difficult or impossible to drill, I'll just leave well enough alone.

I have various hole saw bits for drilling porcelain tile. Is the toilet body similar to drilling tile?


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Reach4

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I might look for access to the wires to the switch and see if I could connect an additional, conveniently mounted, switch in parallel. I presume that is a normally-open switch.
 

CountryBumkin

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The flush handle or flush switch just opens the ball valve to drain the bowl (which automatically adds water back to the bowl when the ball valve closes), and it can then add extra water to the bowl if the handle is lifted instead of pushed down.

I considered moving the wall switch from the wall behind the toilet to the wall along side the toilet. This is my second choice because its hard to run wires in the wall of these motorhomes (also the old switch is cut into the wood cabinet). So adding a flush handle and abandoning the old switch in place would be preferable.

Also, to clarify, the switch (or handle) is spring loaded to center position (off position, ball valve closed) and is momentary to the up or down position.
 

Reach4

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I considered moving the wall switch from the wall behind the toilet to the wall along side the toilet. This is my second choice because its hard to run wires in the wall of these motorhomes (also the old switch is cut into the wood cabinet).
Suppose you open the floor of the cabinet a bit, splice a wire pair to the existing wire, run the pair up and behind the center stile of the cabinet. In the center stile, between the doors, you mount a small momentary pushbutton . Either the old switch or the new button could flush.

Replace the bottom of the cabinet.

Alternatively, maybe you could get access from the other side of the wall.
 

Jadnashua

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So, this is actually a ball valve and not an electrical component?

You can drill porcelain but may require a diamond core bit to do it. There are some spade bits that MIGHT do it depending on the quality of the porcelain. A high quality porcelain is almost as hard as sapphire, which is next to diamond on the Mohs hardness scale. Some can fairly easily be drilled with a carbide bit. You want a clean hole. Porcelain can have some built-in stresses, and putting a hole in it can sometimes cause it to break or crack.

If it's an electrical switch, I would think you could find an equivalent.
 

CountryBumkin

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Jim, this is an electrical switch. It is either wall mounted (current setup) or the toilet was available with a handle which just controlled an electrical switch. See the photo in the first post. The ball (flush) valve is electrically controlled by a motor in the base of the toilet. Most RV toilets have a foot valve to flush it (press down pedal to flush, lift up the foot pedal to add more water), but I like the handle style as tis more natural for those of us used to home toilets.

What I don't like about the current switch location (you can see the switch behind the toilet in the first photo) is that you need to get your face pretty close to the bowl (when standing) to reach the switch. It is a dumb location. They should have mounted it next to the paper dispenser.

Since I bought some spare parts that included the flush handle switch, I thought it would be nice to use it - but my toilet did not come drilled for the handle.

So if there is risk of breaking the toilet, I'd rather just focus on moving the existing switch (I thought drilling the toilet might be the easier of the two choices).

The hole saw kit I have for tile work has diamond coated tips. This is the kit I have https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010EGADQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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Jadnashua

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Those hole saws will cut the tank. There's a trick to getting them started without walking all over. Tilt the drill to about a 45-degree angle and just barely use the edge to create a divot. Then, slowly turn it perpendicular as it carves out more and deeper until it is supported all around and then finish the hole. Have someone with a spray bottle keep the bit wet for longest life, keep the heat down, and minimize dust. If you're lucky, you can put a pan underneath to catch the overspray. Another way to do this is to cut a through hole in a board and then hold that where you want the hole in the tank...the hole will keep the bit from wandering. You can use some heavy tape to hold the board in position.

No guarantees. It might work out easily. The tank might crack. In cutting porcelain tile, every once in awhile, it will crack...usually works just fine. People don't try to drill toilets too often, so not much experience. When installing tile, it's annoying, but not catastrophic. A toilet you can't easily replace is another thing.

There are some surface mounted wire raceways that you might use to extend the existing wiring to a more convenient place. THey come in various sizes, colors, and materials. If you can't fish wires through the walls, that may be an option, too. Stained or painted, they may look original.
 
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