I have always been a big fan of the RV Sani-Con waste system. I'm not sure I would sing from the hills that I am a fan of the pooper pump, but why not. It is a great system, and I do not miss the Stinky Slinky one bit! The Sani-Con allows us to run a 1 ½" line to the sewer so it doesn't look bad, no rinsing and flushing of the big fat Slinky, and I don't have to store The Beast while on the road.

The system has always worked great for me (save the time I left the little green cap on the end and had to do a little "clean up on isle 6"), and I wouldn't be without one. However, I have had MUCH problem with the relay that controls the pump. The relay is used between the power switch and the Sani-Con and is suppose to send power to the pump when the switch is thrown. After about six months of use, the relay started acting up, and emptying the tanks became a challenge. Thus began - Fun With Relays.

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With the position the relay sits in the wet bay, it is prone to water leaking into it. This is what did mine in. The first time it went out, I soon figured out the problem was with the relay. I took it apart and found it nasty and corroded. I used steel wool to clean it up, and filed the points. It worked.

For a while.

Occasionally it would fail, and I found that if I squeezed it together, I could get it to work. I also found that the longer I ran it, the more it heated up and was less likely to work.

The way the relay works is that power is applied to the coils when the switch is thrown. The coils create a magnetic field, and it pulls a plunger down. With the plunger in the down position, contact is made between a set of points, and power is supplied to the Sani-Con. When it would fail and I would squeeze it, I believe it was just pushing the contacts together, as the magnet wasn't pulling it down to a good position.

During this time, I talked to Monaco several times, and never really worked out getting a new one sent to me. Seemed like each person I asked, they told me I had to talk to someone else. That got old, so I only perused when it was convenient. The parts counter at Harrisburg told me "that part is too new - we don't stock those yet". Right.

During a tech support call, I seemed to have found the right guy, and he said "that is a regular ole Bosch 87A relay". The search was on. I found a couple of sites with great information, but the most helpful was The Bosch Relay Unraveled. The pictures and description there really helped me fully understand what was going on in that little black encasing.

I sent Ang down to the local auto parts store with the outside shell of the bad relay and they fixed her right up. I found the relay on the web for around $5 each, but the auto store changed around $15 each. The relay we got, however, looks much heavier-duty than the OEM relay, so I was glad to purchase a spare to have around. Plus, I can see using it on some 12V project I do someday

The Napa part we got was AR272 or (V07172) and it was laid out exactly as the OEM relay was. I just moved the wires over and my pooper pumper was back in business.

Lessons learned: I learned that relays are fun, and that I shouldn't wait so long to be proactive at finding a part to fix my house. Not sure how many people will find this as interesting as I did, but I am sure someone, some day, will have a similar problem and do a Google search and end up here with my endless wisdom.

Or just laugh at me that it took so long to figure out what an 87A relay was.

--kev