Here we describe and illustrate, step by step, the cleaning & maintenance of a Cinderella Incinerating Toilet.
Following these instructions will help assure a long and happy life for your Cinderella toilet and its users and it should avoid odor complaints or other embarrassing mishaps.
We include cleaning and maintenance tips that come from over a decade of installation and use of this Cinderella toilet.
This article series describes the brands, properties, installation, and maintenance of incinerating toilets - a waterless system for onsite waste disposal where a septic system cannot be installed.
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Occasionally after a few days of use you may see a few marks or stains on the chrome toilet bowl chamber.
As shown above, to clean the toilet bowl we use a non-bleach spray household cleaner such as a mild glass cleaner product along with a soft paper towel to wipe the bowl surfaces back to their natural shiny clean condition.
The manufacturer also sells their own recommended safe, non-abrasive toilet cleaner.
Watch out: Throw the used paper towels in the trash, not into the toilet.
Watch out: do not use bleach cleansers or you may damage the toilet or even produce harmful or toxic fumes.
Below: depress the buttons on each side of the Cinderella toilet's front cover to remove it, thus exposing and permitting removal of the ash pan for cleaning.
It's worth considering the frequency and ease of cleaning of the toilet to remove the incinerated waste ash.
Remove the ash chamber cover at the bottom front of the toilet by pressing the buttons on each side of the cover. [Photos above]
Above I've removed the ash bin cover and set it aside to the right; you can see that the ash container's handle is pushed fully to the left to its "locked" position.
To remove the ash container grasp the handle and rotate the bin so that the handle is in the center - photo above.
Now pull the bin straight out from the toilet [photos below]
and remove the ash pan. To spare you, I'm showing a clean ash pan assembly.
After checking to be sure that the steel pan is not too hot to touch safely, you can lift out the inner or center pan that contains the ash, leaving the insulating base on the floor. But actually after some usage you'll find as I do that there's a bit of black soot on the steel insulating base that holds the ash pan, so I like to clean that as well.
Simple clean water and paper towels will handle that task.
In the photos above the ash bin was clean. Don't sweat a little surface rust, but
Watch out: the company warns against using harsh tools that might gouge or scratch or cut into the steel of the ash pan. That could lead to costly damage.
Below we show a typical volume of ash after this incinerating toilet was used at typical frequency by two adults over the course of a week: about a teacup of ash.
And below we illustrate how the incinerating toilet is cleaned each week.
We use a soft flat wooden stick to scrape the cooled ash chunks into a waste bin or into a paper bag that is then folded for disposal in household trash.
Watch out: The manufacturer warns not to use metal tools to scrape or clean the ash pan as that may damage it and lead to its failure.
Next we pour enough warm water into the ash pan to bring the water level to any caked-on deposits on the pan sides; the pan is allowed to soak and then is gently scrubbed using Cinderella's own personal soft bristle brush (provided by the manufacturer.)
Tip: I like using hot water, not just tepid water, to speed up dissolving hardened ash deposits.
I label the toilet cleaning brush and my soft (non-damaging) scraper stick as "Cinderella" so that visitors to the home don't either use them for something else or lose them.
After it has soaked long-enough to soften any hard ash deposits we empty the ash-water into a septic system, flush toilet, or where permitted at the base of a tree that could use some ash as fertilizer. Remember this is non-toxic, harmless ash.
Really? Well yeah but ... I often find that I empty the soak-water, only to see that some hard "baked on" ash or "cinders" remaining in the pan.
A bit more soaking and gentle scrubbing with that soft brush or wooden stick will loosen the remaining ash.
We may need to repeat the soak, gently-brush, and rinse cycle 2 or even three times to remove all ash deposits.
When the ash pan is free of ash we dry it with paper towels and we're ready to return the ash pan to the insulating base and to re-assemble the toilet.
The cleaned pan is restored to its insulated carrier
Below: the ash pan and pan carrier are assembled and ready to be re-installed into the toilet base.
The ash assembly slides into the incinerating toilet base.
Tip: While Cinderella says nothing about it, I like to spray a bit of silicone lubricant on the bottom plate inside the toilet. This extra step makes sliding the ash pan in and locking it as easy as pie.
And the pan is rotated clockwise to lock it safely in place: below
Above: the ash pan is locked in place (the ash pan handle has been pushed from center over to the left) and we're ready to re-install the fibreglass cover over this opening.
Tip: I find it easier to re-install and latch the fiberglass cover if I put its left side hole right over the release button, then I push the right side of the cover into position and watch for the right-hand button to pop through its round opening.
Tip: For maximum catalytic converter life, a clean toilet system, and minimal odors, continue with the steam cleaning step given below.
Here's a service tip from Cinderella.
In July 2021 Cinderella released this updated maintenance suggestion:
EVERY time you empty your ash container, pour 1 liter of water into the insert before placing it back into the toilet.
Once back in the toilet, start an incineration to complete what we call a steam clean of your Catalytic converter (the air filter).
(This is now step 8 in the company's published Maintenance Guide. )
As with a normal flush-use of this toilet, when the clean water has been "incinerated", thus also cleaning the catalytic converter, air filter, and some of the exhaust vent system, the toilet light will indicate "ready for use".
Watch out: since the Cinderella toilet permits immediate successive uses, it would of course be possible to start an incineration cycle to steam clean the toilet and then right afterwards, use it to poop or pee - but we recommend that you wait at least until the clean water incineration cycle has been completed so that the toilet gets full benefit of running on a cycle of clean water.
It's probably OK to go ahead and use the toilet right after its clean-water-incinerating cycle has completed, that is, when the blower fan is continuing to run in "COOLING" mode.
Really? Well that's not the whole story about cleaning an incinerating toilet. Above we show typical weekly cleanup steps: easy, painless to follow. The manufacturer recommends a more-thorough cleaning after every 500 uses or annually.
More thorough cleaning, depending on incinerating toilet brand and model, may involve slipping the toilet off of its connection to its exterior vent, cleaning the vent assembly with a chimney brush, and rinsing the toilet base or incinerating chamber itself with clean water.
EVERY 500 flushes or annually, it is recommended that you do a reverse flush of your catalytic converter.
This is done by pouring hot water through the exhaust pipe. Cinderella has made it simple with this step by step video guide to walk you through the process.
See the CINDERELLA MAINTENANCE VIDEO at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ugYbAYvIAE - but please use your browser's "BACK" button to return to our Cinderella toilet guides here at InspectApedia.com.
When ordering your Cindy toilet, you might want to also order the Cinderella Toilet Maintenance Kit (brush and cleaning equipment including a chimney cleaning brush) illustrated just below.
In your Cinderella toilet installation & maintenance manual you'll also find instructions for cleaning the toilet's exhaust flue, and if you didn't order this when you bought the toilet, the company can provide a properly-sized flue cleaning brush kit if needed.
The brush is pulled through the chimney, top down using a light rope.
In my photo notice that I installed a TEE at the chimney bottom. By pulling off that bottom cover it's possible to run a chimney cleaning brush through the exhaust flue or "toilet chimney" should it be necessary to clean the chimney interior.
Cinderella recommends this step, but FYI after years of light use and regular maintenance that we described above on this page, my inspection of the chimney interior at the installation shown above finds that it is still perfectly clean.
Inspect your toilet's exhaust flue yourself, from rooftop or from that bottom cleanout tee, using a flashlight and mirror.
To remind guests that the toilet needs to be cared-for, not just used, we keep a calendar near the toilet; the last-cleaned-date is marked in the calendar to help a user determine when the ash receptacle is due for cleaning.
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