Food Waste Disposer

[GatorDontPlay]

The sink on my boat has two basins, one with a regular drain (that goes to a through-hull above the waterline) and one that goes to an undersink food waste disposer unit (an Insinkerator Badger 5), that has a PVC sanitation hose attached to the output. As far as I can tell, this hose runs to a seacock in the floor of the engine room, below the waterline (photo attached).

The food waste side is backed up; I took the hose off the outlet of the disposal, and can see that any water in it just sits there and doesn't drain out. This is actually what I would expect, if the hose goes to that seacock and there's no pump that would push the food waste down the hose and out an underwater fitting, like a macerator pump from a holding tank to an underwater fitting. I don't think the Insinkerator really creates much pressure to pump anything down, I think it just grinds up the food.

Am I missing something? Is there normally a gray water tank that the food waste disposer would be going to, with its own macerator to pump overboard? Or was this just a poorly thought-out retrofit to the original sink?

[belizesailor]

Unusual to see one installed on a sailboat at all (maybe more common on power vessels?). I don't follow the logic of having one...why is trouble prone plumbing, and significant energy use, necessary to get food scraps overboard? Just toss them overboard. Which is what I suggest doing with this whole set up.

[Sailmonkey]

I have never seen a disposal on a boat of any kind, and I've worked on some very large boats!

[GatorDontPlay]

It's not a sailboat - it's a Navigator 4200 Pilothouse Classic (powerboat).

This is what I'm wondering about - whether other recreational power yachts have these, or if it's some kind of weird retrofit a previous owner did. There were some other "customizations" that hadn't been really thought through or tried out... Like adding an ElectroScan MSD with a complex system of hoses and Y valves to be able to route either of the two heads to either the holding tank or the ElectroScan and either the tank or the ElectroScan overboard; in the shuffle of hoses they connected the hose from the deck plate pumpout port to an alternate fitting on the top of the holding tank that didn't have a diptube, meaning I couldn't pump anything out of the tank until I reverse engineered the setup and discovered this error.

Now I'm wondering if anyone actually tried using the disposal more than once. It would be handy (obviously for use while on shore power, I'm a liveaboard) but certainly doesn't seem to be a common thing even on power boats as far as I can tell. I have seen some on the web for commercial boats (where they have a real cafeteria operation going on to feed a large crew) but that's obviously a whole other matter...

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[Hud3]

I don't know about you, but the last thing I'd want to do with food waste is to dump it into the marina's waters.

I frankly can't see any reasonable use for it.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Hud3

I don't know about you, but the last thing I'd want to do with food waste is to dump it into the marina's waters.

I frankly can't see any reasonable use for it.

I'm with you. Would never dump food (or anything else other than gray water) in a harbor. If one must dump food overboard, it should be done at sea and in whole chunks so the fish and crabs can make use of it as food. In a harbor, and especially at a dock, it should be brought ashore (organic food scraps separated from recyclable items) as part of the standard marina garbage flow.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by GatorDontPlay

It's not a sailboat - it's a Navigator 4200 Pilothouse Classic (powerboat).

This is what I'm wondering about - whether other recreational power yachts have these, or if it's some kind of weird retrofit a previous owner did. There were some other "customizations" that hadn't been really thought through or tried out... Like adding an ElectroScan MSD with a complex system of hoses and Y valves to be able to route either of the two heads to either the holding tank or the ElectroScan and either the tank or the ElectroScan overboard; in the shuffle of hoses they connected the hose from the deck plate pumpout port to an alternate fitting on the top of the holding tank that didn't have a diptube, meaning I couldn't pump anything out of the tank until I reverse engineered the setup and discovered this error.

Now I'm wondering if anyone actually tried using the disposal more than once. It would be handy (obviously for use while on shore power, I'm a liveaboard) but certainly doesn't seem to be a common thing even on power boats as far as I can tell. I have seen some on the web for commercial boats (where they have a real cafeteria operation going on to feed a large crew) but that's obviously a whole other matter...

As others have posted, for liveaboard use, dumping stuff in the enclosed space of a marina is generally frowned upon. It should go out to the garbage. Making it even less useful for you.

We spend most of our time aboard at anchor, usually in uncrowded places, so food scraps go overboard.

I would dispose of the dispose-all and replumb the MSD.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by GatorDontPlay

It's not a sailboat - it's a Navigator 4200 Pilothouse Classic (powerboat).
app

Sailboat/powerboat doesn't matter, the way the drains are rigged won't let this work properly. The 112' motor yacht I worked on didn't have one either. The big commercial units aren't even mounted in the sink, hell they're not even indoors!

[GatorDontPlay]

So I just saw a newer version (2003 instead of '96) of basically the same boat (Navigator 45), and it had an under-sink disposal also, making me think it was maybe standard rather than some weird retrofit...

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[thinwater]

The practical problem is that most disposers will clog if without substancial water flow to rinse the food through, and wasting water on a boat is impractical.

Remove it.

[GatorDontPlay]

Originally Posted by thinwater

The practical problem is that most disposers will clog if without substancial water flow to rinse the food through, and wasting water on a boat is impractical.

Remove it.

Water pressure and supply is not so much an issue at the dock -- the boat also has a water inlet + regulator for direct hookup, turn off the water tank pump and leave the shore tap open and you have pretty good pressure.

I get the others' points on not spitting out food scraps into the water at the marina; seems like it could make sense though if it went to a holding tank that could be emptied, especially if it had a mesh "catch" basket that would let the gray water pass through and then periodically be emptied/carried to the compost bin on the dock along with any other food scraps that didn't go down the disposal.

[mrohr]

SEA GULLS

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by thinwater

The practical problem is that most disposers will clog if without substancial water flow to rinse the food through, and wasting water on a boat is impractical.

Yeah, SOP for our household units has always been running water when the disposal is on, continue running water after the disposal is off to rinse the chopper, line, etc.

In our current household, we've discovered we have to remember to use the thing at least periodically... just to keep it from freezing up, and then needing a manual twist on the axle.

-Chris