Jabsco Electric Head

[Kraden313]

We had a guest come last night and went to the bathroom and apparently put toilet paper in the head. We have water standing in the bowl now and it won't go down. When We hit the flusher the water bubbles a little and you can see it swirling around but it won't go down. There is no visible paper in the bowl but he did try and flush it down. We added a little vinegar in it last night but it still won't go down this morning. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks😊

[Dockhead]

Welcome to the club. Unfortunately, you are likely in for an extremely nasty and unpleasant job.

Do the following:

1. Wait another day. Often the paper will dissolve. Try flushing again.
2. If that doesn't work, then take apart the pump and see if the macerator is clogged up. If you're lucky, that all it is. Clean it out, wash it all thoroughly and reassemble.
3. If that doesn't do it, then you have to chase the pipes. Take the pipe off the macerator and off the sea cock and see what you can find. Sometimes you can snake through a coat hanger or something like that and get the clog. Often, you can't. You might remove the anti-siphon loop to get additional access through there.
4. If that fails -- and it often does -- the classical solution is just to replace the pipes -- the need regular replacement anyway so here's your chance. Or if they're new, take them off and snake them properly off the boat.

Here's a trick I discovered: If you can get to a holding tank pumpout station, try to make a good fit on the waste pipe you have taken off the sea cock with the pumpout nozzle. Make sure the waste pipe is disconnected from the macerator, but connected at the antisiphon loop. Suck away. For me, it worked like magic.

P.S. when you have the waste pipe off the sea cock, snake a coat hanger through the sea cock as well just to be sure that your clog is not there.

P.P.S. all of the above is for direct discharge. If you discharge through a holding tank the procedure will be slightly different.

Good luck!

[Dockhead]

P.S. Rubber gloves a must! Optional - Soviet Army surplus gas mask.

[Kraden313]

Thank you Dockhead for the response! That is very helpful. There seems to be quite a debate on the use of muriatic acid in the head. Any thoughts on perhaps using a little bit of that?

[Intentional Drifter]

Dockhead's got the procedure down for you. Personally, I'd put off the acid until you have a diagnosis. There's lots that go wrong that would give you those symptoms.

Hose clogged with mineral build-up; clogged joker valve; macerator/pump motor going out; macerator blade broken; if holding tank, do you know if your tank is empty or has room?

BTW, the Raritan Seaera retrofit is a much better unit than the Jabsco and is a direct, hole-to-hole retrofit. Not a bad price, either.

I'm betting on clogged hose, myself. Vinegar rarely keeps the build up from happening, it just slows it down.

ID

[Kraden313]

ID....thanks so much. We will investigate further. Take care

[bstreep]

You are likely to find that your problem is a hose full of mineral buildup. The exit hose from the macerator/pump isn't very big and will clog with deposits. The paper likely just aggregated the problem.

[HopCar]

I think a lot of these clogs are caused by short flushing. People tend to stop flushing when the bowl is clear. You need to flush long enough for the "Stuff" to get into the holding tank or overboard.
I.D. Like you I thought the Raritan Sea Era was a drop in replacement for the Jabsco 37010 series toilet. I recently had a customer tell me that while the bowls are interchangable, the mounting holes for the base are not. I need to check on this.

[Kraden313]

Thanks again for all the good information. HopCar.....if you get some clarification on the Raritan replacement could you respond back?? That will be a good backup when we need to replace this head. Also, I did not know the issues that could arise from the "short flushing". That is definitely good to know. Thanks again.

[DeepFrz]

What has worked for me on household toilet plugs is some dish detergent and warm water and let it sit for a few hours. Works every time.

[bstreep]

It's pretty easy to pull the motor off of these heads. Just make the "guest" pull it, then clean the impeller, and replace.

[Lagoon4us]

Whilst flushing use your toilet brush up and down in the bowl, i found the pulse from the brush with the pump running blew away the offending paper.
One of the biggest issues is people flushing tissues as in those you use for blowing your nose.
It seems they are much tougher than toilet paper and wrap on the chopper blades, think back is this possibly what happened even a flush or two prior to the guest using it?
Every blockage we ave had was the result of wrong paper....

[Kraden313]

Thanks again to all who responded. We actually ended up putting quite a bit of vinegar in the head for several nights in a row and the problem actually corrected itself. Phewww...... For now. Ha ha.