Raritan Marine Elegance - Sounds like rocks rattling around when flushing

[autumnbreeze27]

Boat was on the hard and unused for 2 months. At the 1 month interval I flushed some water in the toilet.

I just flushed some water and it sounds like there are rocks rattling around inside the base of the toilet. Everything seems to be working fine, but the new noise worries me.

Anybody have any experience with this? Not sure if it will go away after using it, or if I should take it apart before somebody drops a load in it and it becomes a nasty mess.

I checked the troubleshooting section of the manual, it did not mention strange noises.

[delmarrey]

I'd say flush a whole lot of water thru and see if it gets better. If still noisy, flush thru some cooking oil mixed with water. If still no change, I'd tear it down to see if something fell in the bowl.

[Diesel Bill]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

I'd say flush a whole lot of water thru and see if it gets better. If still noisy, flush thru some cooking oil mixed with water. If still no change, I'd tear it down to see if something fell in the bowl.

I second what delmarry said, I have a Raritan head with 12 volt power operation. Every once in a while when flushing it make a horrible crunching sound like cracking plastic. A little cooking oil makes it all better and sounds like new.

[HopCar]

Here is a link to a parts list and exploded drawing of the Marine Elegance toilet.
http://www.raritaneng.com/wp-content...nceExpView.pdf

I would be concerned that something hard has gotten in there and is getting banged around by the macerator blade.

[autumnbreeze27]

Tried vegetable oil, somewhere around 1/4-1/2 a cup. It got a little better. I put a coffee pot full of hot water in it after that. The noise seems to be going away. Might try some muriatic acid. Gotta get it working by tomorrow morning, the admiral was not happy going up to the marina restrooms to find them closed for cleaning!!

[appick]

Well I told you I had to crap bricks... I wasn't kidding! Lol.

On a serious note I'm considering one of these to install so I'll be waiting to hear what's happened.

[bcsete]

I've had to take the macerator off twice on one of mine because of the noise/vibration difference. There was some toilet paper caught on one of the blades and it made a very different noise than usual. Takes about 20 minutes.

[jamesdavis]

If its on the hard, perhaps just air bubbles/air locks flushing through? Being its without solid or constant water supply such as seawater through a sea cock or fresh water supply.

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

I just flushed some water and it sounds like there are rocks rattling around inside the base of the toilet.

Have you considered the possibility that there are rocks, or at least small stones or pebbles? Vandals? Improbable, but not impossible. Might be worth a teardown and rebuild, so you learn the procedure when not under stress.

[mvmorningstar]

I have this head for 5 years. I have disassembled it several times, very easy to do if it is clean. I agree that something is in there, and if the impeller/maserator has to work at all, it will be destroyed in the process. The maserator is plastic and fits on to the motor shaft that is round with a flat. With any resistance from hard or fibrous material it just strips. If it is still pumping, you are lucky. I recommend:
1. Order 2 plastic impellers, they are cheap, ~$8 each. (one for spare)
2. pull the head and clean out the path
3. put on a new macerator/impeller.
A guest on my boat flushed a tampon (unreported). A lot of grief and troubleshooting that is resolved only by doing the above.

[mawtty]

My mate Kerry (now known as Cherry) likes to eat cherries whole, with the seeds in them. He crapped in my loo and complained about the noise when he flushed. I had to dismantle the unit and extract the seeds which were rattling around in the macerator. Thanks Cheerry.

[autumnbreeze27]

Yikes, it kinda sounded like Cherry had used our head.
I hit it with vinegar. It improved some more. It sounds normal now. Whatever was causing the problem has dissolved.

No disassemble required! The admiral and I are the only ones that use this toilet, so nothing goes in it that we didn't eat first. We have a bidet so we use very little TP, and that goes in a trash bucket.

Glad I didn't have to get my hands dirty! Looks like I should add those impellers to my list.

Thanks all!

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by mawtty

My mate Kerry (now known as Cherry) likes to eat cherries whole, with the seeds in them. He crapped in my loo and complained about the noise when he flushed. I had to dismantle the unit and extract the seeds which were rattling around in the macerator. Thanks Cheerry.

That is really the pits!

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

That is really the pits!

Good one Brian!

[Jim Cate]

Plastic macerater blades??? Say it isn't so. Seems a bad idea to this sanitary engineer (amateur). The blades in our cheapo Jabsco macerater/pump are stainless steel of some sort.

Jim