Which Electric Toilet?

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Check all your crimps and spade connectors for corrosion or looseness.

Thanks. I've soldered all connections looking for the problem,

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by tedsherrin

Thanks. I've soldered all connections looking for the problem,

I personally prefer a well-done crimp to soldered connections, which are brittle, but anyway.

I would suggest next measuring voltage at the motor as you operate it. If the voltage is steady when it cuts out, then you have a fault inside the motor.

[foggysail]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

I fully appreciate pre-wetting a bowl.

Of course for that matter, women and men alike complain "WHY'D YOU PUT THE LID DOWN?!" because I always, always, close toilet lids. Not just seats.

Dropping in a toothbrush, glasses, dentures (that wasn't me)....then one day my Big Black Dog thought she'd bring me a gift, a lapful of this nice fresh cold water she found....UGH.

UUUgh!! I just finished my meal, when I read the above lines I hesitated between puking and laughing!

Foggy

[hellosailor]

Oh it was nice cold FRESH water she was sharing.

But I've never understood, if someone is going to bother putting the seat down, wtf not put the LID down at the SAME time?

And according to just about everyone these days, something like 20% of all cell phone meet their death by plunging into a toilet bowl.

Indoor plumbing, indoor heating, indoor cooking appliances...Danger, Will Robinson!

[forsailbyowner]

I'm with the post that recommended using a macerator pump. I've been in a boat that used this method and it worked like a charm. Cost a small fraction compared to the conversion or a whole electric head. Why throw money down the head.

[Rustic Charm]

Well, in the end I tracked the fault down to something in the motor. Here in Australia a TMC motor replacement is $200 where as the replacment head is $298. For $398 I could get a bigger bowl. So, I purchased a new head all together. Which I'm glas I did because the old head had been plumbed amazingly stupidly. The exit pipe is only meant to be 25mm, but some twit had plumbed almost 3 meters of 50mm pipe into it before it heat the 50mm seacock, meaning it was fighting to pump out effectively 1.5 ms of **** before it free fell out the seacock. The pipe was obviously chocker full of **** and I'd say had been for a long time. So I shortened the pipe to the seacock, put in an anti siphon point as the instructions said and it now works brilliiantly.

[foggysail]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

And according to just about everyone these days, something like 20% of all cell phone meet their death by plunging into a toilet bowl.

I never thought about that, it might have merit! I have pulled a couple of them from toilets in our apartments. Even Wifey lost one that way! I'll call that Hellosailor's law.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by foggysail

I never thought about that, it might have merit! I have pulled a couple of them from toilets in our apartments. Even Wifey lost one that way! I'll call that Hellosailor's law.

I had my first iphone destroyed by dropping it in the toilet.. Apple charged me $180 to send out a new one under warrant which was better than the $800 plus price tag. I now do not use the phone whilst holding doodle in other hand taking a pee. Especially on a moving vessel.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by tedsherrin

I now do not use the phone whilst holding doodle in other hand taking a pee. Especially on a moving vessel.

Words to live by.

[Dulls]

Originally Posted by Bambolera

I like the lavac (Lavac Marine Toilets). It comes with a manual pump, but I did like the other have said and installed an electric macerator to the exhaust hose and a push button electrical switch on the bulkhead. It's flawless and cheap.

We did the same macerator on the exit but with a y valve we can by pass everything. The lavac uses a Henderson pump and always works and easy to fix. Sort of best of both worlds.

[hellosailor]

Actually the Lavac can be even simpler. If you use an electric diaphragm pump, i.e. as they suggest, you can simply put the electric and manual (Henderson) both in-line and use whichever one you please. No valving, no switching needed. And they claim the vacuum action of the bowl breaks up solids better than a macerator would. (Oh yeah, I can just see that test on Mythbusters.<G>)

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by tedsherrin

. . . but some twit had plumbed almost 3 meters of 50mm pipe into it before it heat the 50mm seacock, meaning it was fighting to pump out effectively 1.5 ms of **** before it free fell out the seacock. The pipe was obviously chocker full of **** and I'd say had been for a long time. So I shortened the pipe to the seacock, put in an anti siphon point as the instructions said and it now works brilliiantly.

An extremely important point of order when using a marine toilet, is pump enough after using to completely clear the lines. There is no excuse for the lines being full of sh*t (or what is actually much worse, the other human waste product, which will precipitate calcium in the presence of seawater, causing sewagepipeosclerosis and eventually clogging the lines).

This is one of the most important advantages of electric toilets -- it is not beyond anyone's strength to pump that much. I think actually a really well designed marined toilet would have a timer on it, so that it will continue pumping automatically for just the right amount of time to completely flush the lines through.

[Dulls]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Actually the Lavac can be even simpler. If you use an electric diaphragm pump, i.e. as they suggest, you can simply put the electric and manual (Henderson) both in-line and use whichever one you please. No valving, no switching needed. And they claim the vacuum action of the bowl breaks up solids better than a macerator would. (Oh yeah, I can just see that test on Mythbusters.<G>)

We do it that way as the y valve takes the masserator to the holding tank direct while the henderson can pump to the holding tank or to sea direct. The henderson with another y valve can also pump out the same holding tank as well. Lots of pipes but all accessable an easy to fix. It looks like a turd fun fare.

[hellosailor]

"I think actually a really well designed marined toilet would have a timer on it,"
Dockhead, there's a Lavac in your future. That's how they set up the electric ones, with the timer adjustable to match whatever plumbing you've done.
Between that and not having a joker valve that needs routine replacement...almost as reliable as a cedar bucket.

[Microship]

Hi...

My Amazon 44 (steel p/h sailboat) has two heads, both of which are Lavacs. They work OK, though as a big tall guy I don't really find them very comfortable.

The original plumbing that came with the boat was a byzantine labyrinth of hoses and 4 (!) Y-valves to allow any combination of o/b, LectraSan, and tiny holding tank. That took days of reverse-engineering and head-shaking to figure out, and among the 16 binary combinations of valve settings were some truly bizarre modes like running either head through the LectraSan and then piping the output to the little 6-gallon tank. All very strange.

A few years ago, I severed the system into forward and aft regions, though I still haven't extracted the old non-functioning LectraSan and associated valvage associated with the latter. The forward end now has a fairly conventional holding tank system, still with the Lavac: 35 gallon tank, deck pump-out, T12 macerator o/b, vent, etc. After debugging a number of bad installation problems (another whole story), it's been pretty stable... and the tank has a spare input port.

OK, finally my question relevant to this thread! I want to replace the aft Lavac, mostly because I don't like or trust it very much, and install an electric macerating toilet. Lots of research keeps me coming back to the Raritan Marine Elegance, probably with the Sea Fresh system to switch between fresh and raw depending on the boat's current usage pattern. I'll add a local Y-valve to an adjacent thru-hull for use offshore, pull the rest of the old cruft, and run a discharge line forward to the tank under the V-berth.

I read quite a bit of conflicting info about how far this can go. Raritan's chart in the manual suggests that I have no issue at all, and the Head Master in an oday.sailboatowners forum thread writes, "It can pump from one end to the other of a 40 foot boat without problem." But the Head Mistress (hi, Peggy!) says in the excellent "Boat Odors" book that 6-10 feet is a better number, and in that same thread reiterates the 6 feet... but then allows that if one is "conscientious about rinsing out the system before the boat will sit, there shouldn't be a problem."

I have read that the Marine Elegance gives the macerated contents a pretty good blast, but I have no intuition about the safe range or if this is even an issue. In my boat, the relevant numbers are 22 feet horizontally and a net rise of about 16" from the floor of the head compartment to the entry port on the tank... and the run is pretty much a straight shot after clearing the local Y-valve.

Peggy, what do you think? (Also, thanks for publishing that book... I just read it this evening and picked up quite a few unexpected bits of useful information.)

Cheers,
Steve