Electric Head Water Usage

[sailorboy1]

I'm looking for idea on how much water an electric head uses. What I really would like idea of is how long would it take in normal use by 2 people to fill up a 25-gal holding tank.

For reference I'm most interested in the water use of a Raritan Marine Elegance, which has a reduced and normal flush mode of operation.

[a64pilot]

With the Raritan smart flush control I believe it’s called, the amount of water used is programmable.
My gut says there is no water saved in an electric head though, for us we fill a 35 gl tank in I believe 5 days.
I believe Peggie had posted that a couple will use about 7 gls of a holding tank per day. Until she posted that I had always though that we were water wasters as others seem to act as though their tank lasts weeks.

However I believe you can cut down too much on water and that will cause you problems with stinking hoses etc, and maybe plugged hoses too.

We use the reduced mode for liquid and the normal for solids.
The difference is the reduced mode is one flush, the normal is three flushes.
http://www.raritaneng.com/wp-content...STC-manual.pdf

[Pizzazz]

You can assume than an electric head uses a little less water than a manual head. With a manual, it makes somewhat of a difference how you use it, I.e. do you flush completely after every use or bunch up the uses in the morning for example. It also depends on how long your hoses are. When I am alone, it takes a week to fill a 20 gallon waste tank. With two kids on board it takes one weekend or less. If you are at a marina, you can reduce the rate by using the shore facilities. If you are at anchor just sail more often to dump it out in the ocean.

[sailorboy1]

Well, my 25-gal holding tank lasts a week with the 2 of us on the boat using of current manual head. That can't be usual as there are 300 boats here getting a pump out once/week.

Guess I'll just find out.

[VanIslandGuy]

Sailorboy1,


Are you planning on switching both heads or just the forward one? I've been looking at this same upgrade on our 410 but the measurements looked really tight in the mid cabin head for the marine elegance. I was also told to look at the techma's as they seem to be held in high regard for reliability by a few of my local marine industry friends.

[a64pilot]

This thread is about that head, it sounds like .6L per mormal is three flushes, so 1.8L
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...on-148348.html

[Dooglas]

This is one place where the Vacuflush heads really shine. They use about a pint of water per flush and are about as miserly at maintaining holding tank capacity as any marine head can be.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by VanIslandGuy

Sailorboy1,


Are you planning on switching both heads or just the forward one? I've been looking at this same upgrade on our 410 but the measurements looked really tight in the mid cabin head for the marine elegance. I was also told to look at the techma's as they seem to be held in high regard for reliability by a few of my local marine industry friends.

Just the aft one. I know it fits as their is an “upgrade” on the hunter owners site that did it.

[sailorboy1]

In the end I got the freshwater only Elegance as can always just put bucket of seawater in the head if water gets short. The freshwater version was less cost and less trouble to install. I also decided not to use their fancy flush controller and instead went with their momentary controller. That allows total control of how long it flushes, empties, or fills. Surprising that was a few more dollars than the fancy controller.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I'm looking for idea on how much water an electric head uses. What I really would like idea of is how long would it take in normal use by 2 people to fill up a 25-gal holding tank.

For reference I'm most interested in the water use of a Raritan Marine Elegance, which has a reduced and normal flush mode of operation.

Well have had the Raritan Elegance fresh water flush head now for 9 months. The holding tank with 2 people using it, fills in about 8-9 days. Fresh water use hasn't changed to a measurable point (it has of course, it just hasn't changed the average days a water tank lasts by enough that I can tell).

BTW - I got the multi-function control switch for the head as it seemed more reliable etc. than the fancy programmable one. Was surprise this switch cost more than the hi tech ne.