Are Raritan Sea Era's really that much better (amperage and pump power) than Jabsco?
Yes! In fact the SeaEra was purposely designed to be a "plug 'n' play" drop in upgrade/replacement for the Jabsco 3700xx series...even the mounting bolt hole patterns are a match.
I see that Hopkins-carter has a Jabsco for $289 and the best
price I can find on a Sea Era is $399. Thoughts?
Go with the SeaEra "conversion"
Raritan Sea Era Conversion It includes everything but the bowl seat and lid...your existing bowl--in fact, ANY bowl that has the standard 4 bolt mounting bolt pattern--will fit it., saving you both
shipping cost and
purchase price. However, you need to be aware of a VERY importan point:
You said, "
After using it a few times I found that it was drawing A LOT of amp's, to the point of lights dimming when the button was pushed."
Leading me to strongly suspect that the toilet is NOT on a separate dedicated circuit, with its own separate breaker, as it should be....that instead, it's on the same circuit as the lights and maybe even other things that reduce available
power to the toilet. Low voltage will destroy any
electric motor and could be part of the source of your toilet problems. So...when you do install a new toilet, run a new circuit for it...a circuit shared by NOTHING else except possibly a Type I MSD (onboard waste treatment device) if/when in the future you ever want to add one). And make sure your
batteries are good...keep 'em charged. And read--really READ and absorb!--the
installation, operation and maintenance manual for it. That's here:
Raritan Sea Era Ask questions before doing anything...my least favorite posts are, "I did (blah blah blah)...is that what I should have done?"