Keeping Head Odors At Bay

[SkiprJohn]

Thanks Coot. I noticed that West Marine doesn't have SeaLand hose listed. My nearest Marine store is 100 miles away. My nearest West Marine is farther and over a rough channel.
Regards, --John--

[Rick]

As Paul pointed out earlier even the best hoses eventually pass at least a little odor albeit much less than cheap hose. I have both types of hoses in two heads and do prefer the more expensive hose.

To deal with what odor "happens" I thouroughly clean the entire head area including the entire surface areas of the intake and exhaust hoses as well as the surfaces in the hose and head space with a cleaner such as "Magic Bubbles" or even just Clorox wipes.

Then I spray the hoses with Febrez fabric freshener (the light blue bottle). There is a Febreze "extra strength" for heavyweight fabrics in a white bottle but I don't like the perfume from that formulation (I don't like perfumes at all, especialy those obnoxious things people use in some attempt to keep bathrooms or cars smelling from smoking or pet odors) and I cannot tell any difference in efficacy between the two anyway.

I formerly hung a Bounce dryer sheet in the hose space (which works also) but I don't like the perfume from that and the Febreze works better.

By keeping the head and hose spaces clean and sprayed with Fabreze along with periodically flushing out the bilge area with fresh water women can open enter the boat after it has been closed up all day and not smell anything offensive and they feel much more "welcome" down below. Naturally I have become finatic about having no diesel, head, or other leaks down below to add to the problem.

[GordMay]

Lots of excellent advice, to which I’d add (the simplest & cheapest):

Flush LOTS, and Flush OFTEN, to keep the hoses and holding tank as clean as practicable.

Always flush with copious amounts a clean water, ensuring that the hoses are left clean.

When practical (dockside), flush only with Fresh water (stagnant seawater stinks).

When offshore (flushing overboard), never let the hoses stand un-flushed - flush daily, even if you’ve not used the head (stagnant seawater stinks).

Empty your holding tank (and flush several times) at every opportunity. Dockside, we never let the tank get more than ½ full.

[Sandero]

Shiva is basically free of head odors. I attribute this to the fact that the entire head is the shower. So when we shower we essentially wash down the entire head. The only odors come from the contents of the bowl! I do change the hoses every few years and do scrub the hoses, seacocks and so forth with soft scrub regularly. 21 yrs... so far so good.

Jef
sv Shiva
Contest 36s

[Pblais]

When we removed our old hoses we found deposits inside the hose. Just swell stuff indeed. This lends more evidence that flushing a lot and often is a good thing. Once you start to get build up inside the hose more build up happens and of course it gets worse. Nasty chemicals might loosen any build up but perhaps at the expense of the hose. It would appear that there isn't a free lunch as far as flushung agents and chemicals. A good fresh water flush can't be a bad idea and extra when you pump out isn't bad either. Consider not using sea water. You still need to pump out the tank so it's not a lot of fresh water. My sea water line was actually the worst hose of them all.

[Wahoo Sails]

When I worked for the Marine Trading Post we had a customer spec out Unaflex 101 hose for the head. I contacted Unaflex and was told that they could provide it but that it would take a while. It seem's that they simply changed the labeling on their #100 (marine wet exhaust) to read "101 marine sanitation" ... and of course charged 50% more!

Bob & Lynn