Raritan Marine Elegance Head Installation

[peghall]

I don't think you can DIY the flush controls. Here are links to the Elegance Owners manual (parts list and explode drawing on page 10 & 11) Raritan Marine Elegance Owners Manual and the manual for the Smart Flush Controls Raritan Smart Flush manual.pdf Between 'em there should be enough info to tell you whether DIY is a good idea or not.

Fwiw, I know of two retailers who have the Elegance for <$700 INCLUDING the Smart Flush panel. Boatersland Boatersland Marine Elegance (note that all the boxes are menus) and Hopkins Carter Marine Hopkins Carter Marine Raritan Marine Elegance I'm partial to them 'cuz the recently retired owner is a regular cruisers forum poster--and one of the most helpful...his username is HopCar. In fact, has posted to this thread.

--Peggie

[a64pilot]

You could as has been stated put two switches in, one flush, one add water, or one to do both.
However the smart flush control also has that, the two bottom buttons are manual flush and manual add water, so other than saving a few $ you haven’t done anything.
Plus the smart flush is programmable, how much water, flush delay etc. DIY isn’t, and depending on line length etc, being able to program how much water etc is worth having.
It has a water saver that flushes once, and the regular mode flushes three times, not twice.
Gut feeling is that the three flush is worth it, to clean out the lines and hopefully make them last a lot longer before they permeate and begin to stink.

[RSH]

I'm having two Marine Elegance toilets installed on my catamaran this week, and my brother (who knows more about boats than I do-I would say I'm a 3 on a scale of 1-10 lol), says that if I have the freshwater draw from my holding tank I'm going to contaminate it and make everyone sick.

I'm assuming (perhaps wrongly?) that if I'm paying $900-ish dollars for a freshwater flush toilet, that they've figured that issue out and I'm not going to be blowing poop back into my one and only freshwater tank every time I flush, or letting bacteria crawl back up the lines and into the tank?

[peghall]

Your brother is wrong. It's SEA water toilets that should never be connected to the boat's fresh water plumbing. Toilets that are designed by the mfr to to use onboard pressurized fresh have the necessary built-in protections to make it safe to connect 'em to the boat's fresh water plumbing. Your Marine Elegance toilets are designed to use pressurized fresh water. I hope you ordered them with the optional "Smart Flush" panel (if not, it's not too late to get it) 'cuz the 4 flush options will help to conserve your fresh water.

--Peggie


p.s You might consider giving your brother a copy of my book (see link in my signature) for Christmas. The title (my publisher's idea) is a bit misleading...'cuz although it does deal with every source of odor on a boat and how to cure, or better yet PREVENT 'em, it's actually a comprehensive "marine toilets and sanitation systems 101" manual that explains the laws, describes all the types of systems and how they work and how to maintain them to prevent problems instead of having to cure 'em.

[RSH]

Originally Posted by peghall

Your brother is wrong. It's SEA water toilets that should never be connected to the boat's fresh water plumbing. Toilets that are designed by the mfr to to use onboard pressurized fresh have the necessary built-in protections to make it safe to connect 'em to the boat's fresh water plumbing. Your Marine Elegance toilets are designed to use pressurized fresh water. I hope you ordered them with the optional "Smart Flush" panel (if not, it's not too late to get it) 'cuz the 4 flush options will help to conserve your fresh water.

--Peggie


p.s You might consider giving your brother a copy of my book (see link in my signature) for Christmas. The title (my publisher's idea) is a bit misleading...'cuz although it does deal with every source of odor on a boat and how to cure, or better yet PREVENT 'em, it's actually a comprehensive "marine toilets and sanitation systems 101" manual that explains the laws, describes all the types of systems and how they work and how to maintain them to prevent problems instead of having to cure 'em.

Thanks Peggie! I didn't order the flush panel-trying to keep it as simple as possible for when we have guests and our (adult) children on board, so it's just the one button version. We do have a watermaker, and we're on the dock most of the time at this point in our life (still learning how to sail) so it'll probably be fine.

My brother does use way too much bleach on board because he's worried about germs, and only drinks bottled water. I've been trying to get him to not use so much plastic and bleach, but he's very leery of his water tanks.

I will say my boat is pretty stink-free because the previous owners were very tidy and experienced (vinegar bottles everywhere lol), and always ran a dehumidifier. I'm obsessive about no mold, so I've continued their behaviors. I have your book on my kindle-just haven't had a chance to read it yet