Source of Raw Water for Sanitation?

[Juice SD]

Hello, this will be my first post on Cruisers Forum. I have recently installed a Thetford Nano Toilet with Premium Plus Flush Controller and have a separate water pump">raw water pump to supply it. I did a lot of research before tackling this project and am quite happy with the how it turned out. I have shared my work on another forum and received a response that I need to look into. Out of convenience I "T''ed or tapped into the same through hull pickup for my raw water wash down. The person responding said this was not legal and a sanitation system needs a dedicated raw water pick up. Any input will be appreciated, thanks.

[PiratePete56]

Welcome to the Forum Juice! I am on the other side of the planet, so no idea of the legalities for you, but I can see a very small risk. If a few things went wrong could sewage wind up in the deckwash pump input? Not like anyone is going to accidentally drink it. Pretty small risk!
If nobody comes up with a law, leave it as is! Fewer holes in the hull the better !

Good luck. Pete,

[StuM]

Originally Posted by PiratePete56

Welcome to the Forum Juice! I am on the other side of the planet, so no idea of the legalities for you, but I can see a very small risk. If a few things went wrong could sewage wind up in the deckwash pump input? Not like anyone is going to accidentally drink it. Pretty small risk!
If nobody comes up with a law, leave it as is! Fewer holes in the hull the better !

Good luck. Pete,

I guess it's not such a problem if you don't also run it to a salt water tap for initial rinsing of eating/cooking utensils.

[peghall]

Nothing illegal about the toilet sharing the inlet thru-hull with another device--in your case, a washdown pump. In fact, there are boats on which the toilet flushwater intake line is teed into the head sink drain line (which has to drain below waterline for it to work). Manifolding the equipment to share a common intake thru-hull has also been done by some production builders.

So as far as the flush water supply is concerned, you only need to make sure the toilet is getting enough at the required amount of pressure to meet Tecma specs. So if it shares the same thru-hull with the washdown pump you prob'ly don't want to use the toilet and the washdown pump at the same time.

--Peggie

[HopCar]

What Peggie said.��
I sold marine sanitation systems for about fifty years. Never heard of such a law.
Just don’t flush and wash the deck at the same time.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Juice.

[Chotu]

I think your friend is confused. They are thinking of when you hook a sanitation device up to your fresh water plumbing. Then it's important to know have one device on that leg of the plumbing.

[Captain Anthony]

Add a Lock onto the discharge "Y" connector and you will comply with the USCG requirements

[Juice SD]

Awesome! Thank you all for the input it is greatly appreciated. I didn't think it was a problem but wanted to make sure and will pass on this information.
Thanks again,
Juice

[peghall]

Hy Juice...now that you've found us--and welcome aboard btw!--I hope you'll stick around to contribute what you know and ask questions any time you have another one.


--Peggie

[gerrytv]

Mind if I continue on this thread?
I'm also new to this forum, but have been in read-only mode for a while.
I'm most of the way through adding a bridge deck to a cruising cat and I'm about to do the through hulls before putting floors in.
I was thinking dedicated inlets for engine cooling, and shared inlet for the likes of toilet, deck and anchor wash, galley rinse (from the port hull), and aft deck wash, fish cleaning station on the stbd side.
This is probably a dumb question, but is this feasible and could I simply run a pressurised system off the shared inlets, or is that not a done thing?

Regards,
Gerry

[senormechanico]

I installed the same toilet on our boat.

Not having enough room for the raw water pump, I installed a relay and diode to use the anchor washdown pump for the toilet as well.

The diode prevents the toilet solenoid from passing water when the anchor washdown breaker is turned on, and works normally when the head is flushed.

Now, both the anchor washdown and the toilet work as designed.
I saved space, cost AND weight. Win, win, win.


Edit: There are no other salt water inlets on the boat other than the above and engine raw water.

[gerrytv]

Clever.. Does that mean that your anchor gets a rinse at every flush?

[senormechanico]

Nope. If the anchor washdown breaker is on, the pump will pressurize the line, but the hose in the anchor well has a nozzle which will only spray when you squeeze the handle. It's hanging on a bracket ready for use.
I keep the breaker off unless I actually want to use.


The toilet only gets water pressure when it's flushed because there is a solenoid valve in the line. The diode prevents the solenoid from activation by the washdown breaker.

While the toilet is actually being flushed, the washdown line will see pressure.
If nobody's actually squeezing the nozzle, no water will flow there.

[gerrytv]

Ah I see.. thanks for your response. I was picturing an open fitting below the anchor roller.