380: It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

[botanybay]

A great piece of gear for this is a PVC pipe cutter from the home improvement store. Cuts through 1.5 inch tubing in a single stroke. Worth its weight in gold!

[leftbrainstuff]

I fitted camlocks and ball valves to all our heads and related plumbing.

Makes for easy cleaning, removal and servicing somewhere more convenient than in a cramped head.

Replace all hoses qnd clamps. Use decent truple layer EPDM sanitary hose, not that cheap pvc hose that leeches odor.

Otherwise it's just sh#t and p#ss hydraulic engineering.

[botanybay]

Originally Posted by ja62

Use a wet/dry vacuum to remove/control/ contain blackwater spills and drips.
Home Depot sells a handy item called a "Bucket Head" --- wet/dry vacuum unit that fits on a 5 gallon plastic bucket. About $25....lots of uses, easy to stow aboard, every boat should have one.........

The bucket head is great, but you need a sturdy bucket. The cheap HD or lowes versions collapse under vacuum

[ja62]

Careful use of heat gun and dish soap makes hose install a breeze.

1. Practice with heat gun on a scrap piece of hose first!!!!! Keep heat gun moving at all times- don't focus heat in one spot.

2. Heat interior of hose before heating exterior.
3. Lubricate inside of hose end with liquid dish soap prior to heating/installation.
4. Good luck...

[Jillmstar]

Wooden bungs are awesome! When you remove your hose, plug it with a bung in a sandwich bag. I am curious on how you ran you fresh water system. Please share.

[peghall]

He's placing a sea water toilet with a toilet designed to use onboard pressurized fresh water...in which case, it's easy: tee into the cold water line that feeds the head sink.

If you're asking about connecting a sea water toilet to the fresh water system, that's a no-no...and every toilet mfr warns against it in their installation instructions.

--Peggie

[Jillmstar]

Thanks Peggie, I was curious if he just cut into a fresh water line or had a designated fresh water holding tank for his heads and how he ran it throughout the 380. I would love to change my two heads to fresh water. Haven't decided if I wanna splice or designate a tank for that purpose.

[peghall]

There'd be no need for a designated flush water tank if you replace your sea water toilets with ones designed to use pressurized fresh water, 'cuz they have the necessary siphon breaks and backflow preventers built in to protect the potable water supply, making it totally safe to connect 'em to the fresh water plumbing. Converting sea water toilets to use fresh water is another matter. A separate flush water tank is one way, but it would have to be totally separate from the fresh water system...no common plumbing, not even the fill. A much easier way that would let you have it both ways: reroute the toilet intake line to tee into into the head sink drain line. The tee should be installed below the waterline, as close to the seacock as possible. This allows you to flush normally using sea water. To rinse the sea water out of the entire system, or to flush using fresh water, close the seacock, fill the sink with clean fresh water, flush the toilet. Because the thru-hull is closed, the toilet will pull the water out of the sink...rinsing the sea water out of the intake line, pump, channel in the rim of the bowl and the toilet discharge line.



--Peggie

[Jillmstar]

We are in the process of buying this boat, so i have not looked at the system. What do you know about the Jabsco toilets?

[slug]

Originally Posted by RSH

I am going to replace the two toilets on board our 2009 Lagoon 380 with some electric freshwater flush toilets, and I am looking for advice on how to best remove the existing Jabsco manual toilets.

My thought is that I'm good at demo on land, and if I can save some money doing the dirty work of pulling out the old toilets and hoses, then I can put that savings towards a really good set of toilets going in.

I've pulled out and replaced several land-based toilets in our houses, and while I know it's not the same, I do have some familiarity with the grossness and potential danger from swamp gasses.

Any hints and tips are greatly appreciated, along with what toilet would you put in if you could put any electric flush freshwater toilet in your 380?

Fresh water toilets are standard household toilets for poor drainage area ... flush up

You didn’t state your location

In Europe Altena is widely used on yachts

These toilets have an inspection port at the head of the macerater pump , if a short tail bilge rat jambs up the pump you simply un screw the inspection Port then yank the short tail bilge rat out with a coat hanger

http://www.altenawaterflash.nl/index_en.html

In North America you should give the guys at turd master a call... this guy know all about turd handling

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Jillmstar

We are in the process of buying this boat, so i have not looked at the system. What do you know about the Jabsco toilets?

Manual ones? cheap and cheerful, spares everywhere. With saltwater, the pump lasts about 10 years then we unbolt the whole pump and replace with new as the cost of spares to rebuild is about the same as a new pump.

We are fairly disciplined about flushing lots of saltwater through it after every use which really helps reduce the build up inside the pipe. Don't have room for a dedicated freshwater tank, but I don't think we would gain much even if we did convert.

Pete

[RSH]

Originally Posted by Jillmstar

Wooden bungs are awesome! When you remove your hose, plug it with a bung in a sandwich bag. I am curious on how you ran you fresh water system. Please share.

I chickened out on installing them myself and had some smart guys from the Charleston Sailing School do it for me. Super happy with the results, and they have (knock wood) been working like a champ ever since.

Originally Posted by peghall

He's placing a sea water toilet with a toilet designed to use onboard pressurized fresh water...in which case, it's easy: tee into the cold water line that feeds the head sink.

If you're asking about connecting a sea water toilet to the fresh water system, that's a no-no...and every toilet mfr warns against it in their installation instructions.

--Peggie

I am a she, lol and I believe that's how the installers did it, if I remember their "this is your new system, here's how it works" walk through once it was done.

Originally Posted by Jillmstar

Thanks Peggie, I was curious if he just cut into a fresh water line or had a designated fresh water holding tank for his heads and how he ran it throughout the 380. I would love to change my two heads to fresh water. Haven't decided if I wanna splice or designate a tank for that purpose.

We have one large freshwater tank that has a watermaker on it (that is currently pickled because we're at a marina), and I didn't want to make a system more complex than it needed to be, so one tank, two freshwater toilets. We have to refill the tank every 3 or 4 days with just the two of us using water liberally.

Originally Posted by slug

You didn’t state your location

We were in Charleston, SC, now we're in Tampa.

Interestingly, I do still notice some "boaty" smell now that we have aircon that uses seawater cooling, and our older refrigerator uses a raw seawater pump as well. Maybe someday I will convert those to using freshwater as well...

[peghall]

Fresh water toilets are standard household toilets for poor drainage area ... flush up


Not true. There are half a dozen macerating electric marine toilets designed to use pressurized fresh water...Jabsco's Quiet Flush series includes both raw and fresh water toilets..Raritan offers 3: Their Marine Elegance, Atlantes Freedom and SeaEraQC and also the only MANUAL marine toilet designed to use pressurized fresh water: the Fresh Head. And then there's the Thetford Tecma. None of these are household toilets.


--Peggie