Manual Head vs electric

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by DDabs

Name a better manual head for the price?

Lavac.

[roland stockham]

Simplest head I know of (other than a bucket) is the Lavic vacuum one, other than the seat seal it has no parts to go wrong. It can be fed either by fresh water or seawater or would be easy to arrange to be switchable between the two so you can conserve water when needed. The waste is moved by a simple pump which which creates the vacuum to both clear the waste and pull in the flush water. The pump can either be electric or manual or both again give best of both worlds.

[AndyEss]

Despite the claims of an earlier post, never put a wipe through an electric toilet. They don’t shred in the macerator blades and have to be manually removed.
Ordinary TP goes through just fine, with a little care not to overload.
The macerator pump pulls a bit of power, so make sure the wiring is generous.

[rfinklegal]

Our Catalina 375 came with a Raritan raw water flush electric head with macerator. Pushing the button is nice and easy, but we find the sea water flush fills up the 30 gallon holding tank too quickly (like in about 2 nights). To avoid the scale buildup we started using fresh water from the hand held shower hose to flush when water is plentiful and free. We find that does not fill the holding tank nearly as quickly. We do not find the power use to be significant. I like the fresh water flush best if you have access to fresh water.

[David B]

Originally Posted by jamrocksailing

Hi,

We currently have a manual pump head and looking to change it to an electric. For us its fine as a family, its really if we have friends on the yacht, just easier for them.

Be good to hear some pros and cons for both before we make the final decision.

Look forward to the responses.

We have two Jabsco 'Quietflush' toilets on board. From our experience with these, I would never contemplate a manual one. They are reasonably cheap, and very simple. Will chew through whatever amount of TP you want to thrown down there, and do not block. Maintenance over 9 seasons is a new shaft seal each (a ten minute job). There are much better/nicer/quieter electric heads out there, but these (2011 vintage) are OK.

[Hoodsail]

have butt one head and its manual...i am not a liveaboard so demands are significantly less than for others. Part of the orientation for trips with new crew is "how to use the head" during which i emphasize if clogged please let me know, dont just leave it...still a few situations butt so far no ca-ca on the sole...(okay one last one), butt very close.

[sirlandsalot]

I installed an electric in our aft head as my young kids struggled with the manual up front. We are a live aboard full time family, What I have learned, it uses more power than one would think, and it fill the black tank up a lot quicker as it uses more water. If I had one head, I would definitely stick to manual.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by Captain Anthony

I'm about to dump ( no pun intended) my manual sea water Jabsco for a Raritan Elegance electric fresh water model. The issue here is trying to get a qualified technician to preform the necessary needed work.

Personally I wouldn’t add anything to my boat that required a qualified technician to do the work. He’s not going to be there when it needs to be fixed and if installing is beyond my skills, probably so is fixing.

[IslandInfedel]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I replaced my basic manual Jabsco head 7 months ago with a fresh water Raritan elegance head (about $950). So far it has been great and maintenance free. My manual head was costing $200/year to maintain, which was as much as new one.

Pluses
-nicer more comfortable
-fresh water = less odor and scale
-can use regular TP, even the nice stuff and it just chews it up and flushes it away, even the flushable wipes
-easy to use

Minuses
-more $$ up front
-uses fresh water (I would say about 15 gal/wk for the 2 of us)
-uses power (if that is a problem you have other issues, but that is how I knew my batteries were dying)

7 months in and we feel it was a good upgrade

$200 a year on the manual head?

How?

[teneicm]

We've had the jabsco quiet flush for the past 8 years and they've been pretty good. Only real issue was during an extended haulout the macerator seal dried out and started to leak once back in the water. A new cheap o-ring solved the issue. Frankly wished everyone had a macerator. Nothing worse than being in an anchorage and having a whole turd float by to make you not want to get into the water.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by jamrocksailing

Hi,

We currently have a manual pump head and looking to change it to an electric. For us its fine as a family, its really if we have friends on the yacht, just easier for them.

Be good to hear some pros and cons for both before we make the final decision.

Look forward to the responses.

I went electric about a year ago and so far I've found it nicer to work with than the old manual Jabsco.

There's a bit of simplicity gained because it macerates straight into the holding tank. This means the deck pumpout is very reliable and I can use a manual pump for the overboard pump-out and remain compliant with various regulations around Australia.

I bought the timer switch with it and regret it. The pre-set time intervals are way too long (we NEVER use the full flush, the half flush is already too long) so the holding tank fills faster than it would if we had proper control over the flush time. I will remove that switch when I get a moment and go back to the manual switch, much better.

Note: The sort of guests I have on board mostly boaties themselves are fully versed in what may and may not be flushed, so that part at least is not a concern for me.

[hukilaumike]

I have a Jabsco on my Catalina 28. Simple to use; has never been clogged. But: I don't think a single guest has ever been able to properly follow the simple directions on how to flush.

We recently chartered a Leopard 50 in the BVIs with electric heads. OMG. After using it for the first time, my wife came out of the head, and gave me a significant look. "How much would it be to put one of these things on your boat?"

[tiMoun]

Pro's
The retro fit kit that replaces the base (not the side pump-incredibly noisy) works great and the guests usually can figure it out.
Pretty easy install, good opportunity to make it fresh water (eliminate odors)
Con
Puts lots of water in the holding tank, much more then hand pump.
Make sure, if you are sharing a thru hull intake you don't (share) or have a check valve on the line (or you will suck air)

[rick bertram]

We switched over years ago. Electric heads are fantastic. As with all heads, our only problem has been a joker valve replacement here and there.

[merrydolphin]

OK, I still say that for most cruising yachts, especially cruising out of US waters where holding tanks are an afterthought. I vote for the LaVac head. I ran my boat as a crewed charter boat in Caribbean season. And the head was heavily used and abused by charter guests. My first boat, zero maintenance for the remaining 8 yrs that I had that boat. Next boat, first thing I did was put in a LaVac. Same thing. Never touched it for 7 years till I sold the boat. I would have guests put full sized sheets of Bounty paper towels in it. (Dispute what you tell them). No problems. Extremely simple and extremely reliable. It’s entire operating system is a fairly large Henderson diaphragm bilge pump that would pass nearly anything. And if something like a tampon did get stuck, it was a 30 second job to unscrew the quick remove cover of the pump and pull it out.