My 290. Not a rebuild...more like I'm just tightening it up

[SaltH2OHokie]

Howdy,

The "how to attach pictures" has me slightly confused, but I've got a few pictures and I'm going to give it a shot in a minute.

In any case, the current state of my boat is starboard motor is new (4hrs), port motor has thrown a rod.  A replacement port engine was ordered tonight.  It floats.

I cleaned it up and now plan to 'tighten up' the head and associated fixtures, the fresh water system, the stereo and hopefully get the nagging things cleaned up like: sagging headliner, anchor pulpit that holds water, new name on transom, etc.

First question I have: can someone recommend a toilet/system that is simple and effective?

Currently installed is a head with a manual/12v pump that goes painfully slow.  It does not appear to be plumbed with fresh water.  It runs to a "y" valve that either goes through a 'lectra san' then overboard or into the holding tank.

I'd like to go to a y valve that either goes overboard or into the tank, and I'd like a macerator to pump out the tank offshore.  I don't intend on keeping this in a marina or even using the head short of offshore (40+ mile) trips, so I really just the best replacement for pooping in a bucket and heaving it overboard...nothing more.

Thoughts?

[Capt. Bob]

Howdy,
First question I have: can someone recommend a toilet/system that is simple and effective?
Thoughts?

This is how you do it Slick.
https://classicaquasport.com/smf/index.php?topic=9015.0

First one's always free. 

[seabob4]

Dealt with plenty of marine sanitary systems.  The best, simplest head?  A manual pump Jabsco.  No motor to crap out (HEE HEE!), all seals and parts replacable for minimal $, and you can feed it from a fresh water tank, but you definitely have to have a vented loop and a check valve in the feed.  If you don't mind raw water feed, just use your existing pickup.

The Lectra-san?  Get rid of it.  Complicated chemical/electrical means of dealing with poop.  All you need after the holding tank is a y-valve, one direction going to the dock-side pump-out fitting, the other to the macerator for overboard, when 12 miles out or so, depending on area...

But the manual flush heads work great...

[SaltH2OHokie]

Picture?

As for the head: Capt Bob...I see his works...but mine doesn't (at least not very well)  

The charter boat we fish on (54' custom carolina) has a head that sucks about as hard as the head on a 737.  What's that? I like it.

[seabob4]

Probably a Vacu-Flush...

[Group W Bench]

Don't waste your time and money on a Jabsco pump based system. They are not very robust and the joker valves get stuck regularly. Additionally, they are difficult to rebuild, particularly while throwing up all over yourself in 8 foot seas in the head of a sailboat in the middle of the Florida Straits. A violent fart with some discharge (commonly referred to as a shart) can clog one of these chitters.

The Blake Lavac head, on the other hand, is a great dump sump. I'm not saying you can pump an old Converse Allstar and a yesterday's Wall Street Journal down it, but it has handled some pretty serious deuces that I have thrown at/in it like a champ. The best part is that it is very easy to rebuild and has very few parts in the Henderson diaphragm pump. The top half of the pump comes off with a few screws, and is dead simple to rebuild.

Peggy Hall has a good book on marine sanitation and controlling permeation/odors. I can't remember the name, but it was a good resource for figuring out the source of our hog pond smell.

[SaltH2OHokie]

Never having owned a boat with a head, could someone run down what I should be looking for on the current one?  It has a dry/(*something...flush, rinse...something implying water) valve/knob.  It has a spot that would clearly take a handle to manually work it as well as a button that when held results in a slow, rhythmic pumping that has a very slow lowering of the water in the bowl as a result.  The toilet has no source of fresh water short of some miraculously hidden plumbing.

I'm hesitant to put anything other than creek water in it to test it because it goes down so slow, but is that normal?

The marina where the boat was stored when I bought it said they had trouble pumping out the holding tank, so I'm assuming that it has someone else's poop in it, which doesn't make me very excited.  It has no provision for pumping out while at sea (that I could find).  The lectra san seems to have some sort of timer associated with it next to the button that makes the toilet pump.  

I would almost prefer to just start completely fresh rather than fight with old, poopy stuff (minus the holding tank...probably keep that).  That sound like a terrible idea?

[seabob4]

Eugene, c'mon, bud, the sole distributor in the USA is in Green Cove Springs?  When you need seals and parts, you need them where you are located.  Imagine if you have one of their heads...in Seattle!

One thing that has to be considered is immediate availability of parts and re-build kits.  While no doubt the Blake system is excellent, and has a great following across the pond (English manufacturer), the parts availability in the states I would say is somewhat suspect...

[gran398]

Good points. Single tennis shoe was an applicable analogy on rare occasion.

Best discussion yet regarding an odoriferous topic.

[Group W Bench]

Start in the wet flush position until the bowl is empty and switch to the dry pump position to clear the lines. With the vacuflush, hold the pedal up with your foot until the bowl is full and step on the pedal to flush. It should come back up automatically if operating properly.

Never having owned a boat with a head, could someone run down what I should be looking for on the current one?  It has a dry/(*something...flush, rinse...something implying water) valve/knob.  It has a spot that would clearly take a handle to manually work it as well as a button that when held results in a slow, rhythmic pumping that has a very slow lowering of the water in the bowl as a result.  The toilet has no source of fresh water short of some miraculously hidden plumbing.

I'm hesitant to put anything other than creek water in it to test it because it goes down so slow, but is that normal?

The marina where the boat was stored when I bought it said they had trouble pumping out the holding tank, so I'm assuming that it has someone else's poop in it, which doesn't make me very excited.  It has no provision for pumping out while at sea (that I could find).  The lectra san seems to have some sort of timer associated with it next to the button that makes the toilet pump.  

I would almost prefer to just start completely fresh rather than fight with old, poopy stuff (minus the holding tank...probably keep that).  That sound like a terrible idea?

[seabob4]

Then comes the fun part with a Vacu-flush...

You get an air leak in the system...not a poo-poo leak, but an air leak.  Vacuum pump can't hold vacuum, keeps cycling on and off.  Big time PITA to isolate.  God, sometimes I just want to chuck the whole system overboard!!!

The old KISS principle...  

[Group W Bench]

I wasn't aware that there was only one distributor for parts in the US. I had a rebuild kit on our Pearson sailboat, but never needed it. That Baby Blake was a great little poop chute. The only problem in 4 years came from the hard deposits that would build up from the salt water. The one time I disassembled the thing, I simply rubbed off the hard deposits that were preventing a good seal on the discharge valve. A little Vaseline on the rubber valve and it worked like new. Carrying a rebuild kit onboard is a given on any boat with a head. Carrying a rebuild kit and 2 joker valve springs is a prerequisite for any Jabsco head with lots of females aboard.

Eugene, c'mon, bud, the sole distributor in the USA is in Green Cove Springs?  When you need seals and parts, you need them where you are located.  Imagine if you have one of their heads...in Seattle!

One thing that has to be considered is immediate availability of parts and re-build kits.  While no doubt the Blake system is excellent, and has a great following across the pond (English manufacturer), the parts availability in the states I would say is somewhat suspect...

[seabob4]

http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/d ... rs.htm#USA

[Group W Bench]

Bob,

The more I think about it, any diaphragm pump would work if parts ever became and issue from Blake. Whale makes the same manual diaphragm pump that you could get at any Worst Marine. Even the Whale manual bilge pumps would probably work just fine. The pump is not specific to Blake, as they use a Henderson pump.

[seabob4]

Bob,

The more I think about it, any diaphragm pump would work if parts ever became and issue from Blake. Whale makes the same manual diaphragm pump that you could get at any Worst Marine. Even the Whale manual bilge pumps would probably work just fine. The pump is not specific to Blake, as they use a Henderson pump.

But Eugene, do you think the average boat owner would think like you and I do?  Whale makes excellent chit, could never get their stuff into Proline due to my a$$hole boss, but none the less...

Not what the average boatowner wants to think about.  They just want their chit to work...