need suggestions for marine head
The refit is in full swing on the Wild Duck, and I need advice on lots of
new items to be purchased. I don't mind spending the money for good stuff
but I don't know exactly what is good and what is just overpriced. I like
the writeup on the Raritan Atlantes head, a thousand bucks ain't bad if you
say it fast, and, if I don't have to work on it for a long time it would be
worth it. The number one priority would be that my wife never even
recognizes it's exsistance, like an ugly secretary that gets the job done
everytime, only apreciated by the boss that has had the other styles..... It
must be electric and porcelain, able to digest the occasional small object
without self destructing, and saltwater flushed. Any ideas ?
Don't have one of these myselfbut an acquaintance loes his. Even more
importantly, so does his admiral.
I am in the process of building a boat from scratch. Everyone I speak to
says given the choice, they would go with a freshwater supplied Vacuflush
head - uses less water and because it is not saltwater fed, the smell is
much better. I would appreciate if you would keep me posted on what you are
hearing.
Steve Littman
M/V Sea Dog
35' Downeast Cruiser
Northport, NY
-----Original Message-----
From: trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of bob
england
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:38 PM
To: trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com
Subject: T&T: need suggestions for marine head
The refit is in full swing on the Wild Duck, and I need advice on lots of
new items to be purchased. I don't mind spending the money for good stuff
but I don't know exactly what is good and what is just overpriced. I like
the writeup on the Raritan Atlantes head, a thousand bucks ain't bad if you
say it fast, and, if I don't have to work on it for a long time it would be
worth it. The number one priority would be that my wife never even
recognizes it's exsistance, like an ugly secretary that gets the job done
everytime, only apreciated by the boss that has had the other styles..... It
must be electric and porcelain, able to digest the occasional small object
without self destructing, and saltwater flushed. Any ideas ?
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I'll second the positive feelings for the Tecma head. I replaced Galley
Maids1st with a Raritan Atlantis (wasn't happy) and then with the
Tecma. Now have 3 Tecmas on board and they all are great. The flush cycle
takes getting used to though, it goes through a little routine...fill a
little, main flush, small flush, fill. The entire process takes a minute
or so.
Mike
At 05:37 PM 12/22/2004, bob england wrote:
The refit is in full swing on the Wild Duck, and I need advice on lots of
new items to be purchased. I don't mind spending the money for good stuff
but I don't know exactly what is good and what is just overpriced. I like
the writeup on the Raritan Atlantes head, a thousand bucks ain't bad if
you say it fast, and, if I don't have to work on it for a long time it
would be worth it. The number one priority would be that my wife never
even recognizes it's exsistance, like an ugly secretary that gets the job
done everytime, only apreciated by the boss that has had the other
styles..... It must be electric and porcelain, able to digest the
occasional small object without self destructing, and saltwater flushed.
Any ideas ?
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To Unsubscribe send email to trawlers-and-trawlering-request@lists.samurai.com
Include the word Unsubscribe (and nothing else) in the subject or body of
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Mike Cowan
MV Sue's Pool III
65 Hatteras LRC hull #2
Off-List email: mikec@wirelessconnections.net
At 05:47 PM 12/22/2004 -0500, Steve Littman wrote:
I am in the process of building a boat from scratch. Everyone I speak to
says given the choice, they would go with a freshwater supplied Vacuflush
head - uses less water and because it is not saltwater fed, the smell is
much better.
Our boat came with VacuFlush heads. I have no idea how old they are, but
they've seen a lot of service. We know they are over 10 years old. We would
guess, based upon the history of the boat, that they are probably in excess
of 15 years old.
During the refit I disassembled both vacuum pumps and cleaned them
thoroughly, put in new seals, and put them back in service. When we bought
the boat, one of the membrane/switches in the vacuum canister was bad and
was replaced. I also replaced the aft toilet with a full sized porcelain one.
That was two years ago. Since then we've been full time liveaboads. The
only repairs we've had to do was the replacement of the duckbill valves in
the overboard discharge pump, and the replacement of the other vacuum
membrane/switch unit. The duckbill valves were because of operator error,
if you try to run the pump against a closed seacock it inverts the duckbill
valves and chews them up.
We love the system. It uses fresh water for flushing, but only a little.
This means you don't have the stink from dying organisms in the salt water.
It's also one less below the water thru-hull, or actually two as we have
two heads. We also go quite a while between pump-outs. With two of us using
the head full time our 45 gallon holding tank is just over 1/2 full after
two weeks.
The down side of VacuFlush is that they are mighty proud of their parts.
Replacement parts aren't cheap.
Jim McCorison
Starfish Marine
(619) 337-5370
http://www.starfishmarine.com
Hi Bob,
I've had about every head that Raritan makes, manual, electric, and Atlantes
as well as several others. In MHO, the only way to go is VacuFlush. I just
took out a Jabsco electric and a Raritan manual and installed 2 Vacuflush
units in "Friendship" about a year ago and am pleased as punch. They meet
all your criteria, except they use fresh water, and I love that about them.
Of course I carry 300 gallons of fresh water. If I were going to cruise a
LOT where water was hard to come by, I could rig a way to feed salt water
from my washdown pump to the heads, I suppose. They sure don't use much
water to flush and don't stink near as much as the ones in the past I've had
with salt water feed.
Brent Hodges
I have and am satisfied with the Atlantes. It is a full-size (height) toilet
and works well. Defender sells it cheaper, BUT, I advise checking the
product code with Raritan to get what you want. Screw up a letter or number
and you will get the wrong toilet. Ask Raritan (Vince is very nice) what it
means to order the Atlantes with all plumbing inside versus some external to
the toilet. If you intend to install a Lectrasan, scope that out as well.
Defender has good advice, but Vince in Raritan Tech Support is the best.
There are, of course, installation consideration as well. You can go to
Raritan's website and download the manuals to better formulate any questions
you might have.
Ron Rogers
Willard 40 AIRBORNE
Lying Annapolis
Jim,
I agree that the Vacuflush system is very robust and has few moving parts to
fail. I have two heads and 2 vacuum sources on my boat.
Sealand makes 2 series of pumps, the S which is the vacuum pump and very
expensive and the T which is a macerator and relatively cheap. The only
difference other than the color is that the S has 4 duckbill valves instead
of 2 and a left hand thread so that you cant interchange the pump bodies. If
you but a series T pump and a pair of duckbill valves, you will have a
complete replacement except for the housing.. The T pump is $189 at:
http://www.c-mesales.com/index.html?target=p_444.html&lang=en-us and the
duckbills are $22 for a pair from Sealand:
http://sealandsanitation.com/vacuflush_parts.htm
Compare that against purchasing one of Sealand's repair kits.
Regards.
Larry
<snip>The down side of VacuFlush is that they are mighty proud of their parts.
Replacement parts aren't cheap.
Jim McCorison
Starfish Marine
(619) 337-5370
http://www.starfishmarine.com
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At 08:31 AM 12/23/2004 -0600, Larry N. Brown wrote:
If you but a series T pump and a pair of duckbill valves, you will have a
complete replacement except for the housing..
This is exactly what we did. But we also stocked other parts for the
toilets like gaskets, a bowl rebuild kit, and a water valve assembly. As
has oft been pointed out, getting spares into Mexico is the worst thing in
the world. We decided to take the most-likely-to-be-need parts with us.
Jim McCorison
Starfish Marine
(619) 337-5370
http://www.starfishmarine.com
I bought a cheap (new) JABSCO head for the forward head for $95 over 5 years
ago thinking it would likely last a year and its still going strong. I
bought an electric $375 macerating JABSCO for the aft cabin since it's a 20'
run. It is also going strong, but don't let any bowl cleaners like Sno-bowl
sit or it will swell the impeller until it won't turn!
All we do is put a cup or two of vinegar down both heads every Sunday...
Regards....
Phil Rosch
Old Harbor Consulting
M/V Curmudgeon MT-44TC
Currently moored in Hopetown, Abacos, Bahamas