Absolutely Stumped - Raritan Marine Elegance Head Won't Empty

[Chotu]

[Trawlerman]

My head with Raritan Elegance did this also, but it had nothing to do with the head. The problem was the plumbing. There was a flexible hose-to-rigid PVC pipe connection poorly done and toilet tissue has accumulated there. The tissue in question was the kind of tissue that is so lovely and soft and kind of disintegrates in water supposedly for this application. In fact is does disintegrate but the resultant "fuzz" loves to built up on any disruption from a smooth inside of the piping. I redesigned the coupling (no abrupt edges) and went to single sheet TP and for some years now have had no further problem. Some boats in our marina (Harbormaster) had drop toilets, and had one hell of a time getting a pumpout. As far as composting toilets, I have visited only three boats that had them, and every one of them had a distinct (and unpleasant) bouquet.

[ben2go]

Our house is old and only has one bathroom. I had to tear out the floor after the toilet leaked and ruined the subfloor. Someone caulked the toilet to the vinyl floor and didn't make sure the toilet had a good seal. Anyway, I bilt the best toilet I have ever owned out of scraps and crap laying around. Just add a little peat moss. We live in a rural area and I have a wood lot behind our house. One of those bushes has gotten unnaturally large. We only used it for a few days while I repaired the floor and installed a new "code compliant" toilet. This toilet is boat friendly too. I kept it around for future use if needed.

[Sapphir3]

Don't know if this relevant or would help, but I pass it along. I put one of the Raritan Elegance heads in my boat. The holding tank is slightly higher than the bowl. My old system had a bladder that was below the old Wilcox head so it was more of a gravity system . As such, I wondered what would prevent the contents in the discharge hose that do no spill into the holding tank from flowing back into the bowl. I called the factory in NJ and spoke with and engineer. He told me there is a check valve in line with the discharge hose that will prevent such a situation. Could be your check valve is malfunctioning and is acting as a block. Worth a look

Just a thought

Good luck

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I just went through the rewarding process of tearing down my Raritan Marine Elegance head to try to see why it wasn't emptying.

You hit the empty only, or the flush button and it fills no problem. The macerator and impeller run no problem.

But... Nothing leaves the bowl.

I took the entire thing apart and disassembled the macerator pump. I found some hair around the blade and cleaned that off thinking it may have been interfering with the flow of water over the impeller.

Everything else looked right. Impeller was in great shape, no blockage in the hose leading from the impeller housing to the joker valve in the line going to the tank.

The tank empties using the diapham pump, no issues.

Yet... The bowl will not drain!!!

I cannot understand this. What could be wrong?

Also, who is the "genius" who invented the marine head system anyway. Mentally challenged engineering for sure. A gravity drop into a tank would have been 1000x better.

Any idea?

It’s considered good manners (elegant) to leave a little on your plate.

[MichaelPrichard]

Probably not much use for you anymore, but I've got 2 of the Marine Elegance toilets and they've got to push up about 4 ft since the holding tank is on the bridge deck of our catamaran, but they don't have any trouble doing that. The only issue we had sounded exactly like yours; pump would apparently turn fine but nothing left the bowl. I was able to empty it manually with a plunger and followed with some fresh water before disassembly, and found what appeared to be a perfectly normal impeller which turned the motor fine, but upon closer examination I'd found that the plastic impeller had split from the shaft out to one edge which you could only see if you put a lot of force on it, but clearly, the shaft was just spinning inside the widened D shaped hole. A new impeller blade (now have a couple spares as well) got it working perfectly again.

Incidentally, what caused ours to break was use of those non-dissolving baby-wipes; I'd grown over confident in the toilet's ability to digest seemingly anything (reviewers dumped whole bananas etc. through it). Lesson learned.

[Chotu]

Thanks for all the responses. Great into for the next victim of the marine head. Lol

I'm out of that game now. The experimental head has worked beyond my wildest dreams. Far better than even a gravity drop because it's truly odorless. No marine had or RV head can claim that.

Ok. One odor. The head smells like peat moss Since that's what we are using.

I think the poster commenting about composting heads smelling bad had a valid point. I reasoned it wasn't a good idea to have decaying feces sitting around so instead of a composter, I simply made a dry head. Urine goes one way, poo goes the other way.

The poo is buried with a little peat moss each time. I can stick my head down past the toilet seat, into the poo chamber and take a whiff... Absolutely nothing. Peat moss smell only.

I will never use a standard type toilet again.

The real nerve wracking part was bringing the SB (sh@t bag...lol) to the trash ashore with the other trash. It was 1/4 full after a little over a week so I decided to try it out. I used tall kitchen garbage bags even though the receptacle is only 14" high. That enables me to pull the huge collar of a bag from around the outside and bring it together to form a great knot. An airtight knot. Brought the first SB ashore without incident or smell.

It's truly a miracle. No more problems with marine or RV heads. A true miracle.

[conchaway]

I use the "seau avec corde" system. It works every time.

[CruiseEasy]

The diaphragm pump itself has check valves and they may not be fully closing.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by CruiseEasy

The diaphragm pump itself has check valves and they may not be fully closing.

Just as an FYI for anyone suffering similar issues, in the case I described in this thread, the diaphragm pump was working perfectly and serves to pump the tank out overboard, which it has no problem doing.

The Raritan couldn't pump from the bowl to the tank (probably a clog or slipping impeller), nor could a normally formed human poo make it around the 90 degree elbow at the bottom of the bowl.

[Palarran]

I don't know what the difference is between a Marine Elegance and SeaEra toilet is, but we have had a few problems with the impellers over the years. There are 4 heads on Palarran and I'd say that every year one will break somehow. What I've decided to do this year is preventative maintenance on them. It's pretty easy to disassemble them and I don't mind doing it when there is no poop in the bowl. So you might as well spend 15 minutes and clean all the hair off the macerator blade and check the impeller, lubricate the shaft, and check that little rubber washer to make sure it's not leaking - IMO.

[Boater Brad]

We used to have two "simple" drop-through heads. Every time that door opened it vented stink into the cabin! When they ultimately failed (the trap doors quit working properly and wouldn't hold a seal) I did a ton of research and got two Raritan Marine Elegance heads. I think they're great and my wife was ecstatic! No problems here and it's been 4 years. As an engineer myself, I think it's well-designed--and the people at Raritan are great. Sorry for your troubles, but it happens with all boat systems--they take a beating. After getting the Raritan Elegance (after having "pit" toilets) I couldn't disagree more with your rant about marine heads. Just read everything Peggy has written and follow her advice. BTW, I have to replace flappers and valves in my household toilets on a regular basis, and snake the sewer line every other year. That doesn't make me wish for an outhouse!