Manual vs electric head?

[MicHughV]

I'm surprised no-one here has mentioned the venerable " bucket and chuckit" head

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I'm surprised no-one here has mentioned the venerable " bucket and chuckit" head

You just did!

[patmvcr]

Another vote here for electric heads. The 2 Tecma COMPASS Short ECO's we replaced our manual Jabsco heads with have the exact same footprint and are great. Much cleaner (none of those hoses sticking out that hinder keeping the head tidy) and because they use fresh water, the holding tanks don't stink. I discovered years ago that it wasn't what WE put into the holding tank that ends up smelling.. it's the seawater and its microbe load that made the smell. For the past 5 years we were using the shower wand to rinse the bowl anyway. Seawater pickup was kept closed.

BTW, we ALWAYS pump out here as we stay inshore near vancouver. I can appreciate that those who go on long passages might be troubled by the use of fresh water... but then use the seawater install option and dump it straight out into the open seas!

[pendragon]

Suggest you use the electric variety. I've had the same unit for the last 25 years
The only problem is that the small (discharge) flap valve sometimes starts to leak (somehing stuck in it) causing back siphoning. To prevent this I have a manual stainless 1" ball valve in the discharge line.

[Greg Mason]

We had a Raritan manual on our Cheoy Lee and now have an electric Raritan PHII. Recently had the pump motor rebuilt and the tech guy said what a motor! I am good.

[MichaelPrichard]

One other advantage (that hasn't been mentioned yet) of any macerating (thus electric) toilet is that some (at least my 3 Raritan Marine Elegance) have outputs that work with both 1.5" and 1.0" hose. 1.0" hose holds less than half the volume of 1.5" hose and thus less than half the water is required to clear the hose, plus, less hose surface area to stink. My 35gal tank is about 4-5 ft above the toilet and miles away requiring around 15-18ft of PVC pipe and hose, but given it's just 1", there's a lot less sitting in the pipes. Even with this constant pressure on the joker valves, I didn't get any significant flow-back until around 3-3.5 years of use. I'm hoping to move to a much larger holding tank located at or below toilet height, but until then, this setup works remarkably well despite the poor layout.

The one failure I've had on the Elegance was the plastic impeller cracking on the metal shaft when I tried flushing one (or perhaps two or three...) of those non-shredding baby-wipes. Even then, I was able to keep spinning the macerator impeller and dragged the impeller enough to empty the bowl so that cleanup was mostly fresh water. It's very easy to work on once you've pulled it off it's mount.

[Factotum]

I just finished converting my manual head to electric, using a macerator and raw water pump. I would never go back to a manual pump. After purchasing our boat last fall, we noticed a nasty funky smell in the boat. I quickly found it to be the 1 1/2" head waste line. Someone had installed wire reinforced exhaust hose, which allowed the smell to eventually come through the hose. I pulled it all out and used a short length of new sanitation hose from the head to the macerator in the bottom of the vanity. The macerator has a 1 inch outlet, so new 1 inch hose went to the through hull. The incoming water line was 3/4" that reduced down to 1/2 inch through the raw water pump and then back up to 3/4 inch into the head.

I ran the power through two relays, with some nifty LED lit push button switches mounted in the side of the vanity next to the head. The LEDs are always on, but draw so little electricity that they are of no concern.

What amazed me so much was how fast the raw water comes into the bowl, 3-4 seconds, and how much faster the water goes out through the macerator, about 2 seconds. My wife will now go sailing with me, and the grandchildren can use the head while supervised. No problem.

Did I mention how sweet the boat smells now?!

BTW, I used the old manual head and did nothing to its pump. If the macerator should fail, the manual pump would still function, provided that the macerator blade did not stop the flow.

I had considered the self-contained heads, but I already had the new macerator, and I learned long ago about the advantages of buying a component stereo system in lieu of an All in One Box system. It is much easier and less expensive to replace a single component than a whole system.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by MichaelPrichard

One other advantage (that hasn't been mentioned yet) of any macerating (thus electric) toilet is that some (at least my 3 Raritan Marine Elegance) have outputs that work with both 1.5" and 1.0" hose. 1.0" hose holds less than half the volume of 1.5" hose and thus less than half the water is required to clear the hose, plus, less hose surface area to stink. My 35gal tank is about 4-5 ft above the toilet and miles away requiring around 15-18ft of PVC pipe and hose, but given it's just 1", there's a lot less sitting in the pipes. Even with this constant pressure on the joker valves, I didn't get any significant flow-back until around 3-3.5 years of use. I'm hoping to move to a much larger holding tank located at or below toilet height, but until then, this setup works remarkably well despite the poor layout.

The one failure I've had on the Elegance was the plastic impeller cracking on the metal shaft when I tried flushing one (or perhaps two or three...) of those non-shredding baby-wipes. Even then, I was able to keep spinning the macerator impeller and dragged the impeller enough to empty the bowl so that cleanup was mostly fresh water. It's very easy to work on once you've pulled it off it's mount.

Very interesting and useful comments.


Horrible to hear about the fragile impeller of the Elegance. That reminds of the shockingly underengineered impeller housing of the Sea Era. Maybe I need to be looking beyond Raritan products, not withstanding my years of happiness with the old Raritan lever-actuated toilet back in the day -- in the last century. Last millenium actually.

[MichaelPrichard]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Very interesting and useful comments.


Horrible to hear about the fragile impeller of the Elegance. That reminds of the shockingly underengineered impeller housing of the Sea Era. Maybe I need to be looking beyond Raritan products, not withstanding my years of happiness with the old Raritan lever-actuated toilet back in the day -- in the last century. Last millenium actually.

I actually don't think this is necessarily a flaw, and may in fact be a safety feature to avoid damage to motor or porcelain. Better to have a relatively inexpensive mechanical "fuse" and easy to replace component when the unit is mis-used than to melt wiring, bend a shaft or otherwise cause irreparable damage. 3.5 years of reliable use since is decent testimony to it's robustness, and that's using all kinds of fancy (non-marine) toilet paper. I remember reading about a reviewer testing it's strength by flushing bananas with no ill effects....

[Kudos]

Another vote for electric, I even installed a timer, set it to 30 seconds that way it always flushes completely and no chances of plugging.

[David Mathis]

After having boats with manual and others with electric, we definitely recommend the electric head. Maintenance is simple, just change the wear parts every few years, an easy job that will take less than an hour, and the head will outlast the boat.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Factotum

I ran the power through two relays, with some nifty LED lit push button switches mounted in the side of the vanity next to the head. The LEDs are always on, but draw so little electricity that they are of no concern.

Also means there is likely enough ambient light in the head to protect dark adaptation when night sailing. I just go in the dark.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by patmvcr

Another vote here for electric heads. The 2 Tecma COMPASS Short ECO's we replaced our manual Jabsco heads with have the exact same footprint and are great. Much cleaner (none of those hoses sticking out that hinder keeping the head tidy) and because they use fresh water, the holding tanks don't stink. I discovered years ago that it wasn't what WE put into the holding tank that ends up smelling.. it's the seawater and its microbe load that made the smell. For the past 5 years we were using the shower wand to rinse the bowl anyway. Seawater pickup was kept closed.

BTW, we ALWAYS pump out here as we stay inshore near vancouver. I can appreciate that those who go on long passages might be troubled by the use of fresh water... but then use the seawater install option and dump it straight out into the open seas!

Just looked at the Tecma compass.
Looks promising for our forward guest toilet which has a cheap manual.

Will have to compare with the Raritan elegance which is the one I planned on buying

Had the Tecma Elegance aft for many years without problems

[paul2884]

We sail a centerboard boat, when dried out we can use the heads and flush with fresh water from the shower, normally we flush with sea water but if we try that when dried out it sucks sand/mud into the system. (we have a holding tank!)

Not a problem for most people but a major consideration in our case.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by paul2884

We sail a centerboard boat, when dried out we can use the heads and flush with fresh water from the shower, normally we flush with sea water but if we try that when dried out it sucks sand/mud into the system. (we have a holding tank!)

Not a problem for most people but a major consideration in our case.

An appeal of electric heads which can be plumbed to flush with raw water or fresh water with the turn of a valve. Not that flushing with the shower is a major inconvenience.