Calcification in the heads

We use vinegar routinely, mostly to keep the bowl looking ok. Might try something stronger for the pipes and pump.
 
Are yachties the only ones that flush their toilets with acid? Those Jabsco things are cheap enough to throw over the side when something goes wrong, maybe we should just keep a spare in the bilge!? Or perhaps we should use some of the dynamite we have on board for whale attacks and flush it for some powerful un-blockage action with the added benefit the calcium deposits shooting out the through-hull will disorientate the orcas!
 
pmagowan said:
Are yachties the only ones that flush their toilets with acid? Those Jabsco things are cheap enough to throw over the side when something goes wrong, maybe we should just keep a spare in the bilge!? Or perhaps we should use some of the dynamite we have on board for whale attacks and flush it for some powerful un-blockage action with the added benefit the calcium deposits shooting out the through-hull will disorientate the orcas!
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I have clearer land sewerage drains both for pay, as landlord, and on my own behalf - my dear departed dad said imagine its lard and try not to breathe via nose.

However I have had as many battles with sewerage systems on boats despite the sadly much smaller proportion of time I spend afloat. The problems is that the outlet pipes are much narrower than standard house plumbing, and comparable to macerator based indoor toilets outlets but without the macerator. If as a poster says, urine precipitates calcium carbonate out of seawater, then it is clearly a burden unknown on land but with a less resilient system. Acid it is then !

Oh and my sisters macerator sink blocked regularly - marginally less unpleasant per minute to unto unblock but took longer
 
One of the ways to reduce the build up is to flush as much as possible.

The problem is that on a land loo you operate he handle and walk away.

I fitted a diaphragm pump to both my Lavac and Jabsco with a delay off timer set to ensure a long flush as required to clear the exit pipe.

Before I did this I had a pipe block up so the pipe was reduced from 1 1/2 inch I/D to about 3/4 inch I/d which totally blocked when I tried to clear with aaid
 
oldmanofthehills said:
After all though water in my residential town of Bristol is hard, the flushing water is sea water and in my mind not hard - molluscs and corals must get calcium from seawater so I was wrong in that assumption.
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Sea water is MUCH harder than the hardest tap water. See Hard water - Wikipedia. That's why special soap is required for washing in it.
 
Just make sure there are no 'wet wipes' onboard. Having babies they are a godsend, having boats they are the work of the devil! That did for my last boat loo (the culprit knew better but thought, just one will be ok). Had to use a bucket for 2 weeks and replace the whole thing as the old one was no longer serviceable and there were no parts available.
 
pmagowan said:
Just make sure there are no 'wet wipes' onboard. Having babies they are a godsend, having boats they are the work of the devil! That did for my last boat loo (the culprit knew better but thought, just one will be ok). Had to use a bucket for 2 weeks and replace the whole thing as the old one was no longer serviceable and there were no parts available.
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Shouldn't be flushing them anywhere, land or sea 😱
 
MAURICE said:
i understand that salt water reacts with your urine and forms this lime scale over the years. When i leave my boat i flush the system with fresh water pumping it out several times. This seems to have elevated the problem. I also used diluted brick cleaner in the past to help clear the pipes. They sell it in Spain as Agua feute (hard water) which is the same stuff diluted acid.
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What actually happens is that bacterial action on nitrogen compounds in the urine produces ammonia. The ammonia raises the pH, converting the soluble calcium bicarbonate into insoluble calcium carbonate which is is deposited as limescale.

Adequate flushing will remove the urine and so prevent this happening. Flushing with fresh water helps because the calcium concentration in freshwater is much lower.
 
VicS said:
What actually happens is that bacterial action on nitrogen compounds in the urine produces ammonia. The ammonia raises the pH, converting the soluble calcium bicarbonate into insoluble calcium carbonate which is is deposited as limescale.

Adequate flushing will remove the urine and so prevent this happening. Flushing with fresh water helps because the calcium concentration in freshwater is much lower.
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That does make sense. In Majorca where the drinking water comes from a limestone aquifer, the pipes and hot water calorifiers silt up for fun with cal. It's common practise to 'burn' out the calcium deposits with strong acid. This is effectively what we do with the toilet pipes on our boat, without removal. As you know, Hydrochloric acid doesn't hurt plastic. It's not good with metals but with our Delrin through hull we can run high concentrations of acid with apparently little hard
 
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