EA pumpout machines

[Outinthedinghy]

I have never used an EA pumpout machine as I have previously only had cassette facilities. I have recently fitted a pumpout with a fairly small tank as I now have pumpout facilities uncluded in my residential mooring fee.
The question is do the EA card operated machines work on time taken or on number of activations of machine?

My tank takes a few minutes to empty (only 100 litres) so obviously it would get expensive to use EA machines if there is a price-per-use rather than a price-per-minute arrangement.

How does it work?

Thanks

 

[Actionmat]

The price of a pump out card has now gone up to an eye watering(considering it's self service)£10 per use. You get 5mins, which should be more than sufficient for a couple of hundred litres of waste and there is a pause button to allow you to give it a flush. However, I find that the water pressure is so low that it doesn't really rinse anything, so I get my wife to flush the electric toilet, thereby rinsing it with good old Thames water. My 100 litre tank lasts for about a week, but I wish I'd fitted a larger one due to pump out costs.

When going on holiday, I usually buy a few cards at Molesey so I can use other EA machines out of staffed hours if need be. Unfortunately, the machines are few and far between and can often be out of order when you need them most. They are easy to use and the instructions are clear.

The last time I used a marina pump out, I think it was about a fiver more than the EA, they did it for me, flushed it out properley(so effectively 2 x pump outs)and gave it a shot of free chemicals. Which makes the EA look expensive.

 

[Outinthedinghy]

Thanks for that.