Electric flush toilets on boats

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steve yates

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Anyone any experience of installing or using these?
I’m thinking the existing Lavac manual pump toilet in our Longbow will be too difficult for my wife to pump (cancer/chemo) and I should replace it with one of these.

The heads will be completely refitted anyway, all piping renewed and new plumbing installed, so this would the time to do it.

Am I right in assuming that the actual power usage is fairly minimal as its only a very short current draw when flushed?

Is everything else like plumbing, seacocks etc identical whether or not you have a manual pump or electric flush loo?

What are the upsides and the downsides I need to consider?
Thanks.
 
steve yates said:
Anyone any experience of installing or using these?
I’m thinking the existing Lavac manual pump toilet in our Longbow will be too difficult for my wife to pump (cancer/chemo) and I should replace it with one of these.

The heads will be completely refitted anyway, all piping renewed and new plumbing installed, so this would the time to do it.

Am I right in assuming that the actual power usage is fairly minimal as its only a very short current draw when flushed?

Is everything else like plumbing, seacocks etc identical whether or not you have a manual pump or electric flush loo?

What are the upsides and the downsides I need to consider?
Thanks.
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I always fit electric toilets Steve. Last boat was fitted with a Lavac, i just replaced the hand pump with an electric diaphragm pump.

Jabsco 50890-1000 - Self-priming diaphragm waste pump 12 volt d.c. / Toilet Waste Pumps / Pumps / Marine / Xylem JabscoShop - Jabsco & Rule Pumps and more - from the experts
 
Your power usage will depend on the location of your tank relative to the toilet and the length of the hose between the two. The inlets on the tops of my tanks are more than a metre above the bottom of the toilets so the hose is nearly 2 metres long. It takes a fair bit of pumping to be sure all the nasty stuff is cleared from the hoses.
 
Irish Rover said:
Your power usage will depend on the location of your tank relative to the toilet and the length of the hose between the two. The inlets on the tops of my tanks are more than a metre above the bottom of the toilets so the hose is nearly 2 metres long. It takes a fair bit of pumping to be sure all the nasty stuff is cleared from the hoses.
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There is no holding tank, though that in itself will be under consideration. Straight through the seacock To the sea.
 
steve yates said:
There is no holding tank, though that in itself will be under consideration. Straight through the seacock To the sea.
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Illegal where I'm based and hardly acceptable if you anchor overnight or flush in the marina but a fine simple solution if it suits your style of boating.
 
Can't help with the electric bit. If you have a Lavac of that age, it could be the Zenith pan, which was the lager of the two pans. The only model available now is the Popular, which is smaller. It doesn't appear to be that much smaller but from a comfort level it is. The pan and plastic bits should clean up well.
 
I removed a Jabsco electric pump and replaced it with a manual pump.
But your circumstances clearly dictate otherwise,

Should you wish to fit a new toilet Saniflo seem to be well regarded
The power use is shown on their website details - see the following , there are other models
Sanimarin 31 - Compact Sanimarin - Sanimarin
 
I had heard an electric heads by jabsco was loud -people seem to like tecma ? Curious to know where a retrofit holding tank fits in a westerly -putting one in might lead to more trouble than it’s worth surely?
 
ashtead said:
I had heard an electric heads by jabsco was loud -people seem to like tecma ? Curious to know where a retrofit holding tank fits in a westerly -putting one in might lead to more trouble than it’s worth surely?
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Quite possibly, its something I need to investigate. As Irish Rover says, direct to the sea is illegal in many places, and unseemly if in a marina or anchored in a bay where folk are swimming. So I will look at it, and a grey water tank too, required if going to Turkey. it’s something that will,only get more tightly regulated over time, even if yachts produce laughable amounts compared to all the shit our water companies are pumping.
Anyway, that will be a future thread, first I need to find out about electric toilets :)
 
We've had a an electric Vetus for 5 years now for daily use as we live on board and cruise continuously

It has been incredibly reliable - never broken or blocked beyond perhaps needing an extra flush. Its nothing like as loud as a Jabsco pump and macerator - and has short and long flush options. All very civilised and easy to live with. Also a normal size bowl rather than compact which is better if you have the space and will be aboard lots.

Not cheap but very easy to install and use. Installation was just running wire capable of taking 20 amps over the length of the run (we used 4mm but doing it again I'd go 6mm) back to the fused panel. Just two wires in and thats it on the electrical side. Ours is fresh water so a fresh connection in and the outlet is 25mm hose rather than the usual 38mm as the macerator makes things finer. All I had to do was change the hose tail on the existing seacock to the smaller diameter . Power draw is very small in terms of amps used
 
The first thing we did when took over Tolerance was two electric, fresh water flush toilets and a 200l holding tank. Still one of the best upgrades we did that makes our time aboard so enjoyable, not being greeted by the smell of bad eggs, knowing each time it's a work out for the arms after a pi$$ at 2am and no pipework on show.
 
Kelpie said:
The big advantage of Lavac is that you can have a manual and an electric pump in series, so in case of failure of one pump you still have the other one 🙂
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That's a good idea - I'd like an electric lavvie as pumping is the No.1 trigger for my wife's sea sickness. Equally though, we only have one heads and the thought of it being inoperable due to electric fault is a fairly rubbish thought.

Changing to a Lavac so we could have redundancy is potentially a good idea!
 
Kelpie said:
The big advantage of Lavac is that you can have a manual and an electric pump in series, so in case of failure of one pump you still have the other one 🙂
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That is how my lavac is set up

I also have a delay off timer on the flushing button so once you have finished all you do is press the button and walk away just like a normal flush loo
 
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