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[Tinto]

Hi All
After months of searching I eventually got my boat and I am learning g quickly that boat ownership and seamanship are very different things.

lots of problems to be fixed and many fixed already.

but I have a question about sea cocked and heads.

should all sea cocks below the water line have an anti syphon loop? I don’t believe all my seacocks have them.

This morning I woke up to find stuff in the heads that wasn’t there last night. Not what you want to see at anytime but definitely not first thing in the morning. Yesterday I was looking at the header tanks for that heads and gave pumps to the manual evacuation pump as well as screwed the lid down on the top of the tank. It’s 545am and I am lying here listening to a groaning noise and I think it may be due to the tank losing some “ventilation” and maybe due to there being some pressure in the system due to the few pumps on the manual evacuation pump. There is a three way valve which did not want to turn.
I appreciate this may not be enough information but if I could some receive some pointers as to what to check that would be appreciated.

 

[jaminb]

I would suggest replace your joker valve to stop the bowl filling with the previously pumped out poo. Easy and cheap job if unpleasant.

 

[roaringgirl]

If water is seeping back to the bowl, the joker valve isn't doing its job. If what is returning to the bowl isn't just seawater then you're only pumping enough to empty the bowl, not clear the lines - my policy was always to try to pump until clean water filled the line, then pump air through to clear all the water.

 

[john_morris_uk]

The system shouldn’t groan so somethings wrong somewhere.
The three way valve (presumably you mean two way diverter) is usually so you can choose between pumping the toilet into the sea or into a holding tank. I suggest you follow the route of the pipes carefully and see where your effluent is going atm.
Most seacocks don’t need an anti-siphon loop. Anti-siphon loops are used in specific circumstances and are very necessary, but most through hull fittings are fine without. (There are plenty of ideas for best practice for through hull fittings like only use bronze or DZR or one of the modern plastics and double clip all pipes below the waterline. )

Back to your original question: are you sure you haven’t just filled up your holding tank? I also don’t understand what you mean by header tank for the heads.

 

[Hacker]

We had the groaning noise in a Bav 33. Turned out that the holding tank was full. Explained why pumping was getting difficult!

 

[Tinto]

After more investigation. The groaning is the fridge and goes away when I switch the fridge off. Stays away for a while after fridge is switched back on.

the holding tank is empty and the diverted valve is positioned to dump waste to the sea.

 

[Tinto]

If water is seeping back to the bowl, the joker valve isn't doing its job. If what is returning to the bowl isn't just seawater then you're only pumping enough to empty the bowl, not clear the lines - my policy was always to try to pump until clean water filled the line, then pump air through to clear all the water.

i usually give 20 pumps on the jabsco. 10 pumps with the lever each side

 

[roaringgirl]

The appropriate number of pumps will depend on the length of your hose. I think we did 40 and 40 before we could hear bubbles getting blown out of the seacock.