Heads inlet pipe smell

laika said:
Thanks for all the replies. To respond to some of the posts...I won't be installing a lavac given that I ripped out thousands of pounds worth of vacuflush kit to reclaim space / save power / save fresh water (pm me if interested in purchasing :-). Putting anything down the bowl won't help as this is an inlet problem and I recently stripped and serviced the pump which now works very smoothly. It could be simply that the water in this marina is particularly nasty and there are more nasties to break down and cause the malodorous effect more quickly than I've experienced it elsewhere. The inlet filter looks a possibility although having twice as many connections to potentially fail between the seacock and the bowl is a mild concern. I think I'll wait until we've taken the boat out into cleaner water and see if we still have a problem and if so replace the pipe between seacock and bowl initially, potentially installing one of those filters.

Certainly a £10 filter seems rather cheaper than the devices they push at boat shows for this.
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Not sure that you can blame the Marina water. We didn't have a problem for the five years we were there - unless things have gone downhill drastically!!!
 
RichardS said:
Same principle as demonstrated at the boat shows ..... but £130 compared to £10 and, if you've two heads like us, £260 ........ :(

Richard
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Can't be compared to £10 seaweed / fish filter. This contraption injects fluid in to seawater near the seacock via small tube. The filter alone won't stop smells.

Expensive yes, does it work yes.
 
Anders_P42 said:
What did I miss, I read the whole thread?
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That's odd. Anyway the important point is that this is not about a £10 seaweed / fish filter but it's about the 10p urinal block which can be put inside the filter so you then have a device which not only filters the sea water but adds a small dosage of biocide to the inlet sea water which does exactly the same as the £130 device but for £10.

Richard
 
RichardS said:
That's odd. Anyway the important point is that this is not about a £10 seaweed / fish filter but it's about the 10p urinal block which can be put inside the filter so you then have a device which not only filters the sea water but adds a small dosage of biocide to the inlet sea water which does exactly the same as the £130 device but for £10.

Richard
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Thanks I did miss his post. Surprised blocks don't dissolve quickly being submerged all the time, but at 10p who cares.
 
To recap here, I'm aware that the smell after not having flushed for a week or so is normal. My particular problem which has only recently started to become an issue is that I'm getting the smell if I haven't flushed for 10 hours or so. *something* has changed. If I figure out what I can address it.

dslittle said:
Not sure that you can blame the Marina water. We didn't have a problem for the five years we were there - unless things have gone downhill drastically!!!
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That's good info and scuppers the "Brighton marina water is nastier than Royal Clarence water" theory (well, it *is* nastier, but that's obviously not the problem here).

I'm wondering if maybe bugs have accumulated in a low point in the pipe between seacock and bowl aided in the "something to cling onto" department by calcification. Sometime in the next couple of days I'll try disconnecting pipes and pouring bleach down from the pump end and leaving it to hang about (in the low spots) for a few hours and see if that makes a difference.

Anders_P42 said:
This is the solution, have one on my boat and never had any pong on first flush when boat has been left a week or two.
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I was aware of that device but it's a bit more money and bulkhead space than I really want to surrender. The £10 filter + toilet tablet solution sounds promising but I do have a mild concern about additional connections and breakable things close to the seacock (and below the waterline). It's certainly under consideration but as I was OK without it for 4.5 years my first thought is to find out what has changed and target that.
 
laika said:
To recap here, I'm aware that the smell after not having flushed for a week or so is normal. My particular problem which has only recently started to become an issue is that I'm getting the smell if I haven't flushed for 10 hours or so. *something* has changed. If I figure out what I can address it.



That's good info and scuppers the "Brighton marina water is nastier than Royal Clarence water" theory (well, it *is* nastier, but that's obviously not the problem here).

I'm wondering if maybe bugs have accumulated in a low point in the pipe between seacock and bowl aided in the "something to cling onto" department by calcification. Sometime in the next couple of days I'll try disconnecting pipes and pouring bleach down from the pump end and leaving it to hang about (in the low spots) for a few hours and see if that makes a difference.



I was aware of that device but it's a bit more money and bulkhead space than I really want to surrender. The £10 filter + toilet tablet solution sounds promising but I do have a mild concern about additional connections and breakable things close to the seacock (and below the waterline). It's certainly under consideration but as I was OK without it for 4.5 years my first thought is to find out what has changed and target that.
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A real quick trick to clean out the inlet pipe is to close the seacock and take off the inlet pipe from the heads, drop in an Aqua Clean tablet, reconnect the pipe and leave it overnight. Do that a couple of times and your inlet pipe should be as clean as the day it was made.

I pop in a tablet every time we leave the boat for longer than a few days and no longer have any issues with eggy smells when pumping the heads upon our return.
 
RichardS said:
That's odd. Anyway the important point is that this is not about a £10 seaweed / fish filter but it's about the 10p urinal block which can be put inside the filter so you then have a device which not only filters the sea water but adds a small dosage of biocide to the inlet sea water which does exactly the same as the £130 device but for £10.

Richard
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It's a brilliant idea and I've ordered the bits from ebay. On a 6 week summer cruise the warmer water means we get the eggy smell most first morning flushes and left unused for a week it stinks.
 
Update.

We recently went away for a night. Before leaving I disconnected the inlet hose from the seacock, secured it it up above the level of the low spot, flushed through remaining water, then poured bleach into disconnected end of the inlet pipe. flushed until that came through then poured in more and left it for 36 hours. Reconnected, opened seacock, flushed through. Some black and evil looking stuff came out before it went clear but obviously all it smelled of was bleach. Since then admittedly the longest we've gone between flushes is 8 hours but previously it was smelling after just 3 hours or so and now no smell at all.

Conclusion: there were nasty bacteria living in the pipes which I've (at least temporarily) nuked. Doubtless the urinal-block-and-filter approach is the ongoing answer to this (kill the nasties as they enter) but the tactical battlefield bleach approach has given some respite. I'll post a longer term update if I remember in a few months.
 
Not tried but sounds logical

A scheme recommended by another in our club
Do away with the heads basin drain seacock and Tee the drain hose into the loo inlet pipe. At the end of the day shut the inlet seacock and clean water from the sink is used to flush the inlet pipe to the loo. Add chemicals as your fancy takes you.
I am told it works.
It also does away with one hull perforation, I just hope his making good of the hole is sound.
 
Re: Not tried but sounds logical

johnphilip said:
A scheme recommended by another in our club
Do away with the heads basin drain seacock and Tee the drain hose into the loo inlet pipe. At the end of the day shut the inlet seacock and clean water from the sink is used to flush the inlet pipe to the loo. Add chemicals as your fancy takes you.
I am told it works.
It also does away with one hull perforation, I just hope his making good of the hole is sound.
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I did something similar, fitted a tee to the basin drain seacock, and a tee to the pump inlet seacock, and piped them together, with an additional ball valve in the connecting pipe. Everything works as normal but by changing the valves around, I can fill the basin with fresh water and flush through the loo with fresh water before I leave the boat. Since I did it, there's been no more smell, regardless of the time away.
 
Re: Not tried but sounds logical

Further update: As a reminder, my problem wasn't smell after leaving the heads unused for a week, it was bad smell on flushing after leaving the heads unused for half a day. I'm pleased to report that flushing the pipe through from the seacock end with bleach and leaving bleach in the low spot in the pipe seems to have resolved the issue (for now at least). Flushing after 48 hours of non-use is not in the slightest malodorous. Thanks to all who offered advice and particularly dslittle (wherever he may be now) for steering me away from the "nasty marina water" hypothesis. Hopefully this can be something to try for others in the same situation: cheaper and easier than replacing pipes, although the filter/block idea is presumably a more "permanent" solution (though one I will skip for now).
 
Re: Not tried but sounds logical

I too have tried the bleach flush from the inlet seack end of the pipe but not as thoroughly as "laika".
The bleach treatment probably did not work for me as I did not leave the bleach in the pipe for more than a few minutes.

The strange/interesting thing was that the water that back drained when first disconnecting the pipe from the closed seack did not smell; nor did the inside of the pipe.

P.S. But after thinking about it that might be because it wasn't done when I first came aboard but after the toilet had been flushed a couple of times. ( a relief is usually top of the agendy when we first get aboard)
 
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Re: Not tried but sounds logical

I have one of those Jabsco Pumpgard filters on the inlet. It came with the boat so has probably been there some years , possibly from new.
I bought some toilet blocks but cant get the top off the filter as it seems to have become solidly fixed (or may have been glued on) . I don't want to risk breaking it as it is below the water line. . Presumably the clear top should easily unscrew. So will have to get a new filter.
 
Re: Not tried but sounds logical

theoldsalt said:
The strange/interesting thing was that the water that back drained when first disconnecting the pipe from the closed seack did not smell; nor did the inside of the pipe.
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My *theory* (and it's only that) is that the place where the water was acquiring its nasty smell in my system was a low spot in the pipe run from inlet to pump: the pipe runs through a bulkhead then out from the cabinet work and dips slightly in between. Thus when removing the pipe from the seacock I wouldn't necessarily expect the water in that area to drain back. Your set-up may be completely different of course.
 
Re: Not tried but sounds logical

MartynG said:
I have one of those Jabsco Pumpgard filters on the inlet. It came with the boat so has probably been there some years , possibly from new.
I bought some toilet blocks but cant get the top off the filter as it seems to have become solidly fixed (or may have been glued on) . I don't want to risk breaking it as it is below the water line. . Presumably the clear top should easily unscrew. So will have to get a new filter.
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Yes, the clear plastic top does unscrew and seals with a rubber O-ring where it butts against the black housing so it only needs to be done up tight enough to seal against the O-ring. However, both my filters were similarly too tight to undo by hand the first time I tried so I used a strap wrench (as used for oil filters) on both of them which did the trick. When I reassembled with the tablet inside I used plenty of rubber grease and they now unscrew by hand.

By the way, make sure you put in the tablet with the curved side facing inwards towards the water exit holes as the flat side will act as a valve and seal the holes when you try to pump the toilet.

Richard
 
I will tell you this... I've ALWAYS had this smell problem when returning to the boat after a week or so. I'd tried everything, vinegar, bleach, even fresh water into the bowl, but nothing really helped..
This year is different, I've closed my sea cock each time leaving the boat and filled it with fresh water as the sink outlet has the same sea cock as the toilet inlet and it solved the problems. No smell at all, ever....
 
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