Holding tank and eco toilet roll

I feel like people are talking about different things on this thread. It's absolutely not a problem to flush paper in a Jabsco unless you've allowed your pipes to become otherwise blocked. A good flush with lots of pumps is all that's needed, and I occasionally also stick the hose through the window and pump for a minute or two to really clean out the outlet before leaving the boat.
The issue is if there's a holding tank attached to it which would allow the contents to settle over time. I'm sure a holding tank would be fine if emptied and flushed through regularly but many probably sit for weeks or months after a trip.

This video demonstrates a Jabsco being abused on purpose if anyone is curious.
I'd also recommend watching the Jabsco video on how their pump works.
 
I don't used my converted Jabsco and did have the outlet semi blocked with little critters. This did cause the pumping of paper to partially block the outlet until the paper dissolved.

At the next lift out the outlet was cleaned out and all was OK.

My holding tank that I also don't use much I fitted spray bars to allow rinsing the tank during and after emptying
 
JumbleDuck said:
Don't you keep posting about the need for a dehumidifier to keep your boat smelling nice? Because I can't help wondering if "not keeping a bin full of shitty paper on board" might be an economical alternative. Yeugh.
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I’d rather have a bin than a holding tank and neither smell. - and it’s never more than a day.

Dehumidifier wouldn’t help much with a smell and I haven’t used ours for years due to being in a dry climate. I genuinely don’t understand your concern. You must get into palpitations in Greek loos.
 
RupertW said:
Dehumidifier wouldn’t help much with a smell and I haven’t used ours for years due to being in a dry climate. I genuinely don’t understand your concern. You must get into palpitations in Greek loos.
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I've never been to Greece, and I can't say that this thread is selling the place to me.

I can see that toilet paper my be an issue in a holding tank, but that sounds like a reason to improve holding tanks. Some sort of mechanical agitator to liquidise the contents, maybe.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I've never been to Greece, and I can't say that this thread is selling the place to me.

I can see that toilet paper my be an issue in a holding tank, but that sounds like a reason to improve holding tanks. Some sort of mechanical agitator to liquidise the contents, maybe.
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Only worth solving a problem if you think it’s a problem. You should travel more, you might get a new outlook on things.
 
Gary Fox said:
Yes where do yachts dispose of it? Surely it is wrong to put human waste in marina bins? It spreads diseases.
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I am guessing you never changed a babies nappy nor wondered what happens to the used nappy and the baby wipes .
 
MartynG said:
I am guessing you never changed a babies nappy nor wondered what happens to the used nappy and the baby wipes .
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Yes I changed nappies and binned them, but babies are unusual: They are unlikely to have been exposed to many diseases, and they are a small minority of the population.
 
lumphammer said:
I use the thickest and softest loo paper I can find because I'm a sensitive soul and non of it goes down the toilet - it goes in a separate nappy sack.
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I'm sure not but when you get ashore I hope you don't sling the bags into the nearest tree like those satanic dog walkers do at the entrance to parks and woods o_O One wood I went to recently there was an at least 2 meter wide pile of shit bags waiting for the shit bag fairy to pick them up. I never felt the urge to buy a sniper rifle so badly. All the people pretending they think the pre-existing pile meant it was an official shit bag offloading zone would have been made to think again by the sound of a high power rifle and the ricochet at their feet.
 
Athomson said:
I'm sure not but when you get ashore I hope you don't sling the bags into the nearest tree like those satanic dog walkers do at the entrance to parks and woods o_O One wood I went to recently there was an at least 2 meter wide pile of shit bags waiting for the shit bag fairy to pick them up. I never felt the urge to buy a sniper rifle so badly. All the people pretending they think the pre-existing pile meant it was an official shit bag offloading zone would have been made to think again by the sound of a high power rifle and the ricochet at their feet.
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At least before those bags were introduced, the dog carp was dispersed, and biodegraded into the ground quickly, now things are far worse than before.
 
There is no space for a pedal bin in the loo. Nor is there anywhere for any kind of lidded bin that I can think of, although it is in other ways a perfectly practical heads/shower with a full-sized Jabsco loo and a plush ceramic basin.
 
Gary Fox said:
At least before those bags were introduced, the dog carp was dispersed, and biodegraded into the ground quickly, now things are far worse than before.
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100%. The massive pile place was the entrance to a huge wood not a childrens play area. At least they were on the ground though. I've noticed around Bristol especially for some reason people like to throw them into trees out of reach. So even if some new boy from the council got the job of clearing them up he couldn't. Instead for the considerable life of the plastic the moist shit will form a culture medium, festering in the sun in a sealed bag until one day breaking and letting god knows what kind of evolved pathogen out for another dog to come along and sniff up. Next pandemic :cautious: (y)
 
RupertW said:
Only worth solving a problem if you think it’s a problem. You should travel more, you might get a new outlook on things.
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No need to travel for the fun of a festering bin full of used toilet paper - I could do that right here. On the other hand, I'm rather fond of my other half and don't want the inevitable split, so I'll keep on feeding it to the septic tank.
 
thinwater said:
Silly. As I clearly said, it has been blocked by flushable wipes and Kleenex. Not that big a deal and I didn't feel any need to change my ways.

a. Wait 30 minutes, and if you are using the right paper, it will go right through.
b. Let people know that if they are going to use a lot of paper, flush twice. No big deal.

Like all of the systems on a boat, it is about proper design and proper use. If it was poorly laid out, you have to live with that... or fix it.

One nice thing about my PDQ (and many newer boats) is that the head floor is a bathtub molding. These pals know what to do with it. If there is a minor mess, just use the shower to hose it down the drain. Easy to clean up.
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Probably right, but it seems that we are all in ideal conditions. Cleaning is not so easy... And I don't like to do it by mtself
 
As far as I'm concerned, it's a bog. It's designed to take anything I can produce, plus the necessary TP to keep me fit for civilised company. If it can't deal with that there's something wrong. Agreed, sanitary products and kitchen towel can be expected to give it indigestion, but the only boat I've been on where the head blocked was when it slurped up a big lump of bladder wrack and the user lacked the mechanical sense to stop, and just pumped harder until it was properly jammed in the pump.

A big +1 for the TP dissolution test, but it also has to pass the most important one, the finger test. If you don't know what I mean, you'll understand when a piece fails it...
 
All toilet paper will turn into a mush and won’t cause blockages.
Wet wipes
Kleenex
Kitchen roll
Are not toilet papers.

as one of the previous writers said, get a jam jar, 3/4 fill it with water, add a square of TOILET paper, give it a good shake, examine the results.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I've never been to Greece, and I can't say that this thread is selling the place to me.

I can see that toilet paper my be an issue in a holding tank, but that sounds like a reason to improve holding tanks. Some sort of mechanical agitator to liquidise the contents, maybe.
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Im of the opinion that mine works great, paper and all, so why do any different? For sensitive areas we have a porta potti in the second heads
 
Several other possible contributions:
  • Under-flushing to save space. Users flush only the bare minimum to conserve tank volume, increasing the density of the wastewater. Just enough to clear the bowl is not enough. You want to clear the hose and add some water.
  • Failure to backflush. At least every other pump-out you should blow some tap water into the outlet and then pump this out. Do it several times and don't be stingy.
  • Failure to sail in rough conditions. A little sloshing really helps. Perhaps this is the primary reason I never had this problem (multihulls have a quick motion and the tank is in the bow).
And of course, TP that truly dissolves and NO facial tissues or other non-TP. Never keep facial tissues in the head; they look too much like TP.
 
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