holding tank on phantom 40

lanerboy

lanerboy

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 Aug 2012
Messages
1,663
Location
burton on trent, boat in weymouth
Visit site
Hi all

Just got the new boat and the holding tank is giving me grief, we had it pumped out yesterday and vp fitted a new macerator pump as the one on the boat was broken

Today i decided to try and flush the tank out as it was a bit wiffy still so i filled it through the side deck pump out , then proceeded to empty it using the new pump, well i can hear the pump working and their is a bubbling sound coming from under the boat so i pressume its working ok but the gauge says the tank is still full??????

I am not sure how long it would take to empty the tank using the pump but i feel i have not run the pump long enough for the tank to empty completely but dont want to keep running the pump for risk of burning out the new pump

When we emptied it at portland the gauge did go down and read empty so i think the gauge is ok but could i have damaged it by filling the tank through the deck empty hole

If i bang the tank it does sound as though its empty but i am not sure, i have the seacocks open to allow discharge straight to sea which i think is correct i have tried to find out in the manual if i am doing it right but cant find where it tells me

So does anyone have a holding tank system like mine on their boat and can explain to me if i am doing anything wrong

Just one other thing if when i was filling the tank from the discharge hole on the side deck if i had the sea cock open straigt to sea would this mean i have not actually filled the tank at all but just ran water through the system and straight out under the boat

Thanks shawn
 
1. take of lid

2. close eyes

3. put in hand

4. if hand goes cold and you can feel squidgy stuff it is full

5. if it is full, put whole arm in and find the **** that is blocking the outlet tube.


Failing that..... if it is indeed empty the filling from the deck filler will take water. if not it will overflow immediately.


There is a valve to set heads to come out the bottom. That is a better solution!
 
lanerboy said:
Today i decided to try and flush the tank out as it was a bit wiffy still so i filled it through the side deck pump out , then proceeded to empty it using the new pump, well i can hear the pump working and their is a bubbling sound coming from under the boat so i pressume its working ok but the gauge says the tank is still full??????
Click to expand...

Burbling under boat means pump is possibly pumping air not black waste. Hard to tell without hearing it. Could you diagnose that?

lanerboy said:
I am not sure how long it would take to empty the tank using the pump but i feel i have not run the pump long enough for the tank to empty completely but dont want to keep running the pump for risk of burning out the new pump
Click to expand...
A while often - maybe 7 or 8 mins, but all depends on the specs

lanerboy said:
When we emptied it at portland the gauge did go down and read empty so i think the gauge is ok but could i have damaged it by filling the tank through the deck empty hole
Click to expand...
Yup, you might have jammed the sender float at the top of the rod. Loosen it at top of tank and jiggle it - it might dislodge

lanerboy said:
So does anyone have a holding tank system like mine on their boat and can explain to me if i am doing anything wrong
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong in filling it with rinse water through the deck suck out opening

lanerboy said:
would this mean i have not actually filled the tank at all but just ran water through the system and straight out under the boat
Click to expand...
Nope - definitely not!

I prefer diaphragm or screw pumps btw, so you can run dry for a while without busting them. The Johnson impeller pumps bust after only a few seconds of dry running, which is quite a nuisance imho
Good luck
 
Congrats on the new boat, I'm sure you will love it.
sometimes the gauge sender sticks because of the tanks contents. Does your holding tank have an access hatch? If so on preferably cold day you can open it up and stick a hose pipe inside and give it a really good wash out. If it doesn't have a inspection hatch well worth fitting one so you can really clean it out. If you have electric flush loos everything is well liquidised. Assuming you have emptied it with the pump first, cleaning it out isn't horrible, just wiffy for a few mins.
If you leave the seacock open the pump will tend to block the flow, especially if the pump is higher than the top of the tank

You can usually tell when the holding tank is empty as the sound the pump makes changes - If you get a volunteer to operate the dump switch you can hear the sound it makes close up to it and then up by the dump switch for future reference as the tank sender will probably stick again at some point.

Another idea to get rid of pong I discovered last year was to completely fill the holding tank with sea water. On my boat if you leave the sea cock open the anti return valve is overcome by the water pressure created as the boat moves through the water. This resulted in a holding tank full of sea water. This confused me at first until I realised my mistake as I had emptied the tank early in the trip and arrived with it full. However a happy discovery was that the tank pong disappeared. I think the human waste/holding tank bacteria get killed by the seawater.
 
Last edited:
kashurst said:
Another idea to get rid of pong I discovered last year was to completely fill the holding tank with sea water. On my boat if you leave the sea cock open the anti return valve is overcome by the water pressure created as the boat moves through the water. This resulted in a holding tank full of sea water. This confused me at first until I realised my mistake as I had emptied the tank early in the trip and arrived with it full. However a happy discovery was that the tank pong disappeared. I think the human waste/holding tank bacteria get killed by the seawater.
Click to expand...

This is interesting i wonder now if this has happened as it seemed to get fuller throughout the day and is now saying its brimmed full very strange though as not moved the boat and gauge read empty when i started filling it up so probally not this after all

Will remove inspection hatch tomorrow before i have my breakfast yuk

Thanks for the replies
 
thats what mine did when I left the seacock open. had me puzzled for a while. Don't forget to empty it before you open it up - in case the boat rocks about
 
On our old Princes our holding tank used to slowly back fill with sea water if the outlet seacock was left open. This was down to the way it was plumbed in as it was an after fit and not a Princess system. The sea water used seep back past the pump. We had the pipework changed and this cured the problem.
 
It pumped ok yesterday clearing the dregs out from what was leftover from the dockside vac pump.

Fill the tank from the deck outlet full to the top of the filler, you should see or hear water flow out the holding tanks breather pipe vent too as it will be below level of the deck, switch on the pump you should then help prime the impeller inside the macerator pump, if it still doesn't work the impeller has failed or something really solid has blocked the inlet of the pump where the chopper blade is.
 
Shawn, when you filled the tank using the deck outlet, how did you know that you'd filled it up - did water come back up the filler at you, or out of the breather, or what? How long did you spend filling it up?

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Cheers paul i will do that can you just confirm i cannot do any damage or force water where is shouldnt go by filling it to the brim outside

Jimmy i dont know how much i put in i was there for a while though but it never over flowed onto the deck

I am going to try the torch trick tomorrow as suggested to see if i can see the level
 
ok just got back from the boat and whilst there I did what vp said and filled the holding tank from the pump out until it came out the over flow pipe I then left it over night and filled again in the morning and it was still full and came out the over flow straight away

I then pumped all the water out until I heard bubbles under the boat and the tone of the pump changed so I now know the holding tank is completely empty

thing is the holding tank gauge still reads full so I now know the gauge is faulty

thanks for every ones help again
 
lanerboy said:
ok just got back from the boat and whilst there I did what vp said and filled the holding tank from the pump out until it came out the over flow pipe I then left it over night and filled again in the morning and it was still full and came out the over flow straight away

I then pumped all the water out until I heard bubbles under the boat and the tone of the pump changed so I now know the holding tank is completely empty

thing is the holding tank gauge still reads full so I now know the gauge is faulty

thanks for every ones help again
Click to expand...

Ahh great so at least the pump works!!! Ignore the gauge and just pump your toilets overboard.

Hope you had a great weekend, that boat we talked about is off. Cheers
 
volvopaul said:
Ahh great so at least the pump works!!! Ignore the gauge and just pump your toilets overboard.

Hope you had a great weekend, that boat we talked about is off. Cheers
Click to expand...

yes new pump worked as could hear it once you had fitted it blowing bubbles under the boat but wondering if something got stuck in it for a while

will give you a ring one night in the week for a catch up
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top