How to fix an electric toilet

[Rivers & creeks]

We love our Jabsco electric lite, particularly with two young children the whole flush thing is so much easier. But it started to drive us mad this last year, basically poos were not going and it required a complex system of reset flushes and even pipe squeezing. I had a suspicion that Volts were the culprit so I got pair of overspeced tinned cable and ran it direct from the battery bank rather than via the switch panel.

O my goodness it is a transformed beast - it roars like an angry lion and wisks away everything with an angry vengeance - sounds like it's sending it all into another dimension.

Apologies if this seems obvious to you but it's been a pain for the last year and Internet searches showed that we were not alone. If your Lite plays up or is a bit anaemic then this may work.

Sorted.

 

[VicS]

There is a table of wire size vs total length in the instruction manual

 

[ashtead]

A slight drift but any other electrics ones out there with less roar than a jabsco? We have a manual but always put off electric due to noise but now we have a holding tank might need that macerator in the future

 

[Robin]

A slight drift but any other electrics ones out there with less roar than a jabsco? We have a manual but always put off electric due to noise but now we have a holding tank might need that macerator in the future

We had electric ( not the lite ones) Jabscos (2) on the motor yacht we lived on and they were noisy beasts, the holding tank had a macerator too but was always sucked out, a fee weekly service by the 'poop boat' in our marina. When we went back to sail the new sailboat had a Jabsco converted to electric, noisy and leaky. We replaced it with a brand new manual twist 'n lock, totally silent. WE have a vertical holding tank close by the Jabsco and it is gravity drain, no need for an expensive macerator pump that will eventually need repair. The manual Jabsco does a pretty good job of poop milling with its 'joker or 'duck's bill' valve it seems so for us simple is best. i was tempted by the jabsco lite toilet but, although it claimed to fit the same bolt holes as the original manual ( that had been fitted with a leccy conversion kit by the original owner) it would have necessitated reversing the mounting and re-routing the pipework to match in order to get it in the same space. There was also a nagging doubt that it would pump the needed height to get into the top of our vertical holding tank, as according to the specs it is borderline.The manual version is so cheap we bought a complete pmp assembly as a quick change spare instead of a service/repair kit of individual parts..

Our last boat in the UK had a manual Jasbsco too and the holding tank pump out was via a Henderson diaphragm pump, again no need for an electric macerator either and back then there was no deck pump out facility at our marina so it was always 'dumped' when we were offshore.


On the advice of our loo guru we have always used supermarket own brand 'eco' paper which is made from recycled (reular) paper and which breaks up and dissolves very fast, only caveat being to 'keep your nails trimmed' as it is not high burst strength

 

[Rivers & creeks]

A slight drift but any other electrics ones out there with less roar than a jabsco? We have a manual but always put off electric due to noise but now we have a holding tank might need that macerator in the future

The old Jabsco electric was quite amazingly loud. The Lite's main selling point was its relative quietness, I've now discovered that my circuitous wiring had made it too quiet! Still you can hear a regular electric macerated in the next Marina but the Lite is almost inaudible from on deck.

 

[David2452]

A slight drift but any other electrics ones out there with less roar than a jabsco? We have a manual but always put off electric due to noise but now we have a holding tank might need that macerator in the future

For live aboards where reliability & noise is important I fit Silence, Sanimarin or Dometic, all are very quiet and reliable when used as intended (mostly fresh water flush) I seems to me on inspection that most of the kit and even some of the pedestal mouldings are identical and the only difference is the badge and control panels. They are all at the upper end of the price range though.

 

[tudorsailor]

For live aboards where reliability & noise is important I fit Silence, Sanimarin or Dometic, all are very quiet and reliable when used as intended (mostly fresh water flush) I seems to me on inspection that most of the kit and even some of the pedestal mouldings are identical and the only difference is the badge and control panels. They are all at the upper end of the price range though.

I have an electric Jabsco from 2007. Could I change just the pump to make it silent?

TS