[70521]
Well-Known Member
I am sat here asking myself what happens if the holding tank clogs up with bog roll?
Lucky escape...
- Thread starter Sea-Fever
- Start date
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Couple of ways.
Unscrew the cap on the pump out hose. Pressurize tank using dinghy pump. Thats worked for me on two different yachts.
Get your mask and fins on, rod up through the outlet valve. This is not pleasant.
All caused by people who are so squeamish and unable to understand how tissue paper blocks the pipework so easily. All avoidable.
Graham376
Well-Known Member
Mate with Bav used to block the breather pipe and then pump until blockage cleared. Last time he did it, full tank split. Truly horrible mess in the locker and lower down, took months for the smell to go.
BigART
Well-Known Member
One proviso I would add to that is “..and chewed”. During our 8.5 year circumnav, we had the “eaten first” iron rule and bagged the paper (it was fine, no problem at all) but we were defeated in year 6 by an adventurous type who wanted to experience the lifestyle. Unknown to us he had prunes for breakfast - and swallowed the stones. One or two stones would not have been a problem but a day after he had left the boat, the system locked up requiring a hand bail out of the holding tank to reveal the accumulated pile around the holding tank outlet. Sometimes, you just have to laugh and get on with it.
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
RichardS
N/A
Don't worry ..... if you ensure that normal soft tissue bog roll is the only sort that is available in the loo and instruct visitors that they must never put ordinary paper, newsprint, kitchen roll or wet-wipes down the toilet then it will never ever block. There is not a snowballs chance in hell.
I always watch the discharge flowing out behind the boat when we empty the tanks at sea and in 10 years I have never ever seen the slightest trace of any paper. It has all "dissolved" away.
Richard
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Don't worry ..... if you ensure that normal soft tissue bog roll is the only sort that is available in the loo and instruct visitors that they must never put ordinary paper, newsprint, kitchen roll or wet-wipes down the toilet then it will never ever block. There is not a snowballs chance in hell.
Unfortunately, Richard, Ive given several examples on this thread where that is actually not so. Ive got plenty more examples.
Difference is I suppose, like lots of yacht and motor boat problems, those like myself who have lived aboard and worked with school/charter/ delivery boats for more than 20 years are gonna see the same old things much more often that one man on one boat.
Hope your good luck continues and may your pipes stay refreshingly unblocked!
dom
Well-Known Member
For what it's worth my experience chimes with yours. Only problem I've had over the years is dje's inverted joker valve. Modern toilet tissue is designed to dissolve and it seems to perform as designed.
Moreover, if it didn't I'd change to a system that did; the idea of asking the Admiral, friends and others to place used tissue in little receptacles left to fly around the heads would simply ensure a single handed future for me :ambivalence:
Thank goodness for the advances in toilet tissue
NormanS
Well-Known Member
Maybe it's just that people with their own boats are a bit more careful about what goes into the loo. When I pump out, I may see signs of brown stuff in the water, but paper - no.
DownWest
Well-Known Member
Day one of our Greek holiday was slightly blighted by having to clean the bilges out. Benny 46 with three cabins.
One couple, with zero experience on boats, had been carefully schooled in the 'art' and paper was bagged.
Prob was, the boat had been rented out to a group, who put paper down the bog. It had not been fully flushed into the holding tank for that heads. Next users were the owners, who only used the master cabin. Next was us and the paper had dried out and bloked the entry to the HT in the stb rear cabin. Our friends duly pumped..and blew off the pipe, sending the result into the bilge. I was not impressed by the big step in the stub pipe of the HT, which reduced the diameter by 40%? with no attempted to fair the difference and sort of guarenteed anything not 'slippery' would stick there.
One couple, with zero experience on boats, had been carefully schooled in the 'art' and paper was bagged.
Prob was, the boat had been rented out to a group, who put paper down the bog. It had not been fully flushed into the holding tank for that heads. Next users were the owners, who only used the master cabin. Next was us and the paper had dried out and bloked the entry to the HT in the stb rear cabin. Our friends duly pumped..and blew off the pipe, sending the result into the bilge. I was not impressed by the big step in the stub pipe of the HT, which reduced the diameter by 40%? with no attempted to fair the difference and sort of guarenteed anything not 'slippery' would stick there.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Certainly that plays a part. But also consider the massive increase in use a school boat, for example, has. Four to six people on board for five or six days a time, forty something weeks a year. Lots of things wear much faster.
Not easy to make money with an AWB!!
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
I think you have put your finger on it so to speak
A well maintained and cared for owner sailed boat is going to have far less problems than a school or charter boat where no one is that bothered about next week and there is always someone else to do the dirty work. Perhaps all charter boats should be fitted with macerators which whilst having their own problems can deal with most of the stuff given to them.NormanS
Well-Known Member
Many work boats/fishing boats etc have similar use patterns. It's a case of attention to detail, and regular maintenance.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Thats why for twenty odd years the problems on my boats have been minimal with proper use of heads and bins for tissue and nearly all the problems Ive fixed have been for others.
Dude you aint never gonna convince me otherwise, I beeen there.......
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
Thats why for twenty odd years the problems on my boats have been minimal with proper use of heads and bins for tissue and nearly all the problems Ive fixed have been for others.
Dude you aint never gonna convince me otherwise, I beeen there.......
No doubt with your finger on the pulse as they say.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
No doubt with your finger on the pulse as they say.
Ask a plumber, its bread and butter for them......
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
Thats why for twenty odd years the problems on my boats have been minimal with proper use of heads and bins for tissue and nearly all the problems Ive fixed have been for others.
Dude you aint never gonna convince me otherwise, I beeen there.......
I don't put paper down mine either, & never had a blockage.
As an aside, I don't put paper down my house khazi either, because it goes to a septic tank. The advantage of doing this is it never needs emptying. It seems to be the paper fibres that builds up the sludge that fills septic tanks, not the poop.
Dan Tribe
Well-Known Member
Started a trip on Thursday Burnham to Ijmuiden with an inexperienced crew. Approaching Long Sand Head the loo got blocked, my job to clear it of course.
Mid task and with sense of humour thin, there's a call from the cockpit "we're passing a buoy market SHT".
"I'M DEALING WITH IT"
Turns out it was Sunk Head Tower?
Mid task and with sense of humour thin, there's a call from the cockpit "we're passing a buoy market SHT".
"I'M DEALING WITH IT"
Turns out it was Sunk Head Tower?
Boathook
Well-Known Member
A decent holding tank is expensive and fitting one on an old boat is a nightmare. I've fitted one 2 seasons ago which meant stripping the heads out, raising the floor, new seacocks and the rest. If I had realised the work involved and cost I wouldn't have bothered.
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STATUE
Well-Known Member
First take them on holiday to a Greek island so they find out how nice land based people don't put paper in the pan, but in a bag, using plenty of paper to make clean little parcels,