Newbie Sailor asks about Heads and outlet sizes

[JumbleDuck]

Blakes heads have separate inlet and outlet pumps and pipes. The seawater in the inlet pipes smells a bit eggy on first use after a few weeks, it's caused by trillions of plankton, viruses and bacteria dying in the inlet pipe. Nothing to do with poopal contamination.

As I wrote, Vyv Cox tested that hypothesis and it failed.

 

[NotBirdseye]

Hi - yes it works fine.

Some people say "no loo roll". We say "3 slices of loo roll per flush" and have never had a problem. Stick to ordinary loo roll - none of that posh quilted stuff. Any baby wipe, however, is guaranteed to give you a blockage.

It's important to use a vast quantity of flushes to clear not only the bowl, but the pipes. The manual tells you how much - I think it's 7 flushes per meter of hose. That's the best protection against smelly build-up. Then it's advisable to conclude your weekend/trip/voyage with a good fresh water flush to keep the smells at bay. If you don't, then your first flush or two will smell (harmlessly) of rotten eggs.

That said, there's plenty to be said for a bucket!

hmm I tried three slices but there was this great big hole in the middle.... 2/10 does not work.

p.s also really hard to cut. Breadknife not recommended.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The Raritan head valve and pump is simple and has better sealing than a Jabsco.

By the way, I have a Raritan Compact II service kit knocking around. If that's any use to you (or anybody else) send me a PM and you can have it. Donation of your choice to charity of your choice only requested.

 

[RupertW]

I can't quite fathom those who put used toilet paper in a bag, and cherish it like a fragment of the True Cross until government-approved disposal facilities are at hand.
If the concern is heads blockages, why not just throw it in the sea like everyone else? There are plenty of hungry mouths waiting to gobble it up, it won't touch the bottom.
Then you can use the double-strength, lavender scented, luxury quilted rolls, win-win!
To the OP, you'll be fine, just use poundshop bog paper and keep pumping, it's lack of seawater pumping, which causes blockages.
Your missus sounds like a keeper, crapping in a bucket on a small boat, my kind of girl

Absolute nonsense - I have been in any number of anchorages where the bottom has paper strewn around it. Bin it and Chuck it works fine and ensures a weeks worth of holding tank won’t block with a wad at the bottom.
In the open sea with plenty of flushes then fine to flush paper if that turns you on.

 

[NotBirdseye]

Or... you could just wash only waste being some soap. A mean does anyone think that wiping is enough? I remember a tip from a movie actually.

Take a dollop of poop and smear it over your face. Now, take a sheet (or three) of toilet paper and wipe it off. Question: Are you now clean? Are you happy to about the rest of your day?

 

[rotrax]

By the way, I have a Raritan Compact II service kit knocking around. If that's any use to you (or anybody else) send me a PM and you can have it. Donation of your choice to charity of your choice only requested.

Nice offer, thank you.

Unfortunately our heads is a PH11 and uses a different kit.

It might help someone else. Hope so anyway. ?

 

[rotrax]

I'm not familiar with the Raritan, but from pictures it looks to have the same two-sided pump design as the Jabsco. All your talk about what goes on in the bowl is irrelevant - the contact is inside the pump, where the same wall surface touches sewage when the plunger is up, and flush water when it's down. The O-ring on the plunger ensures that visible contamination isn't transferred from one side to the other, but it's wishful thinking to imagine that it cleans bacteria off the pump walls as it slides rapidly past.

The bacteria from the sewage grows in the water in the inlet side of the system while the head isn't in use - certainly in the full pump barrel (presumably you leave the handle down, so the flush side is full and in contact with those contaminated pump walls) and probably back down the inlet pipe, especially if it's left for a long time. Then when you first pump the handle, that bacteria-laden water squirts out and makes the compartment smell.

Presumably a toilet that had completely separate pumps for flush and waste would avoid the problem, but there are few if any of those made.

Pete

Can the bacteria grow in white vinegar?

I dont think so.

That is what is in the bowl right through to the outlet seacock.

 

[rotrax]

That's exactly what I would expect. The smell comes from the inlet water, which has fecal particles in it unless you give the whole system a jolly good pumping in moving water. The outlet water isn't the issue.

The inlet has been closed for thirty pump strokes which has pushed white vinegar through the pump, valves, joker, outlet pipes right up to the seacock.

I dont believe the bacteria can exist in a mild acetic acid solution.

Food survives without bacterial contamination in white vinegar - it is a pickling solution!

 

[Daydream believer]

Every few uses I pour a half a cup full of Thetford pink portapotti fluid into the bowl. This tends to keep the outlet pipe clear of smells & helps the bowl stay fresh. I do have a few gallons of elson fluid ( Thetford blue is similar) & I pour some down, to help attack the dross that collects in the bottom of the black water tank .
Neither of these help the inlet, but regular use keeps it fairly clear. As long as I do not leave seawater to stagnate in the pipe it does not become an issue. Certainly not whilst I am living aboard.

 

[RupertW]

Every few uses I pour a half a cup full of Thetford pink portapotti fluid into the bowl. This tends to keep the outlet pipe clear of smells & helps the bowl stay fresh. I do have a few gallons of elson fluid ( Thetford blue is similar) & I pour some down, to help attack the dross that collects in the bottom of the black water tank .
Neither of these help the inlet, but regular use keeps it fairly clear. As long as I do not leave seawater to stagnate in the pipe it does not become an issue. Certainly not whilst I am living aboard.

That’s pumping poison into the sea.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Or... you could just wash only waste being some soap. A mean does anyone think that wiping is enough? I remember a tip from a movie actually.

Take a dollop of poop and smear it over your face. Now, take a sheet (or three) of toilet paper and wipe it off. Question: Are you now clean? Are you happy to about the rest of your day?

Is this a vote for bidets on boats?

 

[Gary Fox]

Is this a vote for bidets on boats?

Lack of space on the average cruising yacht might require a combination heads and bidet, with various user-programmable power settings from Day Skipper to Ocean. Blakes of Gosport ought to drag their Victorian appliances into the 21st century.
Looking more closely at the controls, the three middle buttons are fairly obvious, from the illustrations, but what about the big orange emergency button, is it possible for such devices to jam on full power? A fate worse than death..

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

I can't quite fathom those who put used toilet paper in a bag, and cherish it like a fragment of the True Cross until government-approved disposal facilities are at hand.
If the concern is heads blockages, why not just throw it in the sea like everyone else? There are plenty of hungry mouths waiting to gobble it up, it won't touch the bottom.
Then you can use the double-strength, lavender scented, luxury quilted rolls, win-win!
To the OP, you'll be fine, just use poundshop bog paper and keep pumping, it's lack of seawater pumping, which causes blockages.
Your missus sounds like a keeper, crapping in a bucket on a small boat, my kind of girl

The more upmarket bog paper contains microplastics.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I think the Baby Blake does, and the SL400/1 used opposite sides of the same diaphragm which is just as good. And of course the Lavac only has the one pump. However, in my experience the main cause of inlet contamination is simply that it sucks in from the discharge cloud around the outlet.

I have a Lavac with the inlet and the outlet on opposite sides of the keel and I any get any pong after I have left the boat for a while unless.

I think in my case its any little critters in the lnlet pipe or closed head bowl dyeing and decomposing.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

I carry a spare pump for my Jabsco and if the one in use gives trouble under way I can just swap it out in a few minutes and repair the other one later.

 

[BabaYaga]

As I wrote, Vyv Cox tested that hypothesis and it failed.

Normal sea water (whatever that is) may not smell a lot, but I can assure you that even a tiny bit of sea weed caught in the inlet pipe and left for a couple of weeks will decay and produce a significant smell.
I know this from my Blake Baby, which has separate intake and discharge pipes and pumps (piston type, not diaphragm btw).

 

[Gary Fox]

The more upmarket bog paper contains microplastics.

I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds like they've put a lot of thought into a luxurious wiping experience. Any particular brands I should treat myself to? Andrex rings a bell.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The inlet has been closed for thirty pump strokes which has pushed white vinegar through the pump, valves, joker, outlet pipes right up to the seacock.

Presumably that's why the poo particles in the inlet piping have been unaffected by the vinegar.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Is this a vote for bidets on boats?

They might be a good idea.

 

[Daydream believer]

Take a dollop of poop and smear it over your face. Now, take a sheet (or three) of toilet paper and wipe it off. Question: Are you now clean? Are you happy to about the rest of your day?

Well a lot of people seem to like their dog slobbering all over their chops after it has a session on its own aft end so I suppose a few have tried it