replacing sea toilet...

[symondo]

we have a replacement sea toilet as ours is cracked

Looks to be a direct undo bolts.... do bolts up kind of effort.

Any tips? i assume you use the pump to ensure its all empty and carefully undo hoses/bolts replace gaskets, seals etc and re attach pipes?

 

[maby]

Mechanically, it's a trivial job provided nothing is too rusted to undo. In my (limited) experience, the biggest problem tends to be the large screws that secure it to the floor - they tend to get wet - and often with something more corrosive than water! When I changed the toilet on our boat some years ago, two of the four coachbolts sheared off leaving stubs sticking out of the floor. I ground them flat, then moved the new pan half an inch to one side, drilled new holes and fixed it down with brass screws.

If jubilee clips on hoses are rusted tight, slice through them very carefully using a Dremel.

 

[laika]

Any tips? i assume you use the pump to ensure its all empty and carefully undo hoses/bolts replace gaskets, seals etc and re attach pipes?

Obvious tip would be use a hot air gun to soften the pipes before removal to make the job easier and minimise the risk of splitting the pipe. Same for doing back up although some people prefer to dip the end in hot water instead.

 

[symondo]

Obvious tip would be use a hot air gun to soften the pipes before removal to make the job easier and minimise the risk of splitting the pipe. Same for doing back up although some people prefer to dip the end in hot water instead.

would of never thought of that.
I'll also take a can of WD40 to give the bolts a bit of a bath beforehand. I'll assume this will be a nightmare - as it all started when trying to replace the seat to find a corroded and solid bolt... 1 tweak too far and cracked bowl. oops.

 

[johnalison]

Not WD40. It won't do any harm but PlusGas is much more effective.

 

[Talulah]

I would replace the outlet pipe at the same time.
The 38mm pipe could well be no more than a thumb sized hole by now depending upon how long ago you last replaced it.

 

[Contest1]

I replaced both hoses earlier this year and am seriously contemplating a chemical loo in the next overhaul.
The fragile nature of the connection bosses on the toilet nearly gave me heart failure, the outlet cracked when I was serviceing the through hull valve!
The 38mm reenforced white tube was hard to fit without kinking. If you use hot water to soften the ends only fill a cup to the length of the joint otherwise it may kink just after the joint.
A tip to ease the the old hose off is to wrap the joint with a tee towel and then soak it with hot water.

 

[ianj99]

Like mine was:

 

[l'escargot]

I would take the opportunity to replace both pipes whilst the toilet is out.

 

[pvb]

I would take the opportunity to replace both pipes whilst the toilet is out.

I'd agree - primarily because new pipes will be easier to fit.

 

[Uricanejack]

I just had the fun of doing this job. To my new old boat just after I brought it home. one word nasty.
Jabsco.
Lots of things carefully designed so you cant get at them.
Take the bowl off. Nuts come off easly, the Screws are in from under the bottom piece, only thing you can do is take whole thing off which is held down by bolts through internal plasic moulding and its is almost impossible requiring amazing contorsions to reach the nuts.
All hoses and valves will be full of calcium scale.

replace all hose with new its not expensive the old will be allmoste blocked and nasty.
replace the valves. same as above.
I have a new Y valve. started job because Y valve broke it just got bigger every time it undid some thing.
Just after I finished the valve and hoses.
The pump failed.
replaced that.
Part of this winters job list is removing and cleaning or just replacing the holding tank and all hoses to the pump out.
Not looking forward to it.

 

[laika]

replace all hose with new its not expensive the old will be allmoste blocked and nasty.

Actually I'd err on the side of splashing a bit more cash on the waste hose than the standard 38mm white plastic stuff (ie making it rather less cheap). A nice boat can be much less appealing because of odour from cheap waste hose. I installed the hideously expensive vetus stuff. I recall someone else (prv?) making the suggestion of an alternate, slightly cheaper and more flexible hose which I intend to investigate when I next need to replace anything (although hopefully that shouldn't be for a while).

 

[maby]

Actually I'd err on the side of splashing a bit more cash on the waste hose than the standard 38mm white plastic stuff (ie making it rather less cheap). A nice boat can be much less appealing because of odour from cheap waste hose. I installed the hideously expensive vetus stuff. I recall someone else (prv?) making the suggestion of an alternate, slightly cheaper and more flexible hose which I intend to investigate when I next need to replace anything (although hopefully that shouldn't be for a while).

Most of the heads odour comes from the inlet hose, not the waste hose. It's bacteria in the sea water sitting and festering in low oxygen conditions that cause the real stink. Low odour hoses are supposed to help, but we have them on the new boat and the difference does not seem to be that great. I prefer the idea of that new gizmo that injects bactericide into the inlet pipe down close to the seacock.

 

[macd]

...drilled new holes and fixed it down with brass screws.

If jubilee clips on hoses are rusted tight, slice through them very carefully using a Dremel.

Brass? No thanks, unless you like the idea of you and loo sooner or later scudding across the boat as a synchronised pair. Stainless or bronze.

"If the jubilee clips on hoses are rusted tight"...the wrong sort were fitted.

 

[laika]

Most of the heads odour comes from the inlet hose, not the waste hose. It's bacteria in the sea water sitting and festering in low oxygen conditions that cause the real stink. Low odour hoses are supposed to help, but we have them on the new boat and the difference does not seem to be that great. I prefer the idea of that new gizmo that injects bactericide into the inlet pipe down close to the seacock.

Different odour source. What you're talking about is nasty but only occurs when I've been away from the boat for a while on first use of the heads and I agree that fancy pipes don't solve that. What I was referring to is the odour which seems to pervade old waste pipes which have had black water sitting in them (even after they've been flushed through with clean water). I could (chemically) be talking nonsense but it seems to get into the plastic and it's the actual pipe that smells, not what's inside it. When I bought my boat I had such pipework. Now I don't (but I do occasionally have the inlet problem you mention on first use)

 

[maby]

I've come to the conclusion that there is a smell in un-gelcoated GRP which is quite similar to stale urine. When we bought our first genuinely new boat, I spent ages looking for a toilet leak because everytime I opened the door to the cupboard in the heads, it smelled like someone had peed in there. I never found any leaks but the smell did subside a bit. Now, we've bought another new boat and I have exactly the same smell in the heads lockers. But this is a larger boat and we also have the same smell in the cockpit lockers which are a long way from any pipework carrying sewage. I'm now convinced that it is just the smell of relatively new, unsealed GRP.

 

[symondo]

im getting the impresson this isnt going to be the 'swap job' we had hoped it will be....

 

[laika]

I'm now convinced that it is just the smell of relatively new, unsealed GRP.

We may be talking about different things here but...

When I bought my current boat it had a complicated vacuum flush installation with the front and aft heads linked by a (very smelly) waste pipe. Every locker the pipe passed through was pretty stinky. It stayed that way for more than a year after I'd removed the pipe despite liberal use of bleach, anti-bacterial pet spray and incense as though it had got into the wood or GRP. Eventually it did go though. Whenever I've smelled the same smell on other boats it's always somewhere where a white plastic waste pipe is routed. I think you're right that the smell isn't just the pipe and it gets into what surrounds it, but it isn't a natural GRP smell. Unless we're talking about different things

 

[laika]

im getting the impresson this isnt going to be the 'swap job' we had hoped it will be....

I think it's sounding more complicated than it is. It was one of the first jobs I did with very little practical ability. Just swap the toilet and you'll be no worse off than you are. It 's a good opportunity to change the pipe but that's really not hard: If you get it off one end, you can get it off whatever it's attached to at the other end. Just heat the ends to soften them before trying to take it off. And cut any pipe slightly longer than you need it because slightly short is just all bad.

 

[maby]

We may be talking about different things here but...

When I bought my current boat it had a complicated vacuum flush installation with the front and aft heads linked by a (very smelly) waste pipe. Every locker the pipe passed through was pretty stinky. It stayed that way for more than a year after I'd removed the pipe despite liberal use of bleach, anti-bacterial pet spray and incense as though it had got into the wood or GRP. Eventually it did go though. Whenever I've smelled the same smell on other boats it's always somewhere where a white plastic waste pipe is routed. I think you're right that the smell isn't just the pipe and it gets into what surrounds it, but it isn't a natural GRP smell. Unless we're talking about different things

Hopefully, we are talking about different things - the boats I'm referring to were/are less than a couple of years old - should not be long enough for any smell to propagate through the hoses. The first boat was literally brand new - just shipped from the factory. The second was approaching two years old when we took delivery, but virtually unused since it was the demonstrator. In each case, there is a smell that I can only describe as stale urine in closed spaces with un-gelcoated GRP exposed.