Salt Water or Fresh Water Flush???

Quest

Quest

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Been having a few problems with the toilet flush recently and am going to install a new toilet. The flush is currently using sea water and the toilet smells at times, particularly the first few flushes after a time away from the boat. Thinking about plumbing the new system to use fresh water instead of sea water as I would guess the standing water shouldn't smell so much. Would appreciate any comments or wisdom from those who know more than me... Good idea or bad?
Thanks,
Andrew
 
Quest said:
Why is it more expensive Raf? The engineer told me it was the same unit just plumbed differently for salt or fresh water? Am I missing something obvious? Thanks, A
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I think Raf means expensive in terms of fresh water being more expensive than sea water :p
I suppose you'll agree on that!
On an older thread someone had measured how many lt of water is needed for a #1 and a #2 flush. Based on that you can calculate how many visits before running out of water...

cheers

V.
 
You could compromise, the flush doesn't need to be fresh water every time. I put in 2 T-pieces, one in the basin drain and the other in the toilet inlet pipe and connected them via a valve. I usually leave the connecting valve closed and everything works in original manner. However, I can close both basin drain and toilet inlet before opening the connecting valve to flush basin contents to the toilet. This makes it easy to flush with fresh water before leaving the boat for an extended period. I can also flush through with vinegar (or anything else I fancy) to keep the system fresh.

I carried out this modification 3-4 years ago and very rarely have any trace of rotten egg smell. Even if I forget to flush with fresh from time to time it only takes a couple of minutes to flush the system and kill off the anaerobic bugs.
 
I have saltwater flush, and would always choose it, because we spend a lot of time at anchor. I have 800 lts of fresh water and 400 lt holding tank, and usually the water runs out at about the same time as the holding tank gets full, so if I used fresh water flush, I'd run out in half the time and have to head for port sooner.
 
Quest said:
Why is it more expensive Raf? The engineer told me it was the same unit just plumbed differently for salt or fresh water? Am I missing something obvious? Thanks, A
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I'm pretty sure you will need an electric fresh water pump of some sort rather than the hand pump for sea water. This will need to electrically flush somehow too. Unless that is you can find a way of manually pumping and flushing. I don't know how this is done, but the heads guru JFM will certainly know. I have Sealand Vacuflush heads in Rafiki, and this set up is considerably more costly than a sea water flushing manual system.
 
I've a foot in both camps, so to speak. Prefer fresh water, but same as Nick, we use seawater flush when at anchor to extend the longevity of our fresh water tanks.
 
We have two Jabsco electric fresh water toilets with domestic size seats (I need the bum room) , they look like a domestic loo. We were concerned with the potential use from the fresh water tanks and considered a dedicated water supply using a flexible bag similar to our holding tank. Thankfully this has not proved necessary.
 
rafiki_ said:
I'm pretty sure you will need an electric fresh water pump of some sort rather than the hand pump for sea water. This will need to electrically flush somehow too. Unless that is you can find a way of manually pumping and flushing. I don't know how this is done, but the heads guru JFM will certainly know. I have Sealand Vacuflush heads in Rafiki, and this set up is considerably more costly than a sea water flushing manual system.
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Yup, invariably the seawater flush version of any upmarket toilet that comes in sea or fresh varieties costs more that the freshwater version, because you need an electric pump plus a seacock for sea water flush. With a fresh system you need only a solenoid valve to let your pressurised freshwater in.

In theory a manual flush loo would cost the same whether fresh or seawater flush, apart from the extra seacock in the seawater version, but afaik no-one makes a mnaul WC with fresh and sea water flush options

One important benefit of freshwater flush to a diy boater is that you can use your own loo while the boat is in the yard :D :encouragement:
 
We have fresh flush and its great! A no brainer!

Buy the jabsco electric flush, i find it easier to repair than vacu flush as its just a motor/pump
 
jfm said:
Are you finding this ok? Presumably it's a thick strong heavily engineered bag!
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Yep, no problems, no smells, just have to remember to empty as there is no gauge fitted. Originally bought from Vetus, I think it holds 160 ltrs although other sizes available. I do have two Y valves to divert straight to sea as permitted.
 
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