smelly looes

[penfold]

Unless you install a fresh water flush system I don't think you can eliminate the unpleasant sulphidey smell on first flush after a time of non use,but this is very short lived and a few extra flushes gets rid of it.

I've found that too; if the smell does not appear until you use the heads then your pipes are fine. All that's required to get rid of the smell is to flush the heads a couple of times to get the water in the inlet pipe changed. Once that's done it remains odourless(bodily excretions not withstanding) until left unused for a couple of weeks then it needs doing again. It's not a hardship to do this as you should exersize the the pumps regularly anyway.

 

[Simondjuk]

The heads on most boats are utterly filthy if you look any more than surface deep.

If the pipes don't fix the problem, get your Marigolds on, a big scrubbing brush, a dish brush, a toothbrush (preferably retired), and a good strong cleaning solution and spend a couple of hours in each heads taking as much as you can apart and cleaning every last nook, cranny, corner, handle, hinge pivot pin, hose clip and recess to clean away all the directly applied olfactory assailants.

Then, spend another hour in each of the seacock service spaces behind the heads mouldings to clear up all the indirectly applied ones from drips, leaks, careless changing of hoses and so on.

If the pipes and the cleaning don't fix it, shower sumps are another major source of smells in heads so fitted.

 

[pathfinderstu]

shower sumps will give them a zap too!! but have a feeling its the pipes 6 years of charter is a lot of use but moorings do clean their boats well and the beneteau heads are quite sealed units, bit like a small version of ibis hotel bathroom, moduler and mass produced. but works well in practice.

 

[Tomahawk]

mo loo does not smell

well not on this boat... hiwever, the inlet is a long way from the outlet...

on other boats the inlet was close to the outlet so there was always the possibility of some waste material being sucked into the inlet pipe.... where it festered and the loo stank...

 

[Simondjuk]

shower sumps will give them a zap too!! but have a feeling its the pipes 6 years of charter is a lot of use but moorings do clean their boats well and the beneteau heads are quite sealed units, bit like a small version of ibis hotel bathroom, moduler and mass produced. but works well in practice.

Unbolt the bog pan from the moulding and have a peek underneath.

 

[Frankie-H]

No it's not, it's bog.

No it's not, it's 'head'

 

[lefkasman]

holding tanks...

It will be the holding tank, take her out to sea flush it through with dozens of buckets of sea water, then a few of fresh water containing a disinfectant your choice, nicer smelling the better, then never use the loo for solids again, if you have to use it repeat the flushing procedure as often as you can.
I mean its well over 40c here at the time of writing, can you imagine the festering hell hole that fibreglass tank must be with all of that fermenting human waste bubbling away inside must be, no wonder it smells.
And of course being an ex charter boat it will have never been cleaned out properly will it, I could tell you about the time I had the job of replacing a tank in this heat but I am trying to forget it

 

[Grehan]

never use the loo for solids again

Go the whole hog and convert the head(s) into a handy cupboard?
(hanging locker)

 

[john_morris_uk]

That book by Peggy Hall (aka "The Headmistress") should be compulsary on every yacht.

I am you going to stick my head above the parapet and contradict your claim about Peggy's book. Although she talks a lot of sense about some matters, her enthusiasm for plumbing a t piece from the sink outlet into the heads inlet to allow the use of fresh water to flush misses the problem and is misinformed.

For my money such a technique is a bodge cure at best (alongside all the 'filters and Milton in the inlet hose'). Just flush properly - really properly and all your ping problems will be over. This assumes you have a clean heads compartment and that your hoses aren't porous. You can check for the latter by wiping the hose in question with a clean rag and sniffing the rag. No smell indicates the hose is ok...

Peggy Hall is held up as a super guru, but with respect on some matters she is misinformed.

 

[lefkasman]

Go the whole hog and convert the head(s) into a handy cupboard?
(hanging locker)

Yes you have it, I mean original poster says "I am in Eastern Med so very hot..any ideas welcome"

Eastern Med, well to me that's got to mean Turkey/Greece and at this time of the year we are talking 40+ centigrade blooming hot, the last thing that you want on a boat is a loo, no matter how big the boat is you are never going to be more that a few meters from the damn stinking loo and its festering holding tank.
If you lot who live in the freezing North want an idea of the smell try putting a bucket say half full of urine and feces on the hob in your kitchen and gradually heat it up, well you don't really need to do it you can imagine the pong can't you.
The only answer is don't use the damn thing, but if you have to flush it out as though you have a obsessive-compulsive cleaning disorder

 

[Robin]

We are in Florida around 95F nudging 100F and half way through a major replacement of our toilet and holding tank systems and in fact all the other pipework that goes through the same areas and is the same age and state of crumbling. Aside from the usual suspects of smells in the inlet, porous hose etc there is also the holding tank vent system, because every time something, even fresh clean water goes into the tank the same volume of air (stinking natch) has to vent out, that is unavoidable. We cannot pump and dump unless 3mls out, so have a weekly pumpout, we know when the pumpout boat is coming because the smell reaches us from 3 pontoons away. Then there is the possibility of smell wafting back up to the toilet if there is no water retained in it to block it. Also as I understand it this can be worsened by poor pipework runs with low points holding stuff from moving on.. Some folk add stuff to the tanks to treat it, but on balance I think the natural decay method is best, for which there needs to be some air to feed the good microbes, additives generally kill off the good bugs. We currently have one sweet smelling loo and one stinky, because our version of Peggy (not as pretty but effective) has yet to complete phase two which is loo number two, which has to have a new check valve (joker valve) to retain water in the bowl and have the entire pipe run re-routed to avoid the existing low spots, plus a new diverter valve and better anti-syphon to smooth the flow as well. Ours is an electric system BTW which uses 1" hose for a faster transit to the tank, torpedoes away.

I don't doubt that the problem CAN be solved therefore, but not easy and not cheap and requiring a compulsive obsessive specialist like our man, who is totally dedicated to the task.

 

[lefkasman]

loos

Aside from the usual suspects of smells in the inlet, porous hose etc there is also the holding tank vent system, because every time something, even fresh clean water goes into the tank the same volume of air (stinking natch) has to vent out, that is unavoidable.

I don't doubt that the problem CAN be solved therefore, but not easy and not cheap and requiring a compulsive obsessive specialist like our man, who is totally dedicated to the task.

Thank you Robin,
Isn't that just what I have been saying, the only way is to clean the whole system until its like new and keep it that way by flushing and cleaning, its obvious really.

 

[maxy]

Smell pipes

Change the pipes, its usually neither difficult or expensive in the scheme of things, especially if you want to keep ladies on board.

Our charter fleet toilet pipes are pretty much routinely changed every three years for this very reason.

 

[HinewaisMan]

Aside from the usual suspects of smells in the inlet, porous hose etc there is also the holding tank vent system, because every time something, even fresh clean water goes into the tank the same volume of air (stinking natch) has to vent out, that is unavoidable.

<snip>

Some folk add stuff to the tanks to treat it, but on balance I think the natural decay method is best, for which there needs to be some air to feed the good microbes, additives generally kill off the good bugs.

You've touched on one of the key points for keeping holding tanks "sweet" here. Ventilation and oxygen.

I'm happy to be corrected, but my understanding is there are two types of bugs in the holding tank - aerobic and anaerobic.

Aerobic bugs need oxygen while chomping through one's output - but do not produce bad smells as a by-product.

On the other hand, anaerobic bugs don't need oxygen and will also happily reduce the contents of the holding tank, but, Golly, they don't half smell like sh!t.

Most tanks only have one breather. Pump the tank out out and you draw in lots of fresh air and oxygen. But after a while, the aerobic bugs use all that oxygen, die off and the anaerobic bugs kick in.

So we fitted two breather lines for our holding tank - one to each side of the boat to try and ensure a bit of a cross flow of fresh air and oxygen - and it seems to work.

As an aside, to keep the head area sweet, we've found one of the best wipe down products to use is Vanilla Fridge Wipe - not sure if you can buy it in the UK though - we're still using the stuff SWMBO bulk bought before leaving Oz.

 

[V1701]

Well for various reasons, not least of which living on board in a marina on a small boat, I removed the sea toilet and installed a Porta Potti. Much better all round, I know it's not for everyone but it does surprise me there aren't more people using them...

 

[binch]

Drastiko

Drastiko is the trade name of a Greeek concoction which kills all living organisms, dissolves scale and sings the national anthem.
We do not have smelly loos since using DRASTIKO

 

[Robin]

You've touched on one of the key points for keeping holding tanks "sweet" here. Ventilation and oxygen.

I'm happy to be corrected, but my understanding is there are two types of bugs in the holding tank - aerobic and anaerobic.

Aerobic bugs need oxygen while chomping through one's output - but do not produce bad smells as a by-product.

On the other hand, anaerobic bugs don't need oxygen and will also happily reduce the contents of the holding tank, but, Golly, they don't half smell like sh!t.

Most tanks only have one breather. Pump the tank out out and you draw in lots of fresh air and oxygen. But after a while, the aerobic bugs use all that oxygen, die off and the anaerobic bugs kick in.

So we fitted two breather lines for our holding tank - one to each side of the boat to try and ensure a bit of a cross flow of fresh air and oxygen - and it seems to work.

As an aside, to keep the head area sweet, we've found one of the best wipe down products to use is Vanilla Fridge Wipe - not sure if you can buy it in the UK though - we're still using the stuff SWMBO bulk bought before leaving Oz.

That's about my understanding too. We now have a larger bore breather pipe and re-routed to remove restrictive pinched bits. A big factor for us too was that the tank was never getting fully emptied, because the pumpout pipe in the tank didn't bottom out )) plus it too was a bit smaller bore than ideal and the pipe in the tank itself was perforated meaning the suckout drew 'air' from above the real contents which then got left behind. We had a 40 gallon stated capacity that was acting 'full' after two/three days and they were pumping out under 20 gallons, yet when we got to replacing all the bad pipes and took the boat over to the pumpout dock and washed it out via the holes from removed fittings in the tank top we discovered the true capacity was near 60 gallons so we had been living with a 'retained stock in hand' all the time of nearly 40 gallons..... We now have no problem between weekly pumpouts when they still estimate they remove around 20 gallons but this time it IS emptying it all, we know because our 'man' was on hand with a flexible snake video watching to check his efforts had worked. We still get a puff of foul air as a loo is flushed to the tank, if you happen to be near the outside vent but as time passes this is much less noticeable, maybe now because the aerobic bugs are doing their job better and the tank gets cleaner with regular use??? We would have installed a vent pipe filter too but our layout means where it would need to be to be effective and not get clogged with splutters at sea, we could not easily access it to replace the cartridges when required.

Here in the USA the rules are so tight about discharge of waste that we put the systems to severe test, especially in the summer heat of Florida. The no discharge rule however IMO is rather hypocritical when the City regularly pumps out into the intracoastal via submerged 'diffusers', the stuff might well be treated and therefore bug free but it sure as heck stinks! I thought in view of 'our' tank problems that the pong was coming from us, but then when I smelled it when driving in the car half a mile away I asked a few questions of the locals and learned the truth. The 'diffusers' I discovered are even marked on the charts and we have one about half a mile away that we can smell in the marina if the wind is in the SE and there is another about a mile away northwards that stinks if you drive the scenic route at the wrong time of the tide when they open the valves or whatever they do.

Back to the original question then, yes you can get rid of the smells, but it is neither simple nor cheap, it requires total dedication to the task in hand and then continual monitoring to ensure it all stays smelling of Roses.

 

[pathfinderstu]

well thanks for your replies i had no idea i would touch on such a wide a varied subject and common problem, i would have thought that the manufacturers would have got it thoroughly sorted out by now.
maybe there is an opening for some designing wizz kid to make a venture into the lucrative yacht market.
so what do the big super yachts use? perhaps stainless tanks and pipes with stewardesses in marigolds.
my first attack on the problem will be cleaning then i fear, a winter job will be changing the pipes which seems to be the favourate solution.