smelly looes

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pathfinderstu

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hi ...have just clinched a deal on an excharter beneteau cyclades 43. i am generally very pleased with the deal but the toilets seem to stink a bit i have noticed the same kind of smell on other boats, its a strong smell not of sewage but obviously related to it in some form. somebody said change the pipes but that seems a bit extreme.also am in e,med so very hot..any ideas welcome. (well sensable ones!)
 
Get Rid of Boat Odors: A Boat Owner's Guide to Marine Sanitation Systems and Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor [Paperback] byPeggie Hall

Available from Amazon
 
I doubt you will get rid of the pong without changing the pipes; it's usually the inlet that is causing the problem. I di this last winter with the boat ashore and, whilst I would not say it was pleasant, it was not too difficult a job. We flushed a lot of discinfectant through and used a hair dryer to soften the old pipes and got them off suprisingly easily (boat was 13 years old). We dipped the new pipes in hot water and used a little vaseline to get them them on and again it was fairly easy.
 
VicMallows said:
It will almost certainly be caused by the INLET water/hose......not the outlet as it would intuitively seem.
Click to expand...


Agree its anaerobic bacteria in the inlet pipe causing the smell.

I solved it as follows - get one of the Lee Sanitation devices http://www.leesan.com/index.asp?m=3...r+Treatment+for+Heads+Treatment+Systems+(HTS)
Get a swimming pool chlorine block at Carrefour and break it up into pea size pieces. Add one piece to the device and this doses the flush water with mild chlorinated water for about a month before it’s used up. One block lasted us over 10 years.

It kills all the bugs, leaves the flush water smelling slightly of chlorine is effortless and trouble free.
 
Bite the bullet and change the pipes - and get good quality "odourless" piping. Anything else will be a waste of time and effort. The inlet pipe will have absorbed a bacteria smell and the outlet pipe will have calcium deposits. Anything you try will only mask the smell temporarily.
 
I imagine (perhaps a forlorn hope) that Beneteau would use sanitation grade hose ready and that does resist smell penetrating the hose. However, it might have degraded or been poor quality to start with. So replacing it would help if it was porous but that might not be the main problem.

The problem almost always lies with the inlet hose as already mentioned earlier. Bacteria breed in the pipe and any trapped seaweed just makes matters worse. Even if you replace the pipe the smell will still appear when you flush the system after a period without use.

Unfortunately, pouring things into the loo won't help as it only flushes the outlet side. I fitted T-pieces in both basin outlet and head inlet pipes with a valve connecting them. This is easy to do and allows the suction pipe to be flushed by closing the basin outlet, head inlet. Just a matter of putting fresh water, vinegar etc. into the basin, opening the connecting valve and pumping it through to the bowl.

I can't take credit for the idea but it is a cheap and easy modification. It won't stop bugs growing back but it only takes a minute to put something in to kill them again.

It certainly works and is much easier than dismantling pipework each time.

Might be worth considering as some heads seem prone to this problem. My aft head never seemed to smell but the forward one always did after a month or so.
 
well thanks for the replies boys. they have even written a book on the subject.!
very useful info, the last place i would have looked would have been the inlet.

the lee device looks good but at 73 quid a time for 3 toilets in the boat sounds expensive.

maybe will try that flushing system with the sink connection suggested and do that this winter.

in the mean time may change the inlet pipe if its not too big a job.
 
Experience from my boat, very smelly heads.

Remove old inlet and outlet pipes, replace with new, ensure that all connection points are secure and liquid proof.

In depth clean of all surfaces and lockers using hot water and strong flash solution, special attention to grating on sole which was lifted sanded washed and resealed with varnish.

Then apply liberal quantities of enzyme based pet odour killer everywhere with special attention to nooks and crannys and all wood surfaces, leave for as long as possible, repeat.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simple-Solu...?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1342254364&sr=1-2

Then maintain cleanliness with normal cleaning, it does help if male crew don't pee standing up.

Result a fragrant head.

If you can get the outlet hose on using a hair drier or hot water it probably isn't the right stuff, mine needed hot air gun.

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 found those things that inject blue into the bowl useless and made the boat smell unpleasantly of blue chemical.

Peggy Halls' book is very good although a bit of care is needed as American cleaning products have different names to those in UK/Europe.
 
boaterbaz said:
Dear Mr Pathfinder,
Please note accepted spelling is Loo.
Regards
Boaterbaz, postcode PL13 *HD.:D
Click to expand...

dear mr baz.,,,,,everyone else seems to have accepted it apart from you....lol

however next time i use slang i will make sure i consult the oxford dictionary first...or was it cambridge? .!
 
boaterbaz said:
Dear Mr Pathfinder,
Please note accepted spelling is Loo.
Regards
Boaterbaz, postcode PL13 *HD.:D
Click to expand...

No it's not, it's bog!

As already said could either be the pipes having become porous or the dead bugs in the inlet side slowly rotting away. If after a good flush through the smell remains then it's almost certainly the pipes.
 
pathfinderstu said:
hi ...have just clinched a deal on an excharter beneteau cyclades 43. i am generally very pleased with the deal but the toilets seem to stink a bit i have noticed the same kind of smell on other boats, its a strong smell not of sewage but obviously related to it in some form. somebody said change the pipes but that seems a bit extreme.also am in e,med so very hot..any ideas welcome. (well sensable ones!)
Click to expand...
Newish benes and other of the ilk, smell of pee but actually it is the smell of resin. if is is pee, usually due to blokes pissin and missin. It then ferments around the bowl. Give it all a good washing and scrubbing with nice hot soapy water. The pipe issue might be a red herring, clean it first!
Stu
 
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