Vacuflush. An experts guide.

[oldgit]

Grandad ...................the toilet will not flush.
Halfway through the boating holiday, seven people aboard and one of the hottest days of the year.
Lifting the lid reveals a bowl fill to the brim.
A small paper cup solves the problem of emptying the " bowl" to expose the flush cap.
Depressing the little foot pedal reveals the chamber below and the usual firm poke with the bog brush achieves nothing what so ever.
Nothing else to do but carefully put a hand into the maw of the bog and discover .............................................
One of those little plastic ice cubes, big enough to block the hole but not big enough to be sucked through.

Problem sorted ..?
You joke of course, this a boat we are talking about.

The pump has just spent the previous hour or two attempting to develop sufficent vacuum to pull the little ice cube into the holding tank and split. No vacuum .
Getting to the pump involves emptying an awkward to get at locker under the front bed.
Dismantling the vacuum pump reveals a smelly sticky gooey mess around the bellows, which had decided to call it a day.

Managed to borrow a Porta Pottie which reminded me of everything one wished to forget about the early days of boating.

A solution.
Went onto the website of the UK agent to discover a replacement bellows would cost £180.00 plus 2 pairs of Duckbill Valves @ £47.00 per pair.! Just under £300.00 ?

The actual solution. Ebay. Repair kit with all the above £65.00. Delivered free in 5 days.
Appears to be fairly heavy duty robust pieces of kit, despite dire Youtube warnings of flimsy chinese rubbish.


Then the 40L calorifier failed.
Long grumbling posts regarding impossible to lift out leisure batteries and impossible to remove/ replace calorifiers, available on request.
The size of the connections on the old and new QUICK calorifiers are totally different despite deliberately choosing to purchase the more expensive Quick replacement to make life easy.

 

[pmagowan]

I never understand people’s complete lack of faith in my assertion that nothing should go down the loo unless eaten first with the only exception being a modest amount of the bog roll provided. For some reason, despite my dire warnings, people still seem to think “what harm could a little wet wipe do”! A new toilet later, “that’s the harm a little &@€”ing wet wipe can do”!!!

I once spent a cruise of the West coast of Scotland touring the amenities for the above reason. The alternative provided was a bucket which the crew also broke by sitting on it!!

 

[oldgit]

"I once spent a cruise of the West coast of Scotland touring the amenities for the above reason. The alternative provided was a bucket which the crew also broke by sitting on it!!"

Did discover that Thames marinas still retain a hole in ground marked " ELSAN"

 

[Bilgediver]

You are in Headmistress territory here and you could well find her on Cruisersform.com.

She might comment regarding quality etc . Have you got a genuine Vscuflush?

The agents in the UK are Lee Sanitation.

 

[oldgit]

Would normally agree but Ebay kit £65.00 or less than £35.00 if you search hard enough.

£300.00 from the the authorised dealer, better quality indubitably. , but x 5 or x 10 the cost. .

Its a 20 min swap when you get the hang of it and difficult to justify ?

 

[lustyd]

Jabsco toilets get an awful lot of but they and their parts are available and in stock pretty much everywhere and a whole new loo is under £200

 

[pmagowan]

Yep, with jabsco disposable toilets if you get a blockage you just change the whole toilet and job done! Stink contained! This is the modern way, landfill and planet earth can take another one for the team!

 

[lustyd]

You can swap out parts too, but the parts are cheap and available everywhere. The only difference to the loo discussed here is the price and availability. I guess difficult to source expensive parts might help the environment by stopping people fixing stuff

 

[justanothersailboat]

Jabsco not only have service kits, but you can also swap the pump as a unit if it goes beyond what you can manage with the service kit, leaving intact the big, heavy, more costly bit that has nothing to go wrong, In my case (non driver!) that also saved me having to carry an entire toilet around on the train, for which I am entirely grateful.

 

[billskip]

Getting to the pump involves emptying an awkward to get at locker under the front bed.

Then the 40L calorifier failed.
Long grumbling posts regarding impossible to lift out leisure batteries and impossible to remove/

Which bit about Princess is it that you do like?

 

[oldgit]

Which bit about Princess is it that you do like?

The Princess 35 is long gone, having spent 5 years getting it into some sort of mostly working at the same time condition, decided to buy something newer with a whole bunch of new and excitingly different things waiting to break .
Reckon should have everything on this boat working properly in about 3 years time ?

VacuFlush now nearly working, just got to work out how to wire the little vacuum micro switch to switch off the pump.
As for those antediluvian only slightly less smelly than a bucket "Jabscos," they are best left on Noahs Ark.

 

[billskip]

The Princess 35 is long gone,

I mustav missed that ..or forgotten...a git getting old....I think the san Lorenzo thread mentions the best type of bog, I seem to remember an article about a nordhavn 86 getting rid of the vacuum system due to never ending problems.

 

[PaulRainbow]

I wouldn't touch a Vacuflush with a bargepole, how complicated do you need a bog to be ?

I'd bin it and fit a Planar or Tecma.

 

[lustyd]

As for those antediluvian only slightly less smelly than a bucket "Jabscos," they are best left on Noahs Ark

Mine doesn't smell at all. With only the slightest amount of cleaning and maintenance they are great devices and don't leave you waiting a week for overpriced parts to arrive. We're all free to make choices on our own boats though, so I wish you luck with your poo-vac and paper cup system

 

[billskip]

Mine doesn't smell at all. With only the slightest amount of cleaning and maintenance they are great devices and don't leave you waiting a week for overpriced parts to arrive. We're all free to make choices on our own boats though, so I wish you luck with your poo-vac and paper cup system

There's a good exploding bog story about by HLB (Grhs)

 

[Fr J Hackett]

There's a good exploding bog story about by HLB (Grhs)

Hayden a forum veteran now sadly gone to the great marina in the sky. A funny chap.

 

[oldgit]

Having had Jabscos and their clones on all my boats since the 1980s can confirm one does eventually became accustomed to the
malodorous whiff of Hydrogen Sulfide wafting out on the pan after use, no matter how many expensive anti whiff brews you stick down it.
And as for the sure as smelly eggs certainty that the exit pipe will eventually refuse to pass anything due to filling up with calcium wee deposits and will either need replacing or in my case stripping out and breaking up the deposits with rubber hammer......................Enjoy

My 20 year old "Vacuflush" is a civilised delight compared to a modified bucket aka the Jabsco.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Having had Jabscos and their clones on all my boats since the 1980s can confirm one does eventually became accustomed to the
malodorous whiff of Hydrogen Sulfide wafting out on the pan after use, no matter how many expensive anti whiff brews you stick down it.
And as for the sure as smelly eggs certainty that the exit pipe will eventually refuse to pass anything due to filling up with calcium wee deposits and will either need replacing or in my case stripping out and breaking up the deposits with rubber hammer......................Enjoy

My 20 year old "Vacuflush" is a civilised delight compared to a modified bucket aka the Jabsco.

Partially true, there are ways of overcoming all you suggest as problematic with Jabsco's and indeed other marine toilets. However the Jabsco is a cheap compromise and prone to mechanical failure for which there is no cure other than continual maintenance and expenditure. Having had over 20 years experience of Jabscos and RMs were I to buy another boat I would definitely remove the inevitable Jabsco and replace it with one of the more albeit expensive but civilised options available.

 

[oldgit]

Partially true, there are ways of overcoming all you suggest as problematic with Jabsco's and indeed other marine toilets. However the Jabsco is a cheap compromise and prone to mechanical failure for which there is no cure other than continual maintenance and expenditure. Having had over 20 years experience of Jabscos and RMs were I to buy another boat I would definitely remove the inevitable Jabsco and replace it with one of the more albeit expensive but civilised options available.

...apart from the constant pong always enjoyed that constant weep from the pump handle shaft and wondering if it was wee / something far worse or hopefully merely salt water on your hands .
At least with marine bogs from the 20th century the flush is foot operated rather than requiring the urgent need to disinfect the hand used to pump out the £$%^& in the system.

..............a glance at any calendar will reveal its 2024 not 1964.

 

[RobbieW]

Nearly as good as an anchor thread Personally, I like a Lavac