Vacuflush - Three years running

[JLR]

Another problem with my vacuflush head. The pump is cycling every ten minutes. Switch replaced, hosing replaced, head and bowl unit replaced, duck bills replaced. The only thing that is original is the vacuum tank and the pump. I know that means a vacuum leak. I listened (using a hose) to try to find the leak to no avail. If the duck bills are leaking, is that something that can/cannot be heard?

[takefive]

Dumb question but is the bowl staying full of water? If not the seal on the ball could be dirty/bad.

[JLR]

Not dumb at all. The bowl does stay full of water.

[Pascal]

that's a lot of parts to throw at a minor cycling issue! problem is that now you have a bunch of new stuff in... and New means "Never Ever Worked"

how old is the system, the head and bowl shoudl last just about forever... and there is no reason for hoses to leak unless they have an obvious defect.

chances are teh DBs were not installed correclty or overtightened, that's the nr 1 cause for occasional cycling. when i replace DBs, i put a little bit of liquid soap on the flange to enusure they dont' get distorded. I also use thread tape on all fittings.

[JLR]

Pascal - thanks. The parts were thrown at it to cure a number of different problems over the past three years. Unfortunately, as one problem goes away, another rears its ugly head.

[Hattenuff]

When you say switch, I'm assuming you are referring to the vacuum switch on the vacuum reservoir, which do fail over time. I had a similar slow leak which turned out to be an elbow on the vacuum tank that hadn't been glued on well enough. you might need to remove the tank and pressure test the fittings; just don't damage the vacuum switch from the pressure.

[GJH]

Sealand makes a purpose-built vacuum tester that is invaluable in these situations. I recently re-did the entire pump and vacuum tank on our master stateroom system, though pump turned out to be fine, so I have a spare. The root cause was a bad installation on the part of the PO; too many 90 degree bends, too much vertical lift, elbow on tank mounted wrong, etc. Down near the bottom of the page here, part 530002:

http://www.sealandservices.com/vacuflush_parts.htm

There are other places that sell them, this link was 1st on Google.

[JLR]

I have ordered a rebuild kit for the pump. Yes, the vacuum switch solved the problem of the pump not turning on, the hosing solved the problem of a kink just under the deck short of the bowl, the base of the bowl solved the problem of a water leak at the base of the bowl and the beat goes on. The rebuild kit should solve the problem if it is either the duck bills or the bellows in the pump. Since I use this boat for day fishing and not sleepiong aboard, I am getting to the point of just turning the breaker on when I need the head and shutting it off when I am done with the head. I have already surpassed the price of a new system (labor included) so this is this system's last hurray.

[JLR]

After the head pump rebuild was done, it now only cycles every half hour rather than every ten minutes. Is this proper?

[Liquid Asset]

My understanding is that it should go for at least a few hours without cycling. Not a 1/ hour. Keep looking, you will find the leak.