Vacu-Flush Service Time

[Pascal]

the VFs were installed about 9 or 10 years ago by a previous owner... not sure how difficult it was, it's a fairly simple system after all, the problem must have been to route hoses from the back to the bow since originally the boat had individual holding tanks.

the forward head has it's own vac tank and pump, under the fwd cabin floor.
the other 2 heads share a vad pump installed in the stbd ER. The aft head has the vac tank under the cabinetry in the aft cabin, the vip head has the tank vertical at the back of the stbd ER. both waste line merge with a Y right before the vac pump.

it works fine, even though they did stretch sealand guidelines on hose run lengths... it's a long run from the vac tank, almost near the stern, to the pump in the ER...

ideally, for redundancy, it's best to have separate pumps for each head. when they share a pump, you need to add an inline duck bill valve between each vac tank and the Y before the pump.

[egaito]

They also now have a "compact" vacuum tank. I've seen this on some newer Sea Rays and Rinkers. Seems to work fine, but I would guess the run is a bit shorter than the bigger tank.

[Paul45c]

the VFs were installed about 9 or 10 years ago by a previous owner... not sure how difficult it was, it's a fairly simple system after all, the problem must have been to route hoses from the back to the bow since originally the boat had individual holding tanks.

I'll bet that's a heck of a run.

the forward head has it's own vac tank and pump, under the fwd cabin floor.
the other 2 heads share a vad pump installed in the stbd ER. The aft head has the vac tank under the cabinetry in the aft cabin, the vip head has the tank vertical at the back of the stbd ER. both waste line merge with a Y right before the vac pump.

OK, so if I understand it correctly, each head has its own vac tank, but 2 of them share one vac pump.

ideally, for redundancy, it's best to have separate pumps for each head. when they share a pump, you need to add an inline duck bill valve between each vac tank and the Y before the pump.

Yep, and from what Ed was saying following yours, the smaller size new vac tanks would make that easier still. It's certainly no big deal to fit in a vac pump for each head, given how small they are. Thanks for the feedback, Pascal and Ed.

[bobk]

I have one that leaks slowly but acts like the return spring needs a boos. If I lift the pedal for a second, the seal is fine.

Bob

[dwaynec]

Whenever my VF start acting like the return spring needs a boost, I just take a little vaseline and rub it on the underside of the seal. That seems to do the trick.