Sanitation plumbing

[brettportzer]

One of the things that is cool about this forum and similar discussions is the interesting things that people have done that make things better, more serviceable etc.

Looking to see if anyone has any ideas here, any interesting mods or methods, etc...

So, our boat originally had two salt water heads, no holding tanks plumbed. Eventually this was switched over to a dual vacuflush system running up to an treatment and discharge tank, about 8 or 9 gallons. Holding tanks never plumbed.

There were some issues with the system when we got the boat and we replaced most of the pumps (new VG4, etc) and I transferred the plumbing from the treatment system to the front 80 gal holding tank.

Both heads were plumbed together, and went to the front, we have a 43DC and so the front tank is now waste, the middle is water, and I'd like to use the rear tank for diesel for the generator, I think, it remains unplumbed.

I have removed the old holding tank, both heads and most of the connecting plumbing, and I have Raritan Marine Elegance freshwater heads to install.

I am planning to use the 1" hose, and dump them both separately into the hold tank, using the 1" fittings, use the 1 1/4" fitting for the vent, and keep the 2" fitting as the pumpout fitting.

Basically toilet - hose - tank, nothing fancy.

Anyway, wondering if anyone has done something similar, and done something more interesting than that to make it more serviceable in some way?

We are completely in a non discharge zone for 100 miles in any direction, and while I am retaining the thru hulls that were used to output, I am not going to be using them currently. Cleaning the area up significantly so that they could be used in the future.

Anyway, any place to put a valve that is handy, or something that could be useful on a complete replacement of the sanitation system?

The one thing I am thinking about is that hose goes through the wall to the toilet and whether or not I should have maybe a short piece that it is connected to initially for winterizing, or to make it easier to remove the toilet if necessary, etc...

I also thought about putting a valve in at the tank end of the pumpout adapter hose such that could close the valve and fill the hose with water and some noflex for a few hours after pumping out to keep it clean, and then just open the valve and dump the hose full of water into the tank.

Thanks!

 

[brettportzer]

BTW, the reason I am doing this and removing the new vacuflush pumps and stuff is because the heads themselves were from 1978 and also the plumbing to the thruhulls on the output side is all wrong, and it is fairly convoluted and it just seemed better to start over, and everyone here likes the Marine Elegance pretty well, etc...

I am trying to make maintenance easier with any of these upgrades or mods, etc...

 

[Jammin']

When we got our boat, I installed two new Raritan Marine Elegance heads and replaced all hoses including the vent hose. All waste hoses are 2". My tanks are: forward unused, then water, then waste. The front head is plumbed into the waste tank only. The rear head is plumbed into a Y-valve that goes either to the holding tank or to a Purasan unit we installed, which discharges overboard. I installed the Y-valve roughly behind (forward) the toilet. I have a lighted rocker switch to turn off the Purasan unit when it is in the holding tank position, as the flush is integrated with the Purasan unit. If I were to do it again, I would skip the Purasan unit. I think it's finicky and not worth the effort.

 

[brettportzer]

Hilariously, the thing that caught my eye in the pic was that little bracket for the switch.

Where did you get that?

When we got our boat, I installed two new Raritan Marine Elegance heads and replaced all hoses including the vent hose. All waste hoses are 2". My tanks are: forward unused, then water, then waste. The front head is plumbed into the waste tank only. The rear head is plumbed into a Y-valve that goes either to the holding tank or to a Purasan unit we installed, which discharges overboard. I installed the Y-valve roughly behind (forward) the toilet. I have a lighted rocker switch to turn off the Purasan unit when it is in the holding tank position, as the flush is integrated with the Purasan unit. If I were to do it again, I would skip the Purasan unit. I think it's finicky and not worth the effort.

 

[brettportzer]

As an update to this thread, from my end, I have removed all of the old plumbing stuff and am setting about to install the new.

I am going to keep it fairly simple, basically just running the 1" hose from the new Raritan Marine Elegance heads up to the front holding tank.

So, for each head, it will literally just be one continuous piece of hose, connected from toilet to tank.

I removed the rear toilet near the end of the season, but not quite at the end, and I capped off the hose that was coming out of the VG4 unit, to the holding tank.

Since both vacuflush units connected to a section of PVC and then went into the tank together, I was worried that the bow head would fill up the hose going to the back.

I was correct, and luckily when I started to remove the hoses and PVC sections I found them completely full of frozen effluent, from the Y back.

Pictured is about 20' of 1 1/2" ID pipe or hose, completely full.

What was lucky is that none of it leaked when I cut through it.

It would have been a real mess were it warmer!

 

[Jammin']

Hilariously, the thing that caught my eye in the pic was that little bracket for the switch.

Where did you get that?

It's a part geared toward snow plows that I got from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C8TDGX4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1