Vacuflush toilet??

[Hopffc2003]

Im Only a month in with this boat learning every day. I have a sealand vacuum toilet. 500 plus or 1000 series. I had my waste tank pumped out. My tank watch now shows empty. However there is either a clog or something im missing. I have a switch on wall that says run or sleep. And a foot lever to open the bowl. When pressing the foot lever down it will not go down. I gently plunged it and that helped some. I sucked out the waste water from toilet but still see it down below some in the pipe. Is there a valve that shuts off the waste going to the waste tank? When i had it pumped out originally. I had someone pressing the foot lever to keep the valve open it never pulled it out so i vacummed from the toilet itself. I also do not hear anything when i switch the vacuflush on. All breakers are on. If it is a clog is there a preffered method? Getting a plumber or mobile mechanic has seemed impossible. 1963 34 hatteras SF.

 

[Pascal]

VF are pretty simple

Make sure the breaker is on and the wall switch to on as well. Not sleep. I ve never understood why people installed that switch anyway...

Locate the vacuum pump and the vacuum tank. In some cases they are together, sometimes they are not. Does the pump run? If it does run and doesn’t stop you try no building vacuum.

On the vacuum tank you will find a vacuum switch, Activated by a rod with a spring. Try pulling the washer like knob away from the tank and see if the pump starts. If it starts then you have vacuum and likely have a clog between the head and the vacuum tank

Sometimes if the breaker was off or the useless night switch was in night position, if someone flushes solids they will be caught at the Venturi at the bottom of the head and my not be sucked out when the the pump gets started because it is the Venturi effect that macerates solids. Try breaking the solids with a wire hanger

 

[lake of the woods]

Vacuflush toilets work very well when properly used and maintained. This is not a criticism just an observation from years of maintaining my two heads.

Too much toilet paper will plug the system. Tampons and underware liners will plug the system. Kleenex and disposable wipes will plug the system. We advise all people on the boat how to properly use the heads and have instructions on proper use posted above the head.

Once your heads are plugged (ie vacum does not clear the head) you need to shut off the water to the head before it fills too much from repeatedly trying to flush. In my boat I do this by shutting off the water pump breaker and opening a tap to clear the pressure in the system. I have not found plungers to be effective drain hose clearers in a vacuflush system but a sink drain "canister auger" (~$15 at Home Depot) is a good inexpensive tool for unplugging lines for the Vacuflush head and sink drains. Tampons usually end up plugging the duck bills (have spares on hand) or plunger mechanism and must be removed by dismantling the vacum mechanism and removal of the offending object by robber glove. Keep a number of spare parts on the boat because over a few years you will use them. Parts are not cheep but not having a working head is worse. One other thing; one year I decided to educate myself on the septic system on my boat and removed the vacum mechanism and heads from the boat (quick and fairly easy to do) then cleaned and rebuilt them. By doing that I learned how the system worked and where the system could plug or where failures may happen. As a result of this exercise and, telling each new guest how to properly use the heads, this has resulted in years of trouble free septic issues.

Mark
Lake of the Woods
1989 40 DC

 

[Pascal]

Very few marine heads will handle tampons and heavy paper towels. The good thing about vacuflush is that they rarely fail completely. You may have a vac leak or they may take a while building vacuum But they will still work. You can just turn off the breaker while not in use and keep Cruising until You can handle it.

When accessible, cleaning something out of the pump is no big deal especially if the pump was installed high so you don’t have a lot of stuff in the hoses. Just loosen the clamps unscrew the fittings and clear the clog

 

[madhatter1]

Tampoons are public enemy #1!