Which head is best?

[Bill Root]

I have Raritan Crown Head toilets in my boat. They work fine, but the Admiral wants something more "home" like. Admittedly the CH's are pretty ugly and not real comfortable. I've thought about Vacuflush, but I seem to see a lot of postings regarding problems with them. I also understand that if a leak develops in the vac system, all the toilets become unusable. That would not be good of we were cruising. An option would be the Raritan Atlantis head. Has anyone had experience with those, or any other brands that would have a similar bowl design?

Thanks

B

 

[mike]

FWIW, we've had 3 Headhunter units on our 53MY for over 10 years with no problems. They work great, use little water and are very home like. Only down side is they are almost as loud as the vacuflush.

 

[86Hat41]

I've had a vacuflush in my charter boat for the last 6 years w/ ZERO problems. With all the beer my customers drink, I actually figure my toilet's averaging 2,700 flushes a year, I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

 

[Colwyn D]

I bought a 42C eighteen months ago, it has had an Atlantes head installed for 15 years. It is still working fine. I bought the boat 18 months ago and initially wasn't too impressed with the unit but after installing a vented loop to the discharge line to retain bowl water, eliminating all the loops in the holding tank vent line that were causing gases to vent back to the toilet and finding an unused chemical flush tank that had fallen down behind some cabinetry I now have a perfectly operating system. It is smell free, quiet, retains blue bowl water and has stood the test of time.
This toilet is the most home like in design and use of the heads I have had the pleasure of using! Just be aware that the install may be more critical than some.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Try looking in Passagemaker's on line site, and also Practical Sailor. I had Crown heads for years; they are noisy but reliable. If I were looking for a new unit, I would look at a Tecma; they are supposed to be very good indeed. Blue Note has a Par Jabsco, which is a dinosaur, and noisy. Not because it's the best (it isn't) but because the old one, which had been trouble-free for years, quit abruptly right before a 120 mile trip, so I had to replace it in twelve hours. Without re-engineering the system, I had to put in an identical unit. So your idea of changing for something else while the old ones are still working is a very good one.

 

[Pascal]

I like vacuflush, I have 3 on my boat, and on the 70 footer I run we have 4 electronic vacuflush. And we do charters! The nice thing about electronic magnum opus VF is hat they work like a home toiltet, with a flush lever, and that you can set the water level so on charter I keep them higher

Your statement about a vac leak bringing all heads to a halt is completly wrong. First each head has it's own pump and vac tank so they are fully indepenednet. Then even if you have a vac leak a VF will still work, you just need to turn offvhe pump manually... That s the good thing about VF like a Detroit they will get you home!

Very few moving parts too... And if some blonde bimbo flushes a tampon it takes 2 minutes to clear

the only alternativevi consider is the Atlantes

 

[Will]

A west coast dinner boat company uses Vacuflush on it smaller boats (up to 75 passengers) and they hold up better than anything else. I've had just about every other brand you could imagine on previous boats and Vacuflush on my present one. Vacuflush is the only way to go. Their reliability and quietness are hard to beat.
Will

 

[GJH]

I'll jump on the Vacuflush bandwagon after almost three years of full time living aboard. Other than remediating a bad installation by a PO, which took years for the effects of which to evidence themselves, I have spent less time fiddling with the toilets than I did when we lived on land.

One mistake people make with these heads is not flushing enough water through them. They treat them like an airplane toilet. A long count to three while holding down the pedal for a liquid load, and eight seconds for a solids load keeps things smooth. This still keeps water usage very low, which is important to us as we live on a mooring for months at a time, and anchor out a lot when cruising.

I think the Headhunters are still the top of the line and most abuse-proof. I have heard, but not experienced, that the Tecma Silence Plus and the Raritan Elegance are very nice as well.

 

[Skip]

VF has been trouble free for 5 years.

 

[egaito]

Another vote for Vacu Flush. The first issue came after about 10 years. Went through and replaced the faulty part, the vacuum switch, and "while I was in there", did all of the seals and duckbill valves, and put a new pump plunger. The seals were ready, and the plunger, well, I just didn't want to have to touch that job again for awhile. It's been trouble free for another 4 years so far.

I have a very small tank, and the VF uses very little water, which makes it particularly well suited to our situation.

Short of a clog, the only thing that could render them completely non-functional would be the vacuum pump motor, which is much more reliable than any grinder I've encountered.

 

[Angela]

I've messed with all four heads on Sanctuary enough to earn the title Potty Queen!, in my opinion - not something I particularly saw coming, but I've done it all from replacing a toilet seat to rebuilding the insides of the holding tank (dip tube)...and everything in between including total re-hosing of the whole boat. So, I'll throw my vote in the hat since feel qualified to cast such a vote.

I have a combo of GalleyMaid and Vacuflush at the present time. Vacuflush, by far, is my choice. Ironically, the VF seems to be my friends' and guests' favorite toilets to use, too. The only noise is the initial breaking of the vacuum seal when you flush, but I find that less annoying than the noise of the GM pumps. My neighbor has something like Crown or Raritan and when I first pushed the button to flush those, the noise startled me - sounded like there was a coat hanger in there.

My GalleyMaids have begun to stink a bit now that the water is warm and it's hot here. Those use saltwater to flush, and a whole lot of it! Not my VF, though - they use fresh water to flush and just a tiny bit. Those two VFs are on my smaller tank, too. Once I get rid of the two GalleyMaids and put in VFs in their place, I'll probably be able to go 6 weeks between pumpout, and I'm a liveaboard. Granted, I do have quite a bit of tankage.

I haven't had the VFs installed long enough to say how trouble free they are or not. I can tell you I've had them troublefree for about 2 years now. The GMs have been more work than care to do and they are beasts. I just cringe when I have to do anything with them, even the simple task of getting a spare pump out of the dock box when one needs rebuilding.

 

[Bill Root]

Boy, am I glad I asked! Sounds like my info on VF was incorrect. Thank you all very much.

Bill

 

[TopHattandTails]

Bill- hopefully I'm not stepping on your thread. Looms like you have your answer. I have a closely related thought/ question. For those of us with GM heads (blue water flush) is their a replacement toilet that is elongated, rather than round, that we can replace with? Plug and play?

 

[Beckytek]

I have had vacuflush on my last 2 boats, 5 years on first, 7 years on second, and have yet to do any maintenance.

 

[Angela]

Bill- hopefully I'm not stepping on your thread. Looms like you have your answer. I have a closely related thought/ question. For those of us with GM heads (blue water flush) is their a replacement toilet that is elongated, rather than round, that we can replace with? Plug and play?

Yes. GM makes an elongated head that works with the beastly pump you already have. http://www.galleymaid.com/gpage.html

Something tells me that toilet is real expensive - just guessing.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

My vote is for the Atlantes. We replaced the GalleyMaid's about 3-4 years ago.

You are not wrong in your observations about the volume of posts regarding Vacuflush issues. It is common to have cycling with the VF and it can be difficult to diagnose and fix.

We have owned VF, GM, Groco, and a couple of others over the years and the Atlantes is the best IMO.

 

[GJH]

I would submit that based on the posts here on this thread and my own knowledge of other installations, that it is certainly NOT common to have issues with VF heads. They are probably the most popular system on modern boats, so any issues are more a factor of quantity of installations, which leads to a certain number of bad installations, improper use, and neglect, rather than quality of product.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

I would submit that based on the posts here on this thread and my own knowledge of other installations, that it is certainly NOT common to have issues with VF heads. They are probably the most popular system on modern boats, so any issues are more a factor of quantity of installations, which leads to a certain number of bad installations, improper use, and neglect, rather than quality of product.

I beg to differ. Every winter when the boats up here are put away in the storage buildings I hear VF pumps cycling for the first month. After that someone gets smart and flips off the breakers or the boat's batteries go dead. Either way, that quiets them up.

The design is great for low water use, but it also lends itself to more maintenance than the macerator style heads.

Do a search here for VF problems and you will find more threads about that than any other head. I know they are popular and that may be part of the reason that there are so many, but I don't see many other threads about problems except for the Galleymaids.

 

[ron6785]

I have two heads both VF, both have had vac leaks and by taking them apart and tighting all clamps, I've fixed the rear head and it works perfectly never cycling. However the Admirals head cycles ever 30 minutes and despite doing the same thing with it I can't find the vac leak.

I've installed manual swithches in both heads so you can maually turn the pump off, but it's still a pain. As others have said, a Vac leak doesn't stop the unit from operating but trying to find the leak can be frustrating.

If I had to replace the units I woud not us VF's again

 

[REBrueckner]

It appears that the Vacu Flush works well for most owners and is generally trouble free...... but a vacuum leak seems like it can be difficult to correct.

Any macerator style toilet, like Raritan Crown, has pump and macerator parts immersed in water and that usually means some measure of corrosion and associated wear and tear. I ran my two Raritan Crowns in salt water and over ten years had one motor stop working and one factory installed set screw come loose (I posted about symptoms and cure several years ago). I never had any odor except from the intake salt water when it sat for a week...one flush cleared that out and no odors during many weekends of use.

I'd personally opt for an arrangement that minimized exposure of electrical motors and moving parts to water. I'd think a vacuum arrangement would prove worthwhile.....and it seems like lots of posters like the Vacu Flush..

The other consideration for some users: ease of winterizing.