Head Y valve mystery

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Jul 29, 2014

Clydo said:
I am probably the one that started the comment "Its as plain as the nose
on your face" but have question on sea water head intake. Is the intake
for our head from fresh water tank or sea water? Have two y valves and
one seacock under sink. Seacock for sink drain to thruhull. Y valve on
right hand side appears to come from fresh water tank in bow and leads
to a small filter and then to faucet.

Y valve on left hand side has two white - sanitation (?) hoses that disappear
into Never Never Land under panel towards head without a seacock in
sight.
Reason for questions my Joker valve is starting to leak and allow small
amount of water into bowl. On my C30 when this happened water would
come within 1/32d of bowl level and boat rock guess where water goes.
Need to shut off intake to replace Joker valve. Any help would be appreciated.

Clyde Thorington
C310 # 245
ILEAN TOO
San Jose, CA

It sounds like you have a non-factory setup. We don't have any Y-valves in this area of the boat. The only Y-valve is under the galley sink and used to select either the refer or the shower sump for pumping out via the shower sump pump.

Our head water comes from a through hull in the little door down near the floor at the stern of the head. The larger through hull is the macerator and the smaller is the water for the head.

Here is the plumbing diagram from the owner's manual.

Maybe some photos of your setup could help?

Good luck,

Jesse

thomasg101 · Jul 29, 2014

I just went through this issue myself. On our boat there is also a discharge valve just behind the head that controls flow to/from the toilet to the holding tank. We have a Jabsco toilet and found their tech website has very helpful videos at http://jabscotech.com

rpwillia · Jul 29, 2014

What Y Valve

AFAIK there is no Y valve in any of the 310's head discharge. Goes straight out of the head to the holding tank. From there the output T's out to the deck fitting to suck it out or out via the macerator. Actually a pretty simple and ingenious design by Catalina.

KZW · Jul 29, 2014

Pictures

I've uploaded two pictures from my 2005 C-310, sail 307.

First is picture is of the valves under the sink in the head. The Y valve on the right switches between the shower sump drain and the refrigerator drain. The sink drains directly through the seacock on the left.

The second picture is the head valves. The valve on the right is the head inlet (seawater). I never use it, preferring sacrificing fresh water from the shower head to keep sea life from stinking up the place. The valve on the left switches between pumping into the holding tank or using the macerator and pumping overboard.

At least I think that is how it all works (and I'd be happy to be corrected by someone who knows). I'm not a big fan of the diagrams in the book. They could be much clearer.

Stu Jackson · Jul 29, 2014

rpwillia said:
AFAIK there is no Y valve in any of the 310's head discharge. Goes straight out of the head to the holding tank. From there the output T's out to the deck fitting to suck it out or out via the macerator. Actually a pretty simple and ingenious design by Catalina.

Ray's right, it is simple.

However, and here comes the BUT: everything has to go through the holding tank. With a macerator, that's no issue to pump out legally.

With the addition of a straight through hull from the head to overboard, with the CHOICE of going to the HT or OB, has always been my favorite.

Your boat, your choice.

The BIG deal is for YOU to figure out how it works on YOUR boat, that's all.

Good luck.

Stu Jackson · Jul 29, 2014

KZW said:
The second picture is the head valves. The valve on the right is the head inlet (seawater). I never use it, preferring sacrificing fresh water from the shower head to keep sea life from stinking up the place.

Peggie has written repeatedly, even recently, about how doing this corrupt the hand head pump, since no water is coming in to it.

T into your sink drain for the last flush of the day and use Odorlos.

Head Odors 101.1 - "T" into sink drain: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5755.msg38216.html#msg38216

Albanach · Jul 30, 2014

My boat no 149 has the Y-valve, together with 3 thru-hulls (behind that “little door”next to the throne) installed. According to the diagram it appears to be a factory instal.

Y-valve = a) Discharge to sea, b) discharge to tank

Thru-hulls = 1) Sea water flush inlet, 2) Discharge to sea, 3) Discharge from tank? (haven’t tried it). Latter two obviously for open ocean.

rpwillia · Jul 30, 2014

Hull 185 does not have that.

Albanach said:
My boat no 149 has the Y-valve, together with 3 thru-hulls (behind that “little door”next to the throne) installed. According to the diagram it appears to be a factory instal.

Y-valve = a) Discharge to sea, b) discharge to tank

Thru-hulls = 1) Sea water flush inlet, 2) Discharge to sea, 3) Discharge from tank? (haven’t tried it). Latter two obviously for open ocean.

Wonder on which hull they changed it?

c130king · Jul 30, 2014

Hull 178 doesn't have it either.

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Jul 31, 2014

Hull 65 and no Y-valve.

I wonder if this is a US vs. other countries thing? So far, all the US boats don't have Y-valves and the Aussie boat has it.

When we chartered in the BVIs, the Jenny we were on didn't have a macerator but had a gravity dump tank. If you didn't close the exit valve it would just continuously dump over and that is how a lot of the boats down there rolled. But if you look at a Jenny at the boat show they have macerators.

Also, shower sump setup that KZW has is different than my boat. That pump and Y-valve are under the galley sink.

Interesting slight differences.

KZW · Jul 31, 2014

The first picture I posted is of the head shower sump pump and Y valve. It is under the head sink.

Cheers

peter_ms · Aug 2, 2014

KZW said:
The first picture I posted is of the head shower sump pump and Y valve. It is under the head sink. Cheers

This is not a bad idea! Hull #147 has the shower/reefer Y-valve/pump under the galley sink. The problem is that when well heeled to port; the head sink goes below the waterline. This spills water into the head. A pump on that side would prevent the backfllow more automatically than remembering to close the sink through hull.

Yes; I know they should all be closed unless required for use, and I did that for about 11 yrs but now they all stay open except the macerator discharge which I had plugged on delivery as For Pete's Sake won't be leaving the Great Lakes anytime soon, if ever

Regards
Peter

KZW · Aug 4, 2014

If you look at the picture in my post #7, you will see that my boat doesn't have the Y-valve with the white hoses. The white hoses would appear to be the same as those used to connect the head to the water intake source.

My guess (and this is a total guess) is this modification was put in to allow switching from seawater intake to the head and freshwater intake (from the sink). Follow the lines and see where they connect.

Clydo said:
Further checking I too have head intake and marcerator valves behind little door
in bulkhead near the floor stern of the head. Attached photo of two Y valves
and seacock under sink. Seacock drain for head. Y valve on right side
for shower sump and reefer drain (thanks for that info.)
Now question what does Y valve do with two white hoses? Thanks for any
answers. Maybe to shower cockpit area?

Clyde Thorington
C310 # 245
ILEAN TOO
San Jose, CA

2 OLD PIRATES · Aug 5, 2014

HI Guys.

Had a little incident over the weekend. I have a new 2013 Jabsco Manual Head. When I pump DRY it is really difficult to plunge (lots of resistance). It eventually goes down but with some effort. On WET there is no difficulty. Any Ideas?

Cheers
2 OLD PIRATES

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Aug 5, 2014

2 OLD PIRATES said:
HI Guys. Had a little incident over the weekend. I have a new 2013 Jabsco Manual Head. When I pump DRY it is really difficult to plunge (lots of resistance). It eventually goes down but with some effort. On WET there is no difficulty. Any Ideas? Cheers 2 OLD PIRATES

Lubrication. The cheap and quick way is vegetable oil or Head Lube from WM. But there are draw backs. The correct way is to disassemble the pump and lubricate with marine grade grease. Search for Peggy Hall for a full explanation of both approaches.

KZW · Aug 5, 2014

I've read that olive oil is better than vegetable oil. From what I've read (not tried it), pull the intake line from the pump, run some oil in it, pump wet and let it run around. Replace the intake line and run some water into it. Discharge into the water, not the holding tank.

If you are going to go to all that trouble, perhaps disassembly and grease/gasket kit is the way to go?

Head Y valve mystery

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