can't pump out waste tank

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Your mechanic needs to stick to engine repair if he thinks the absence of device that's illegal to use in your waters would have ANY impact on the resale value of your boat! Plus, a Jabsco macerator pump sells for +/-- $200...hardly a deal breaker.

--Peggie

 

[Windpilot]

Who wants to buy a boat with missing factory parts jury rigged not to work?
An H456 is meant to go places, I get the idea if you were keeping the boat and keeping it there. But you're planing on selling, you could just leave it be, let the buyer know, let them decide.
If you can own a 456 I'm sure $400 for 2 new maceraters is probably going to be ok, even if you can't use them where you're at now.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

1. Macerator pumps are optional equipment that are rarely factory installed, but almost always installed on new boats by dealers where legal to use, or aftermarket by owners whether they can use them legally or not.

2. Leaving non-working equipment in place can raise a red flag with potential buyers about how well the boat has been maintained. Replace equipment not to use it is a bad idea because sitting unused for long periods is more destructive to equipment--especially electric equipment--than heavy use because rubber parts--seals, impellers--dry out, crack and crumble...lubrication settles in sealed motors, no longer providing any protection from corrosion in them...and the cheap Chinese steel bolts that Jabsco uses don't last long either. After 2-3 years replacing equipment just for "show" instead of "go" becomes a waste of money. If the buyer wants a macerator pump, the seller can install one as a condition of sale.

--Peggie

 

[bawlmer]

Understood that a macerator is inexpensive but the real cost is the time, trouble and general groadiness of replacing it. Since I already have my tank out, flushed and cleaned, I am going to take advantage of the situation and replace the pump hopefully for the last time in my life.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

You DO know that not only is New England a "hotbed" of NDZs, it's also illegal to dump a tank anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay or anywhere in DelMarVa? So you'd have take the boat out to sea at least 3 miles from the nearest point of land on the whole US coastline to use the macerator pump unless you want to do so illegally.

Just sayin'.....

--Peggie

 

[Tom J]

You DO know that not only is New England a "hotbed" of NDZs, it's also illegal to dump a tank anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay or anywhere in DelMarVa? So you'd have take the boat out to sea at least 3 miles from the nearest point of land on the whole US coastline to use the macerator pump unless you want to do so illegally.

Just sayin'.....

--Peggie

IIRC, the state of Florida required a 9 mile ride offshore to dump a holding tank on the Gulf Coast. Made for a nice day sail.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

IIRC, it's 9 miles off the Gulf side in the Keys, 6 miles the rest of the west coast side. However, FL law has been revised several times..for instance, the first version declared any boat with sleeping quarters and a toilet to be a "houseboat," so I could be wrong. I do know that the enviro-zealots have been pushing for years to make the rules for Gulf side apply to the Atlantic side, but so far haven't succeeded.

Oddly enough, except for a few well-meaning but misguided marinas, there are only 3 NDZs in the entire state of Florida: Key West Harbor, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Destin Harbor. The discharge of treated waste from a USCG certified Type I or II MSD (onboard treatment device) is legal in all other FL waters except closed (non-navigable by interstate traffic) fresh water lakes, all of which are NDZs under federal law.

--Peggie

 

[Windpilot]

Shouldn't everyone here already know about no discharge zones and if and where they can discharge. That said, removing a Hunter factory installed macerater pump and associated plumbing just because you happen to currently be in a NDZ is not a good idea and will lower the value of the boat.
Sure, if you never leave the marina, lake, or you own little NDZ ,nothing really needs to work, in fact it just needs to float.

 

[JamesG161]

A lot of good advice, but I thought these pictures my help focus on his issue

OEM Vacu Flush


Hold tank showing inserted level meter


And the Momentary Macerator Switch



If he does not have his Owners Manual , Download here..

HunterOwners.com downloads

Jim...

PS: It sounds like a tank vent problem to me.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Apparently YOU don't know the difference between an NDZ and where it's only illegal to dump a tank. Nor that 99% of macerator pumps are DEALER, not factory installed and have no impact whatever on the resale value of any boat.

--Peggie

 

[flightlead404]

Your mechanic needs to stick to engine repair if he thinks the absence of device that's illegal to use in your waters would have ANY impact on the resale value of your boat! Plus, a Jabsco macerator pump sells for +/-- $200...hardly a deal breaker.

--Peggie

I would definitely be something I’d ask seller to fix - at least if I knew about it. If macerator switch was on the panel but pump obviously gone it would be easy to tell. I used mine regularly cruising between Sc and Fl

 

[flightlead404]

IIRC, it's 9 miles off the Gulf side in the Keys, 6 miles the rest of the west coast side. … I do know that the enviro-zealots have been pushing for years to make the rules for Gulf side apply to the Atlantic side, but so far haven't succeeded.

And yet the Mississippi River is essentially an open sewer draining all the manure from the heartland meat industry into the gulf slowly killing it while being essentially free of epa regs. Huh funny old world.

 

[sabbatical88]

Hi,
Thought I'd finally follow up on this and ask another question. I went to the pump out station and the aft tank was empty (confirming it is working) while the fwd holding tank was full. I got it pumped out and when back to port. I pulled the discharge line off the macerator and confirmed with air pressure that the line was clear to through the hull. Has to be the macerator, right? So I painstakingly replaced it, filled the tank water and some biodegradable soap from the deck pumpout fitting hoping to see bubbles when I ran it, but nada, nyet, nicht. Soo, what next? Apparently the new macerator is still not sucking out of the holding tank? Is it the hose from holding tank to the macerator? Or should I suspect the off brand replacement macerator? Since the macerator is above the holding tank, there it must first suck air before sucking water, so it has to be an air tight vacuum in order to start the liquid running I suppose. Would you all recommend I (painstakingly) replace the hose from holding tank to macerator as the next step, or something else? Mahalo for any suggestions.

 

[All U Get]

We met some cruisers with a similar problem. The tank was plugged so bad that neither the macerator nor the deck outlet would work. They were able to add vinegar and baking soda to soften the plug. Eventually the deck outlet worked, but the macerator had to be replaced. Could you draw a diagram of your system? Our friends actually had disconnected the hose from the bottom tank and were poking a wire to break through the clog when they finally asked for help.

 

[sailme88]

When the macerator on our boat failed it became necessary to autopsy the system.. The holding tank was vacuumed out dockside just before the winter haul out.. Once home, it took a series of experiments to devise a spill containment system that would facilitate tank and pump removal while limiting cabin contamination. Once free of the cabin, the tank was founds to have a dried layer of waste. I managed to get the tank cleaned and in between the cleaning process tackled the pump.

The pump motor while spinning was toast. The pump body was found to have multiple wrappings of string around the impeller shaft, the result of the PO's wife flushing feminine hygiene products. There was also small rock solid pieces of feces that looked like dog kibble..

The plumbing looked OEM and was terrible. The tank fed the macerator directly. The fix was to isolate the macerator completely from the tank with a sewerage rated gate valve and union join to facilitate future macerator replacement.

To capture any black water that originally would have spilled, I took an extra large paint roller pan and cut off the legs. it was placed under the feed hose from the tank to macerator. The top of the hot was just barely cut. The black water was captured by the roller pan.. The pan emptied and the hose cut a bit more.. this process was repeated until the hose was severed and no black water remained.. Then it was tank removal time and back to the top of this posting...

 

[JamesG161]

I have a sealand fresh water vacuflush toilets and 20 gallon holding tanks

This adds another potential issue to your Trouble shooting.
Jim...

 

[Windpilot]

This adds another potential issue to your Trouble shooting.
Jim...

A vacuflush system does not change a single thing regarding the holding tank and pumping it out. All it does is push the waste into the holding tank.
It's either a faulty macerater or blockage in that line.

 

[JamesG161]

It's either a faulty macerater or blockage in that line.

Or
1) air leaking Deck Pump out Cap.
2) Plugged Hold Tank Vent line

In fact any air leaking into the Suction of the Macerator will prevent priming.
Jim...

 

[Windpilot]

Or
1) air leaking Deck Pump out Cap.
2) Plugged Hold Tank Vent line

In fact any air leaking into the Suction of the Macerator will prevent priming.
Jim...

Yes, you're absolutely right about the air leaks but they would need to be quite substantial leaks which should be noticeable as actual leakage (at least at the bottom end) and a blocked vent would be noticeable by other problems like trouble flushing and possibly the smell of gases inside the boat as the pressure escapes through fittings before real nasty things happen.
However the deck pump out line (on my 410) is a completely separate line, opposite side from the macerater pick up at the bottom of the tank, it would have no bearing on pumping out with the macerater open cap or not.

 

[sabbatical88]

Thanks for the comments. I'm really hoping it's a deck pump cap.
@JamesG161, since I was able to pump out, does that mean I can rule out a plugged hold tank vent line? It seems like like a blockage there would prohibit pumping out also?
@Windpilot, is taking off the macerator and running a snake down the line to the holding tank a good idea?
Attached are a few diagrams for the record. Of course I have the vacupump between the head and the holding tank, which is not shown.
thanks, John