Jabsco Macerator Pump, design flaw

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Sep 5, 2009
135
Hunter 45 CC Marina del Rey
I bought in May 2009 a new Hunter 45CC. Both macerator pumps (Jabsco 18950) broke down after less than 3 years despite of only little use. The bolts broke and black water was leaking into the bilge. The motor part gets loose and then the pump leaks. It appears to be a design flaw!

Please notify all Hunter owner friends who have the same pump and ask them to check the pumps frequently.

I hope you have not he same problem!,

Viktor
 

Rick D

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Jun 14, 2008
7,131
Hunter Legend 40.5 Shoreline Marina Long Beach CA
I bought in May 2009 a new Hunter 45CC. Both macerator pumps (Jabsco 18950) broke down after less than 3 years despite of only little use. The bolts broke and black water was leaking into the bilge. The motor part gets loose and then the pump leaks. It appears to be a design flaw!Viktor
I can guarantee the same problem. My last two failures were exactly the same thing, both Jabsco & both with broken bolts. The Johnson unit that is the same snorkel and outlet design, but slightly different foot pads may be one solution, but a diaphragm pump like SeaLand's is a more expensive, more troublesome to retrofit and likely a more enduring solution.
 
Jan 4, 2006
6,444
Hunter 310 West Vancouver, B.C.
Any Indication ...................

.............. of the failure mechanism on the bolts ? Was it a failure due to mechanical forces or was corrosion the culprit ?

Looking at the installation, is there any chance that the pump body is putting any stress on the motor ............ maybe the motor being solidly mounted and the attached piping being rigid ?

I've got one lurking under a sofa and will be keeping an eye on it. Thanks for the heads up.
 

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Sep 25, 2008
7,075
Alden 50 Sarasota, Florida
I"ve seen many boats with the same problem. In almost every case, it isn't the pump that is the problem but the installation which was incorrect allowing black water to sit in the pump while not in use.
 
May 28, 2009
764
Hunter 376 Pensacola, FL
Just my humble opinion, but I would consider anything that pumps poop and goes long periods of time with said substance sitting stagnent inside it should be considered a disposable item in need of frequent replacement. I imagine the cost to build something that could truly last in that environment would probably be quite significant.
 
Dec 2, 1997
8,708
- - LIttle Rock
The problem is two-fold and it's not a design flaw

I"ve seen many boats with the same problem. In almost every case, it isn't the pump that is the problem but the installation which was incorrect allowing black water to sit in the pump while not in use.
Don, you're like most boat owners today...nothing should require any effort to maintain it. The real problem with Jabsco macerators a combination of cheap, low quality materials and owner failure to rinse out the tank and macerator regularly to prevent waste that's gone through it--it doesn't have to be left sitting in it--from corroding it. Few boat owners even bother to rinse out the system before winterizing, much less do so as regular preventive maintenance. And the less often a macerator pump is used, the faster it will disintegrate, because lack of use is more destructive to any equipment than continuous heavy use.

Macerator pumps are like most things today: you get what you pay for (but unfortunately almost everything today is cheap junk and therefore "disposable")...and Jabsco macerator pumps (and toilets) are the least expensive on the market, which is why boat builders use 'em. But if you have to replace 'em every few years, you actually spend FAR more than the price of a good quality pump. So take Rick's advice and replace it with a SeaLand T-Series electric diaphragm pump. You'll still have rinse it out at least a couple of times a year, and replace two duckbill valves every couple of years (about $20), but they last for decades.
 
May 28, 2009
764
Hunter 376 Pensacola, FL
Peggy,

How exactly does one go about rinsing out a macerator pump? Mine for example is plumbed via a T fitting to the overboard pumpout line for my holding tank. The only conceivable way to run anything through my pump is to draw it from the holding tank. Since that would be considered waste water, my marina would definitely frown on my filling my holding tank with fresh water from a hose and then pumping it out with my macerator pump. As I live on the Gulf Coast, the EPA in its wisdom has decided that I need to be at least nine miles off shore to pump my tank overboard, which including the transit time to/from the Gulf, would pretty much take me a whole day to conduct a five minute evolution. Not trying to be smart here, just curious if there's some way to do this that I'm overlooking.
 
Dec 19, 2006
5,809
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
On Boat

I feel anything on a boat out on the water and even worst salt water takes hard use just from the elements of the moist air and this means corrison on all the parts and so many times equipment needs to be cleaned from corrison and or flushed and cleaning of most things on my 2007 H-36,every year it seems some thing stops working due to lack of my proper pre maintance but my macerator ihas not been one of them,here in florida the boats are in and on the water all year and so they get lots of salt water in and on them and need to cared after much more so and it's part of owning a boat and the more you take care of them the better they are but nothing is in stone.
Nick
 
Dec 19, 2006
5,809
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
Pump Out

Here in SW Florida and have done even up north they due allow to flush the tank with fresh water when ever pumping out,yes it seems the holding tank never empties out completely but by adding fresh water it cuts down on the salt water and poop eating everything up and when I do go off shore from here in Punta Gorda I do rinse the tank empty and add fresh water,I also use fresh water for flushing when just day sailing or weekends around our local harbor and that cuts down on tiolet from taking a beating.
I try going to the pump out when not so busy and spend extra time rinsing with fresh water when no one is waiting to use it and than tip the dock hand.
Nick
 
Dec 2, 1997
8,708
- - LIttle Rock
How exactly does one go about rinsing out a macerator pump?

One also rinses out the tank--which, btw, does NOT require filling up the tank water...you'll find instructions for doing it in the Head Mistress forum. It should be done 2-3x/season to elliminate sludge and especially in preparation for winterizing or other extended layup. Last step, open the y-valve and rinse out the macerator AND plumbing to it by running clean water through it.

the EPA in its wisdom has decided that I need to be at least nine miles off shore to pump my tank overboard, which including the transit time to/from the Gulf, would pretty much take me a whole day to conduct a five minute evolution.

Are you saying you never go sailing at least 9 miles offshore? So why couldn't you go with a few gallons of clean water in the tank 2-3x/year and take the 5 minutes needed to open the y-valve and turn on the macerator while you're out there? If you have a washdown pump, you COULD even take the 15-20 minutes needed to rinse out the tank too. Sea water works as well as fresh for that job.
 
May 28, 2009
764
Hunter 376 Pensacola, FL
When I need to pump out my tank, I go to a pump out station. After it's pumped out, I put three to five gallons of fresh water in the tank, and then have that pumped out. The macerator pump never sees this, because it's on a T off the overboard, and will only get flushed if I open its thru hull and run it. This would result in my pumping overboard from whatever is left in my holding tank. Even if I did this after I filled the tank with the above mentioned three to five gallons of fresh water, I'm sure what I was pumping would still be considered waste, and an illegal discharge. I would therefore have to be over nine miles from shore to do it. Which would take me a whole day. Which means there's really no practical way to accomplish it.

We here in the Pensacola area are blessed with miles and miles of protected waters, a huge bay, and numerous large bayous. There really isn't much need to go off shore, because there's nothing out there but more water, and maybe the thrill of being out of sight of land. Everywhere we could possibly go in the span of time we have available (a week or less, alas we have day jobs), from New Orleans to Appalachicola, is reachable by going east and west inside the barrier islands or along the coast. The only reason to strike out south and get more than nine miles offshore is to make the six to seven day passage to the Keys or Mexico. Or to flush my macerator pump apparently.

As the proud owner of a completeiy inoperable Shuflo macerator pump (motor runs, impeller is long gone, can't find a replacement parts kit) I'm considering the installation of a manual diaphram bildge-type pump in its place. It seems to me that it would be much more able to sit for long periods between uses, and at approximately 1/6 the cost of a similar electric unit (looks like less than $70 on this site) it would be well worth the inconvenience of having to spend two or three minutes manually stroking the pump to empty the tank on those extremely rare occasions when I'm actually legally able to do so.

And don't even get me started on the insanity of it all, where I'm considered an environmental criminal if I were to pump my measly 30 gallons of sewage into the bay, when the local utility authority inadvertantly discharges several MILLION gallons of untreated sewage several times a year. Regulations and fines are for the little people.
 
Dec 2, 1997
8,708
- - LIttle Rock
Oh I get it...

You're never in waters where it would be legal to dump the tank. That WOULD make it impossible to put 3-5 gallons of water into the tank more than once and then go sailing with the last "batch" still in the tank and run the macerator while you're out there.

A shame...'cuz you'd only have go THREE miles outside the Bay, not 9 (I've double-checked that with a maritime lawyer). South FL is the only place on the whole Gulf where it's further than 3...6 on part of FL below Tampa...12 miles in the Keys.

I am curious though...if you never go out far enough to dump the tank, you're not using the macerator, so why are we even having this discussion about how to rinse it out???

FYI...you may not know that there are only TWO "NO Discharge Zones" on the whole Gulf--The Keys and Destin Harbor. The discharge of treated waste from a Type I MSD is legal everywhere else...and MORE environmentally sound than holding tanks, especially when you consider that tank contents go to sewage treatment plants who dump most of it into the water untreated. Check out the ElectroScan Raritan Electro Scan ...it's expensive, but offset by the cost of tank maintenance, pumpouts and macerator pump replacements.
 
Jun 4, 2004
1,071
Hunter 410 Punta Gorda
Have I ever told you guys about the tee I installed after my macerator and put a hose bid valve on it? I hook a garden hose up to the valve and pump my waste to a toilet I have by the pool. The macerator has sufficient head to pump the waste to my toilet. I just turn the water off at the toilet and my lovely wife holds the flush open while it pumps. We use phones to communicate so we know what is going on at each end. After a pump out I partially flush the tank a few times.
 
Dec 19, 2006
5,809
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
Pump

I am just asking if the problem pumps are at the tiolet or at the holding tank pump out
 
Jun 4, 2004
1,071
Hunter 410 Punta Gorda
So putting in a pool and a pool house with a toilet in it AND a dock behind the house is the answer to deteriorating macerator pumps?
What a stupid comment Peggy. I was just adding a option to emptying a holding tank for those of us that have the luxury of having our boats behind our house.
 
Dec 19, 2006
5,809
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
Shocked

When I came to Florida I was shocked that there are no free pump out boats for boats,while living up New England and LI sound there always seem to be a free pump out boat that would come to you to help keep the waters clean.
When living in Riverhead I was told the Federal Gov. paid for this really nice pump out boat so why doesn't Florida do the same thing,I have heard that maybe they have free pump out boats in the Keys.
I have heard of some boaters getting together and pay and share their own portable pump out station,the nice thing being in a marina is having a pump out any time you need it.
Clearwater did have a self serve pumpout dock off the ICW so maybe there are more I don't know about.
Nick
 
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