Marine Elegance head issues?

[scottdube]

Last August I upgraded our main head to a Marine Elegance to make the Admiral happy. We love it and it worked really well. This season was going ok until she plugged it up, I blamed her for using too much TP until the next weekend I did the same thing... When I took it apart after her event I noticed the rubber on the top of the joker valve looked swollen and cracked. I didn't think it looked right and it was hard to put back together. After the second plugging event, I was pretty sure there was an issue. I called Raritan support and they were nice, helpful and said well it sounds like the valve is bad. I asked about the rubber being very distorted and sent them a picture. They confirmed it shouldn't look like that, but still charged me for a new valve. Anyone else having this issue? Here is a picture of the top of the valve. Their theory was chemical deterioration but I'm confident that's not the case since I'm the one who does the cleaning in there.
UPDATE check out the picture of the new one vs the old one... Peggy won't be surprised.

This is what a new one looks like

This is the bad one on the left, new one on the right...

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Their theory was chemical deterioration but I'm confident that's not the case since I'm the one who does the cleaning in there.

And I'll bet you're using vinegar or another cleaning product that's high in acedic acid. When soft rubber--which joker valves are--is left to sit in vinegar, the rubber swells and distorts. So if you're using vinegar to clean without rinsing it out, or worse yet leaving vinegar sitting in the bowl, that's what's destroying the joker valve.

No reason to stop using it, in fact a cupful of distilled white vinegar flushed through the system once a week is the best way to prevent sea water mineral buildup in sea water toilets and hoses. But the vinegar should never be left sitting in the bowl...instead must be followed by a thorough clean fresh water rinse after 45-60 minutes to prevent damage to joker valves.

 

[scottdube]

No reason to stop using it, in fact a cupful of distilled white vinegar flushed through the system once a week is the best way to prevent sea water mineral buildup in sea water toilets and hoses. But the vinegar should never be left sitting in the bowl...instead must be followed by a thorough clean fresh water rinse after 45-60 minutes to prevent damage to joker valves.

Hi Peggy,

Thanks for the reply, I can't say I have never used vinegar but don't use it regularly as this is a fresh water head. I'm not sure if I've ever used it on this head. In any event, it looks bad, doesn't it?

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Yup, it does....but I agree with Raritan that what you're seeing is a chemical reaction with the rubber in the joker valve. It has to be something high in acedic acid that isn't being well enough rinsed out. Whatever it is, making sure that at least a quart of water goes through the joker valve with every flush and every time you clean the bowl will either solve the problem or leave us both with a lot more research to do.

Btw...this is the first time I've seen ANY problem with the Elegance since Raritan introduced it. Not saying it's the first ever problem of any kind, just the first one I've seen.

 

[scottdube]

I actually saw something very similar here but they never updated with the solution. http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s31/bad-joker-valve-keeps-head-flushing-17031.html

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

An engine mechanic who admitted he'd never worked on toilets was the person who decided the problem was a bad joker valve...and he jumped to that conclusion after only looking at the exploded drawing in the owners manual...it doesn't appear that anybody had actually seen it. So without any inspection of the joker valve, there's no way to know whether anything was wrong with it. We do know what caused your problem...we just need to be sure we know how to keep it from happening again.

 

[scottdube]

An engine mechanic who admitted he'd never worked on toilets was the person who decided the problem was a bad joker valve...and he jumped to that conclusion after only looking at the exploded drawing in the owners manual...it doesn't appear that anybody had actually seen it. So without any inspection of the joker valve, there's no way to know whether anything was wrong with it. We do know what caused your problem...we just need to be sure we know how to keep it from happening again.

What about antifreeze? I had someone winterize if he used the wrong antifreeze could it do that?

Thanks!

 

[All U Get]

We've used ours for two years on this set of joker valves and no problems with 24 months of use. It's a pita to change them so we're careful not to put anything other than the recommended stuff down them. CP, KO, and CH all from Raratan. We don't winterize since we travel to the Bahamas instead. Try going south this winter.

All U Get

 

[scottdube]

We've used ours for two years on this set of joker valves and no problems with 24 months of use. It's a pita to change them so we're careful not to put anything other than the recommended stuff down them. CP, KO, and CH all from Raratan. We don't winterize since we travel to the Bahamas instead. Try going south this winter.

All U Get

I like the last idea! Unfortunately still working... Where do you keep the boat I see you're a neighbor!