Boat Smells!
- Thread starter Breezy1
- Start date
The white hose carried away the waste.
The black hose brought the flush water and was the wrong type for the application.
Regardless, the amount of brown outside the hoses and hidden beneath the floor was pretty disgusting.
I can only pray, for your sake, that @Peggie Hall HeadMistress doesn't see that photo :
The corrugated white hose is probably the last hose on the face of the earth that should be used for transporting sewage. The thin, vinyl corrugations act as traps for solid sewage and the hose would likely start passing sewage gas (H2S) within weeks of installation.
Anyone wants me, I'll be down in the storm cellar
.
Your prayer was not answered.
I wish I hadn't seen the last one either...I've never seen anything quite like it! Surely neither the tank the toilet bowl is sitting on nor whatever the thing sticking out in front of it isn't the holding tank...has he created a DIY composter? You'd need a boarding latter to use it! There's no way anyone could reach the toilet paper while sitting down and being forced to stand up to get some doesn't seem like a good plan.
--Peggie
My boat had quite bad head odors coming from the compartment with the holding tank when I bought it. The hoses were old but there was also an anti siphon loop that was not odor safe between the head and the tank. I'm pretty sure that was the main source of the smell. I replaced the hoses and sprayed PuraAyr into the compartment several times over the season. After several months the smell went away.
Peggy's book is a worthwhile purchase, it is a good reference to have if you are working on head plumbing.
Peggy's book is a worthwhile purchase, it is a good reference to have if you are working on head plumbing.
Looks like It is a "Nature's Head" brand composting toilet.
Specs say : 21.5.inches tall. Uses 1.7 amps at 12 volts every 24 hours
U.S Coast Guard Approved type III
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Ralph Johnstone -
I didn't install the old stuff, just removed it. Obviously, the easiest way to get rid of smells is to not have the source to begin with. When thinking about what to re-install, the parts cost would've been over $400 and I found the unused Nature's Head composter on Craigslist for $600. It was being sold by a girl who'd planned to install it in a van conversion before she realized how much work that would be and how long it'd take.
As Leeward Rail noted, it is a Natures Head. Surprised these days to hear "never seen anything quite like it" from somebody who writes about sanitation systems, as it is one of the most popular and common composters. ref: https://natureshead.net/
Using the close-up lens on the phone camera must have distorted things as we are both under 6 ft, in our 60s, and don't "need a boarding ladder to use it." I'd say it's about like sitting on a kitchen chair. As for "There's no way anyone could reach the toilet paper while sitting down" the toilet paper holder is just out of view and pretty close to your left knee when in use. If you visit and are short we'd be happy to put a Pelican case tool box on the floor in front of it, but nobody has had that problem so far.
I've worked and been on a lot of boats with all sorts of heads, almost all of which had some type of unpleasant smell, while this never has. To be fair, the compartment has a small fan in the ceiling, but there are weeks when the boat has no power. We could carry a years' supply of peat moss or coco noir where the old holding tank was, but that space is now just new-found storage and we no longer have to listen to the crap slosh under our heads when laying in the aft berth. We do keep a few changes of compost in the cabinet next to the head. Another great feature is that we can easily swap this back and forth with our Ford Transit camper van.
Regards
Bob
I didn't install the old stuff, just removed it. Obviously, the easiest way to get rid of smells is to not have the source to begin with. When thinking about what to re-install, the parts cost would've been over $400 and I found the unused Nature's Head composter on Craigslist for $600. It was being sold by a girl who'd planned to install it in a van conversion before she realized how much work that would be and how long it'd take.
Peggie -
As Leeward Rail noted, it is a Natures Head. Surprised these days to hear "never seen anything quite like it" from somebody who writes about sanitation systems, as it is one of the most popular and common composters. ref: https://natureshead.net/
Using the close-up lens on the phone camera must have distorted things as we are both under 6 ft, in our 60s, and don't "need a boarding ladder to use it." I'd say it's about like sitting on a kitchen chair. As for "There's no way anyone could reach the toilet paper while sitting down" the toilet paper holder is just out of view and pretty close to your left knee when in use. If you visit and are short we'd be happy to put a Pelican case tool box on the floor in front of it, but nobody has had that problem so far.
I've worked and been on a lot of boats with all sorts of heads, almost all of which had some type of unpleasant smell, while this never has. To be fair, the compartment has a small fan in the ceiling, but there are weeks when the boat has no power. We could carry a years' supply of peat moss or coco noir where the old holding tank was, but that space is now just new-found storage and we no longer have to listen to the crap slosh under our heads when laying in the aft berth. We do keep a few changes of compost in the cabinet next to the head. Another great feature is that we can easily swap this back and forth with our Ford Transit camper van.
Regards
Bob
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My experience is if the water used for flushing the toilet is salt or lake water it is loaded with natures little creatures that love human waste and contribute to the unpleasant head smell. I only use fresh water to flush. Some people actually plumb a fresh water line to the flushing connection. I do not, I just use a pot of water from the sink. I do not have any unpleasant odors in my head and have been using this method for over ten years. I did have to replace all the head plumbing hoses and did this ten years ago using the recommended sanitation hose identified earlier in the post. I have a 1996 37.5.
I figured as much. What a relief to see the replacement. Very sleek and compact. The old stuff was pretty bad.
Couldn't find anything on power consumption for the unit. Is the only power requirement for the ventilation fan. Do you have a battery monitor to measure the amps ?
Our Hunter 356 still has it's original sanitation hose. We bought the boat 2 years ago and it came with a mighty foul odor. One trick that has helped the situation tremendously is to use a big helping of Dawn dish soap ( 1-2 cups) along with 20 Mule Team Borax (another cup, acts as a strong oxidizer and turbo charges the Dawn) and pump that into the hose and holding tank.... After a few treatments, the foul odor is mostly gone. I learned this trick on an RV channel on YouTube. I repeat the process about once a month.
Yes, the only power is for a very tiny computer style fan to speed drying which uses very little power and could probably run on the battery for more than a week. Reading the forums, a lot of owners are like me and never install the vent fan. Some do report a light earthy smell, especially if they use the head a lot.
Website says 1.7 amps at 12 volts over 24 hours to run a fan.
Edit: nevermind answered when I was posting.
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? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Should I even say anything about removing the source of the odour ?
And the effect of these chemicals on aerobic bacteria ?
Seems like a lot of work when replacing the hose would solve the issue.
That has to explain it...'cuz I've seen every commercially available "composting" toilet including Natures Head installed and none of them looked like yours does in that photo.
Scott, if your hoses are 10 years old, it's time to replace 'em again. 10 years is the average working life of any hose because rubber and plastics dry out over time, becoming hard, brittle and prone to cracking and splitting--not good in any system, but the last thing you want to happen in a sanitation system. Raritan SaniFlex has a 10 warranty and has the added advantage of being so flexible that it can be bent almost as tight as a hairpin without kinking, making most hose replacement jobs a LOT easier. Defender has it for about $10/ft.
There's an easier way to supply your toilet with fresh water SAFELY (no sea water toilet should ever be connected to a fresh water line!) than using a pot of water: tee the toilet intake line into the head sink drain line. Keep the the thru-hull closed except when using the sink. To flush, fill the sink with clean water (never use gray water, soap scum etc will mess up the toilet pump)...because the thru-hull is closed, the toilet will pull the water out of the sink.
--Peggie
Shouldn't that be 1.7 amp-hours in 24 hours ? ? ? If that's the case, almost no power to run the fan.
That is brilliant... Kinda obvious if you think about it..which is common for the best ideas.
THANK YOU for that.
Cut and paste from the website. Hehe
"Electric Power Usage: The fan pulls 1.7 amps in 24 hours at 12 volts."
A computer muffin fan that @Tin Kicker mentions, uses little power. Heck our solar vent fan is similar.
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The label on the fan says 12V and 0.07A so it's close to Ralph's 1.7 Ah and even smaller than the solar fans.
