Electric heads

stephen Penny · Dec 27, 2013

I have a Jabsco fresh water quiet flush electric head with a mascerator. You are welcome to see how it performs in Richmond Marina Bay.

Rich Stidger · Dec 27, 2013

We are very happy with our Raritan Sea Era electric. It is noisy, but I have no other experience with which to compare. We have the raw water model, but I think most of the noise is due to the maserator which is the same in the FW model.

patrick17440 · Dec 27, 2013

I installed Tecma fresh water electric/macerating heads on my H460.
They are awesome heads but very expensive and Loud. On the positive
side, the mascerators are massive and no doubt chew up a side of beef.
My friends who come on board (all boat owners) constantly make fun of
Loud toilets. My wife would like me to change them out for for something
less intrusive but will stay will my bad boy mascerators!

Steve Dion · Dec 27, 2013

Rich Stidger said:
We are very happy with our Raritan Sea Era electric. It is noisy, but I have no other experience with which to compare. We have the raw water model, but I think most of the noise is due to the maserator which is the same in the FW model.

We have the same unit as Rich. Yes they can be noisy but nothing gets past the macerator blades that cannot be chopped up.

If you get a fresh water unit (no raw water pump needed) they are supposed to be quieter.

We have had ours for about 5+ years without a hitch. We use the boat year round so it gets plenty of use.

lnikl · Dec 27, 2013

@RLamb
I would agree that you should never have a connection between your drinking water supply and your sewage system. One way valves are unreliable and viruses are incredibly tiny. If flushing with fresh, I would advocate for a separate freshwater tank with nothing connecting the supplies.
This is a basic principal of public health and that principal extends through to standards. Whether or not that is the case for boats, I don't know but I would never have any physical connection between the two systems on my boat and would not consider a valve to be sufficient separation (nor is it acceptable separation in the municipal engineering world).

Steve Dion · Dec 27, 2013

rlamb said:
All,
Thanks for the info. I am leasning towards the Raritan fresh water conversion kit. I did read on one web site that a guy said you NEVER should hook up the electric head to your fresh water supply??? Claims it can cause contamination. I am assuming there is a one way valve to preven back flow so seems an odd comment. Anyone else hear this?

I believe that it is "supposed" to be okay if you have a pressurized water system. I did not want to use up the water that we use for cooking and bathing so we went with the "raw water" version of the SeaEra.

lnikl · Dec 27, 2013

Roger, I couldn't help myself but to look for something on the separation of potable and black water from Peggy Hall, considered something of an authority on marine sanitation. I found this post from her, which provides a safe alternative:

"there is no safe way to connect ANY manual toilet to the fresh water plumbing, with or without any vacuum breaker or other bits. However, there IS an alternative that works on most boats...one that most people like:

Reroute the head intake line to tee it into the head sink drain line just ahead of the seacock. This will provide a safe source of clean fresh water to rinse the sea water out of the system before it sits and stagnates...just close the thru-hull, fill the sink with clean water (NOT gray water!)...flush the toilet. Because the seacock is closed, the toilet will pull the water out of the sink, rinsing out the WHOLE system--intake line, pump, channel in the rim of the bowl AND the head discharge line. You CAN keep the seacock closed (except when using the sink) and use this method to flush with fresh water all the time, but most people don't find it necessary. When flushing with sea water, it may be necessary to put a plug in the sink to allow the pump to prime instead of pulling air in air. "

Rick · Dec 27, 2013

Might I suggest something from outside the box. A Vacuflush system. Fresh water and it needs 12 volts to run. They actually sell them in contained "pods" now that are basically plug and play. NO more TP in a bag, NO more burnt out mascerators, NO more dead sea critters in the low spots of your holding tank run, NO more stale bread lying around (you can flush that down the toilet..lol). Some may say Nay, but mine is a 97 vintage and other than a collapsed line, and a general overhaul, joker valves, ball, I have never had a single problem with the system. I installed a T series diaphram pump for overboard pumping which will also flush anything in the tank, TP, bread etc. My next boat if not equipped will have one. Perhaps just a slight sales pitch but I havent seen anything that comes close to it. Yes you will find people who have problems with them. Typically this is because of a lack of preventive maintenance or trying to flush facewipes, or a feminine product down them, which wont BREAK the system, just clog it.

Your 466 will have ample space to install a system.

http://seacoastservices.com/?gclid=CODi79Cv0bsCFed0Qgod4WIAWQ

Cheers

noanker · Dec 27, 2013

I have been very happy with my Raritan marine elegance fresh water

seadaddler · Dec 27, 2013

Fresh water

If the unit like sea era is madefor fresh water than it is safe And i have the sea era and yes it is noisey but good and have been told the elegance is less noise

quadrille38 · Dec 28, 2013

Our 2008 38 came from the factory with electric head that uses fresh water to flush.
It you think about it, it is really no different than the billions of home toilets all over the world that are hooked to a water supply for flushing purposes. There is a break between the bowl and the water supply, the supply water is under pressure and unless you leave the bowel full and suffer a pressure loss that results in the waste getting sucked backward its unlikely that there would be cross contamination. I doubt anyone would leave the bowl that full since it is within an inch or two of the top.

And if you are still worried about that remote chance mix some bleach into your fresh water tank. There are formulas all over for the correct mixture but chlorination is the method that has been used by municipalities for over a hundred years to keep water supplies safe.

The benefits of fresh water flushing are that
You don't have a through hull where you have to worry about the toilet siphoning and flooding the boat if someone forgets to close it and the anti syphon fails.
You don't draw in algae and other critters that will make the holding tank smell more quickly
If you are the type of boat user that is mostly weekends and vacations it uses a bit more water such that you turn the water tank over more frequently keeping it fresher.

Of course if access to fresh water is limited then using it to flush may not be your best choice.

seadaddler · Dec 28, 2013

Fresh flush

I had a choice of either using fresh or sea water and decided on sea water because we do go out cruising for 3 weeks at a time and not always have fresh water available anchoring out alot.
What I did is hook up my sea era to sea water but keep the thru hull closed
and have a spray hose from my head sink to fresh water and use that most always when out unless we can't get refill of fresh water.
Using fresh water flushing keeps the smells down and the head stays cleaner and less buildup of the salt collecting in the hoses going to the holding tank.
I have been doing this for many years with other boats even with regular manual
heads and much better all around.
I also have a gallon jug mixed with fresh water and holding tank chemical that
I add
Nick

Bob 04 H260 · Dec 28, 2013

Our boat came with a Jabsco macerator conversion kit installed on the head. They put in the separate raw water pump as well. I am not a fan of Jabsco products at all. I have owned a Raritan manual head in the past and we really liked it. I heard the Jabsco electric heads were noisy. This one was about 2 years old when we bought the boat 3 years ago. We live on board full time in the winter. It has not given any problems at all. We flush TP with it. No smells, not quiet but I would not call it noisy either. With the separate raw water pump there are 4 switch positions so a few options for how you clear/clean the bowl. I am surprised how pleased I am with it. If I need to buy a head now I would buy the Raritan manual conversion kit from SBO. The Jabsco water pump and macerator are expensive to replace, we don't mind using a manual head and it has less to go wrong.
Bob

artboas · Dec 30, 2013

No problem with fresh water

rlamb said:
All,
Thanks for the info. I am leasning towards the Raritan fresh water conversion kit. I did read on one web site that a guy said you NEVER should hook up the electric head to your fresh water supply??? Claims it can cause contamination. I am assuming there is a one way valve to preven back flow so seems an odd comment. Anyone else hear this?

Our 49 came standard with electric heads.
The way that they safely manage the separation of fresh weather and non-return is by using 12v water solenoids in line with the FW feed to each head.
So, when you flush, the solenoid opens, and the pressurized water flows trough it. Sorta like a check valve, but more reliable.