Electric toilet - how do you plan for the inevitable failure?

Ralph Johnstone · Jul 15, 2026

haebby said:
offshore with the “urgent situation” going on (meaning, a bowl full of…).

I've never considered and electric head before but it is now most definitely off the list after looking at your insight. A manual slowly goes from working to working poorly. An electric head shuts OFF just immediately after finishing a huge dinner with all your snooty friends aboard. And you're anchored two hours from civilization. It just isn't worth it

I'll be interested in further comments..

BAD ORCA · Jul 15, 2026

haebby said:
Our sailboat came with a Raritan Elegance electric toilet. Nice and convenient, but we know the pump will eventually die. Murphy’s Law says it’ll happen at the worst possible time.

Ideally there would be a manual backup, but it sounds like the Elegance doesn’t have one and it’s not possible to retrofit. So… how do you all prep for the inevitable?

We’re so paranoid that we're even thinking of switching to a manual toilet because we really don’t want to be unmounting/disassembling an electric unit offshore with the “urgent situation” going on (meaning, a bowl full of…).

What do you do when the pump fails - spares, quick fixes, bypass ideas, or did you go manual?

Best practices for avoiding the unpleasant surprise?

a 5 gallon bucket, seriously, but i'm not sailing with guests.

I have the Elegance toilet as well. I plan to buy a spare macerator assembly. I dont know I would want to try and change it in rough conditions, but a bucket should get me to safe harbor without too big an inconvenience, if a tad gross.

Stu Jackson · Jul 15, 2026

Maintenance, spare parts and RTFM

haebby said:

Best practices for avoiding the unpleasant surprise?

Click to expand

colemj · Jul 15, 2026

We've owned 4 Raritan Elegance in two boats and never had one fail. Not that it can't, but the two on the previous boat are still going strong 9yrs on, and the two on the current boat are 7yrs old.

That said, I came across someone in a marina taking out their Elegance and installing a compost toilet. They gave me the Elegance, so I removed the internals and have them as spares.

And we do have two of them, so one going down isn't as critical.

Unless you are cruising in remote places, spare parts can be bought readily. AFAIK, there is no way to bypass or manually operate the toilet. If you have the electronic flush control, this is easily bypassed with a switch to manually operate the flush.

Mark

BAD ORCA · Jul 15, 2026

haebby said:
We do have spare parts aboard (even a complete spare pump assembly). We did read the manual. And we do all the maintenance. These all are obvious steps to take. Anything more creative? Avoid frequent short usage of the pump in favor of less prolonged usage? My early signs of a pump dying we can look out for?

He gets grumpy in the mornings sometimes.

Rich Stidger · Jul 15, 2026

I think I have the electric Raritan Sea Era for 5-6 years with no issues whatever. But we also have a Jabsco manual in a second head, so failure is not a serious issue. Additionally I have rebuild kits for both intake and output. But I don't carry a spare motor that runs the works.

colemj · Jul 16, 2026

Ralph Johnstone said:
I've never considered and electric head before but it is now most definitely off the list after looking at your insight. A manual slowly goes from working to working poorly. An electric head shuts OFF just immediately after finishing a huge dinner with all your snooty friends aboard. And you're anchored two hours from civilization. It just isn't worth it

I'll be interested in further comments..

It really isn't different than a manual head, as both can fail catastrophically, but the usual failure mode is more gradual.

I've had manual heads where the pump shaft connection snapped at the plunger, summarily leaving the head completely unusable. A ripped joker valve would likely do the same, as would a jammed or ripped check valve or broken selector cam.

While I've never had our Raritans fail, a motor generally doesn't fail suddenly, and shows a period of time where it is struggling before failure. Not unlike a macerator pump (which it actually is). One thing in favor of electric, in terms of failure potential, is the motor/pump is the only point of failure. A failure of other components, like the solenoid valves, check valves, etc, still leaves the toilet operable.

Mark

CrispyCringle · Jul 16, 2026

Spare parts and a good way to empty the bowl. Thats the only way.

colemj · Jul 16, 2026

haebby said:
We do have spare parts aboard (even a complete spare pump assembly). We did read the manual. And we do all the maintenance. These all are obvious steps to take. Anything more creative? Avoid frequent short usage of the pump in favor of less prolonged usage? My early signs of a pump dying we can look out for?

I think you are over-fretting this. You seem well-prepared, and your fear is no different than if you owned a manual toilet.

Not sure how you would change the usage time of the toilet. It flushes the same. No matter how many times you use it. There is no prolonging its usage or shortening it.

I suppose there is a mean time between failure for the motor, but this is surely longer than you will ever reach even flushing it every 15min.

Mark

kappykaplan · Jul 16, 2026

haebby said:
Can you elaborate what you mean by ”… good way to empty the bowl…”?

Reckon he means a ladle and a bucket since you can't pump it out . . . :beer:

CrispyCringle · Jul 16, 2026

haebby said:
Can you elaborate what you mean by ”… good way to empty the bowl…”?

Why certainly. Usually a toilet will announce that is not going to function immediately after someone has taken a huge bowel movement. And if they aren't an experienced boater, and its a clog, they will keep trying to flush, often filling the bowl to the brim before they seek help. If you have to pull the macerator or joker valve you should be prepared for the bowl contents to come out onto the cabin sole unless an effort is made to empty said bowl. Hopefully, that clears up any ambiguity.

My "kit" (Not really a kit. Just stuff I have) is a bucket, rubber gloves, a disposable cup, and a huge .5 ltr syringe. The huge syringe with a short tube is extremely useful for draining a number of things on the boat.

shemandr · Jul 16, 2026

Once a female guest virtually ripped the pump assembly out of my Jabsco head. I think I remember her holding the pump handle and piston and asking if it was supposed come out. But that might have been a later nightmare about the incident. She had been orientated. But she "Women handled" it and the head was useless for the weekend. We stayed in marinas. They were still friends but never again guests on the boat.
In another incident guest crew informed me that the head was over flowing while we were in moderate seas going to Block Island after she used it. If I recall that was a Joker Valve. But still an unpleasant first day in the GSP. Cleaning up poop is never fun. I'd add a pack of diapers to CrispyCringle's armamentarium. And some bleach.
A bucket is a useful backup.

NYSail · 2026-07-26T12:31:14-0700

I have 2 electric heads which makes it less urgent…… but I also carry 1 spare motor and multiple other parts.

Greg