End of my rope...

[Homer J. Simpson]

Okay---changed the sanitation hoses, put in a new head, flushed the holding tank(4 times and pumped out),flush the lines with vinegar weekly, use KO to the directions and everything smells great!....UNTIL I GO SAILING. The smell that comes from the head is nearly unbearable as the boat lists from side to side. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Clean your bilge and shower sump

I'm serious. Wet dirty bilges and sumps can smell just like a sewer. Read two articles in the HM Reference Library (on the forum homepage: "Head Related Odors..." and "Boat Odor Isn't All in Your Head."

 

[Vic Willman]

Re: End of my rope

When you flush the head, watch for little bits of brown material coming down from the rim of the toilet bowl that look like tobacco shreds. This is decaying marine vegetation that has caught up in the rim of the toilet bowl, being brought in from outside with your flush water. It usually gives off a "rotten egg" smell. Immediate cure: remove hose that goes between toilet pump and toilet bowl (at the back of the pump). Then, adapt a garden hose to this hose (jury rig it) and blow out the top of the toilet bowl with dockside water pressure. You're gonna get wet, and everything else in the head will likely get wet, so expect it. Permanent cure: add a fine mesh strainer to the intake line, in an accessible location so that it can be periodically emptied.

 

[John K Kudera]

Try this too

Remove the dinette table, remove the table leg from the floor, remove the round base on the floor. Under there you will find a hole in the stringer. Use this hole and put the shore connected hose into that hole, and rinse the area a few times,I use a shopvac to get the area dry. Treat the area with bilge cleaner and you will find things will be fresher. Believe it or not,the water you find there comes from the stuffing box. I did not re fasten the base to the floor,as I clean there regularly. By the way, the base and table leg are recreation vehicle type equiptment,and can be found in a camping store.Good Sailing!

 

[Carl and Juliana Dupre]

Odor From the Head or....

....from the holding tank vent? If from the head area down inside the boat, then refer to earlier comments. If you mean from the holding tank vent, you may have a vent line that is too small or too tortuous in its path to effectively aerate the holding tank. KO and the process it feeds needs air; without effective air exchange through the vent line it won't work. The vent line on our brand new H340 is only 3/4 inch and has some awful kinks in it; no problems so far (using KO), but we we shall see as the weather gets warmer and the tank riper.Carl and Jules/v 'Syzygy'