Anyone ever think of putting in another fresh water tank to use exclusively for flushing? I'm thinking about doing it to get rid of a through hull and smell 
fresh water flush
- Thread starter Arrgh
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,681
OH if it was so simple.
I think you need to understand the cause of the smell before you can get rid of it.
I would suggest you explore the information shared in the Marine Plumbing and Sanitation forum here.
There may be simpler ways to address your “SMELL” than adding a water tank for flushing.
I think you need to understand the cause of the smell before you can get rid of it.
I would suggest you explore the information shared in the Marine Plumbing and Sanitation forum here.
Marine Plumbing and Sanitation
The Head Mistress, Peggie Hall pops in to answer your questions about marine sanitation. Check out her updated book, The New Get Rid of Boat Odors
forums.sailboatowners.com
There may be simpler ways to address your “SMELL”
than adding a water tank for flushing.We have fresh water flush on both of our toilets. They just use the existing water tank.
Why add a second tank dedicated to flushing?
Mark
Why add a second tank dedicated to flushing?
Mark
With a few small piping changes, you can flush with sea water and rinse with potable water from the sink at journey's end. And also likely get rid of that one extra thru-hull.
But as @jssailem has mentioned :
I've really got to wonder how many people have ventured out into this fools' errand and wound up with no improvement. Flushing with sea water DOES NOT cause odours. Leaving sea water in the hoses after the boay has been left idle for a week or so DOES cause odours on the first flush due to dead sea life being flushed into the bowl.
I have absolutely no head odours and am too cheap to bother with any "head treatments."
But as @jssailem has mentioned :
There are faaaaaaaaaaar more other causes of odours rather than sea water flushing that are the source of your problem.
I've really got to wonder how many people have ventured out into this fools' errand and wound up with no improvement. Flushing with sea water DOES NOT cause odours. Leaving sea water in the hoses after the boay has been left idle for a week or so DOES cause odours on the first flush due to dead sea life being flushed into the bowl.
I have absolutely no head odours and am too cheap to bother with any "head treatments."
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Peggy Hall is our "go to" gal for all things smelly. Her book is great, and she is very responsive on the plumbing and sanitation forum.
That does a fine job of rinsing out the toilet DISCHARGE line, but it's the micro--and not so micro- sea life in the toilet INTAKE line, pump and channel in the rim of the bowl that die. decay and STINK and nothing poured into the bowl recircirculates through the intake plumbing.
--Peggie
Unless your toilets are designed to use fresh water or have been modified to use pressurized fresh water, you're risking contaminating your potable water supply with bacteria from the bowl.
--Peggie
@Peggie Hall HeadMistress , do you see any reason for using fresh water flushing as opposed to sea water flushing followed by a fresh water rinse which is injected through the sea water inlet ? Using the bathroom sink (or is it head sink ?) is the method I refer to.
Thanks.
Thanks.
This ^^^^is the way to do it.
Head Odors 101.1 - "T" into sink drain: Head Odors 101 & Fresh Water to Head from the Sink in the Head FLIX - Page 3
I know. Not ideal, but I can’t do your sink drain trick because my lav sink drains above the waterline.
But since I am on a fresh water lake, the sea-life isn’t quite so stinky
Greg
Some people would rather flush using fresh water...the sink provides sea water toilets with a source for it that's a lot safer than connecting to the fresh water plumbing and as long as the sink drains below waterline, lets you have it both ways AND frees up a thru-hull to use for washdown pump or whatever you'd like to use it for. Plus, it's a simple one time job to reroute the intake line to tee into the sink drain line.
However, all this is most useful to folks who aren't in fresh water as you are...but even fresh water can be skanky in coves that don't get any "flushing" by streams or close into shore where runoff is "dirty"...in fact the water in most marinas dirtier than in open water.
So simple solutions that can be easily accessed can make life onboard a whole lot nicer.
--Peggie
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And btw...there's nothing I can think of to prevent putting a seacock (easier to use than a plug) on an above waterline drain thru-hull. Close it only when you want to rinse out the sanitation plumbing.
--Peggie
--Peggie
Great choice! You'd be amazed at the number of people who do DIY "conversions' to sea water toilets that are incomplete.
-Peggie
Does anyone know if there have been any psychological examinations as to "why" some people prefer to excrete into fresh water rather than sea water ? Are they afraid of something in the sea water ? Something in their toilet training as a youngster perhaps ? And does this fetish apply to #1, #2 or both ?
I'm intrigued by this obsession which I see as a major inconvenience when trying to accomodate it on a medium sized boat in the 30 - 40 ft. range. A few of the impacts are :
- the extra room required for the flushing fresh water tank.
- the extra piping required for the supply of fresh water to the head.
- the reduction of vessel speed due to the extra weight of the tank.
- the possibility of a cross connection back to the potable water tank from an unschooled connection to the head.
I had a good chuckle when I saw that Raritan had gone as far as creating a product (and not a cheap one) to satisfy the extraordinary sexual cravings of these people.
I can see flushing with fresh water for the rich and effluent on a large yacht or on a cruise ship but not on a pleasure sailing boat. Flushing with fresh water makes about as much sense as a swimming pool on a 32 ft. sailing boat.
One final thought here, do you think the fresh water flushing crowd (FWFC) is in any way related to the people who ask you NOT to throw your used toilet paper in the head, but deposit it in the bin beside the head. Now THAT is really perverse.
What IS the world coming to ? ? ?
It’s best to have a seacock on barely-above waterline thru-hulls anyway, in case a hose fails when the boat is heeling. Not a super-high risk, but best practice. I know O’Day didn’t bother with that but some other manufacturers do.
It sounds like the psychological problem is yours, not with people with fresh water flush heads.
You don't seem to understand them at all, but here are some basic points:
1. They significantly reduce the hard scale buildup in the hoses. They pretty much eliminate it, so we are never the strange people taking apart our toilet plumbing every year or so and banging all the stinking concrete out on a dock, and replacing the expensive hose every two or third bangout sessions. Those are the weird ones, for sure.
2. There is no extra tank or weight or needed space - the existing tank is used, and there is no reduction in boat speed from it. Your belief that there is is evidence that you don't know what you are talking about.
3. There is less piping than salt water flush needed because most boats have a sink in the head, and one can just tee off that supply instead of running entirely new piping from a thruhull like a saltwater flush needs.
4. And speaking of thruhulls, you don't need one for the intake at all, so one less thruhull in a boat. Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?
5. These toilets are specifically designed to not cross-contaminate the tank. Have you ever looked at the design? It just isn't possible. Again, you don't know what you are talking about.
6. It is so much easier to have guests not screw things up when all they need to do is push the flush button and not worry about closing a seacock, filling a sink, getting the flush sequence correct, and remembering to undo it all after.
7. In tannin or other staining water, the bowl stays clean and smell-free.
8. One can go to extraordinary lengths to oxygenate their holding tank to stop odors, but it won't stop rotting organisms from stinking in there. The only thing that stops that is not having them there at all with fresh water flush.
9. Have you ever had a sea creature get sucked into a raw water flush toilet? That stinks for ages with no easy way to get it out.
And how is using a blocked sink to flush with fresh water any more noble than just flushing with fresh water directly? Or any more noble than having a toilet that gives you the same choice?
Really, your obsessive foaming at the mouth workup about one's choice in toilet plumbing is not normal (and a bit unseemly in this forum), and you should have yourself checked out.
Mark
You don't seem to understand them at all, but here are some basic points:
1. They significantly reduce the hard scale buildup in the hoses. They pretty much eliminate it, so we are never the strange people taking apart our toilet plumbing every year or so and banging all the stinking concrete out on a dock, and replacing the expensive hose every two or third bangout sessions. Those are the weird ones, for sure.
2. There is no extra tank or weight or needed space - the existing tank is used, and there is no reduction in boat speed from it. Your belief that there is is evidence that you don't know what you are talking about.
3. There is less piping than salt water flush needed because most boats have a sink in the head, and one can just tee off that supply instead of running entirely new piping from a thruhull like a saltwater flush needs.
4. And speaking of thruhulls, you don't need one for the intake at all, so one less thruhull in a boat. Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?
5. These toilets are specifically designed to not cross-contaminate the tank. Have you ever looked at the design? It just isn't possible. Again, you don't know what you are talking about.
6. It is so much easier to have guests not screw things up when all they need to do is push the flush button and not worry about closing a seacock, filling a sink, getting the flush sequence correct, and remembering to undo it all after.
7. In tannin or other staining water, the bowl stays clean and smell-free.
8. One can go to extraordinary lengths to oxygenate their holding tank to stop odors, but it won't stop rotting organisms from stinking in there. The only thing that stops that is not having them there at all with fresh water flush.
9. Have you ever had a sea creature get sucked into a raw water flush toilet? That stinks for ages with no easy way to get it out.
And how is using a blocked sink to flush with fresh water any more noble than just flushing with fresh water directly? Or any more noble than having a toilet that gives you the same choice?
Really, your obsessive foaming at the mouth workup about one's choice in toilet plumbing is not normal (and a bit unseemly in this forum), and you should have yourself checked out.
Mark
Yes, our boat doesn't heel at all, but it came from the factory with valves on all the above-water thruhulls. Doesn't need to be a proper seacock - just a shutoff valve.
Mark