Head fills when healed!

[Colin]

My holding tank runs across the boat and is located under the straboard dinette seat. When the holding tank is 3/4 full or more, the head fills with whatever from the holding tank if the boat is healed to starboard very far. Should the jokerf valve prevent this or do they leak to some degree. The joker valve was replaced this year and has only seen very little use to date.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

The joker valve can only slow it down...

What you need is a loop (doesn't have to be a vented loop if the head only discharges into the holding tank, just a loop) in the head discharge line to the tank that's at least a foot above the top of the tank at any angle of heel...a "hill" too high for the waste in the tank to climb over. Come out of the toilet straight up, just as you would a vented loop...over the loop and back down and on to the tank.

 

[Ken Palmer]

Holding tank input

The input hose to my holding tank attaches to the top side (on the side) of my tank. The only way that stuff from the holding tank would flow back towards the head is if the tank were filled up to the top. I suspect that with the long run of hose to your tank, you are getting stuff back from inside the hose. A loop sounds like the solution.Ken Palmer, S/V Liberty

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Not necessarily so, Ken...

It depends on where the inlet is located--whether sewage runs toward it or away from it when the boat is heeled. If the inlet fitting is on the inboard side of the tank--closest to the centerline of the boat--sewage can't run back toward the head...but if it's on the outboard side, next to the hull, even a half-full tank can spill back into the hose. Same is true of the vent line. You can see for yourself if you fill a bowl half full with water, then tip it to the same angle as your boat at maximum heel. At 15-20 degrees, you'll be amazed at how far up the side of the bowl the water goes.