I want it all

[steven f.]

I have a 1981 H33 and my head has an electric macerator pump. This is great sometimes but terrible other times, like when I'm on a hook for an extended period of time and battery life is a premium. I'm just wondering if anyone has made/modified a head to have both a macerator pump and a manual pump system? Has anyone even heard of this? Thoughts or ideas more than welcome, this is just an infantile idea at this point but so was the telephone at one point.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

No way to do it without two pumps

A macerator is essentially a blender...it has to have power. Manually pumped unmacerated waste wouldn't make it through the macerator without clogging it up. So the only way to do it would be a separate pump, plumbed to bypass the macerator. However--The major power hog in a macerating toilet is the raw water intake pump, not the macerater pump. Macerating electric toilets that use raw water draw about 30-35 amps/flush...those which use the fresh water solenoid option draw about 10 (which, btw, actually translates to about the AH consumption of a VacuFlush, which draws 5-6 amps, but for 3 times as long). The freshwater solenoid option also reduces the flush water consumption in most macerating electric toilets by about 75%, so your holding tank doesn't fill up as fast either. So the solution to your problem--IF it's available for your toilet--is to replace the raw water pump with an optional fresh water solenoid, or replace the entire toilet with one that offers that option. I don't recommend DIY conversions...factory options include the necessary check valves, anti-siphon devices and backflow preventers to protect your fresh water supply from contamination by the toilet. The toilet mfrs know what they're doing, but what looks like it should work to a DIYer may not.

 

[jcherubini]

Electric-only marine toilets

Steven–Time was that Raritan Engineering of Millville NJ made a very simple, basic manual head that could be retrofitted, by the owner, in the field, with an electric pump. Whether this was per se a macerator or not I don't know. I do know that the whole set-up was made to be used either manually or electrically with no detriment to either system either way. Many people thought Raritan heads were junk but that feature alone made me like them. Besides at about $140 retail ($70 to OEMs) it was like half the price of a basic Wilcox-Crittenden.Call me a Luddite but I can't see the sense in having an electric-only head. All you need is an electrical emergency to see the lack of foresight in that. When your only alternative contingency is to tell a lady to poop over the side you know you have gone too far for the sake of 'convenience'!! (And think about electric-only fresh water systems– the alternative to death by dehydration is to stick a long straw through the tank cleanout!)J Cherubini IIJComet@aol.com

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Raritan PH II electric conversion to PHE II

They still make it. No macerator, just an electric motor that replaces the pump handle. However, the prices have gone up a bit since you last priced 'em: list for the PH II is about $300 (WM etc price is arouond $230)...the "conversion kit" (nothing but an electric motor) has a list of $259. The PH II has consistantly been rated the best manual toilet under $500 on the market. But if I were gonna spend another $200+ to convert it to something that would let me push a button instead of pump a handle, I'd spend another $100 and buy a macerating toilet. When somebody puts something down a toilet that clogs it, it doesn't matter whether the toilet is manual or electric...the lady is still gonna have to hang her butt over the side until you UNclog it...and the failure rate for electric macerating toilets is miniscule--in fact, much lower than that of manual toilets. And unless you have a total electrical failure, electric water pumps don't quit without plenty of warning either. So if you're planning to spend months on open sea, your concerns about relying solely on electrical toilets and pumps may have some merit...but even allowing for the abysmal lack of attention to preventive maintenance paid by most "weekend warriors" (and many passagemaking cruisers), and their total oblivion to early symptoms that something is about to fail, the potential for failure is small enough to be a non-issue for 99% of the people here. It just means going back to the dock a day earlier than planned.