Jabsco Electric conversion

[agaliha]

The Admiral wanted an electric head like our powerboat friends have. I was reluctant because I had this old-fashioned notion that real sailboats have manual heads.

Guess who won out? I bought a conversion kit for the Jabsco so that I wouldn't have to drill a bunch of new holes in the head floor, even though I had read HORRIBLE reviews about this unit in this post. I just finished my first year with the new unit and I thought I would post my findings.

Everyone said that this unit is very loud. WHAT DID YOU SAY, I CAN"T HEAR YOU. Damn, it is loud. It can probably pass for an approved Coast Guard adible warning device.

Everyone said it is prone to malfunction. Admittedly, it's only been a year, but I haven't had a moments trouble out of it.

Here's my unexpected finding. This unit is less prone to smells than the manual pump it replaced. Without getting too graphic, my theory is that the mascerator pulverizes the "poo" better than the hand pump and less of it sticks around inside the unit and the hoses.

The Admiral loves it! The noise doesn't bother her at all. It has enhanced her boating experience and she loves to stay overnight on the boat. (I also upgraded the factory mattress.)

So, if you are considering an electric conversion of your head...go for it!

Agaliha

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Here's my unexpected finding. This unit is less prone to smells than the manual pump it replaced. Without getting too graphic, my theory is that the mascerator pulverizes the "poo" better than the hand pump and less of it sticks around inside the unit and the hoses.

It's actually because the electric pump uses more water than pumping manually.

It also draws a whopping 24 Amps/flush, btw. And do get back to us again after your second year with it. Fwiw, even the Jabsco customer service manager doesn't recommend that toilet. But if you're happy with it, that's all that matters.

 

[Benny]

Electric heads? We don't even have an electric toilet at home why would I need an electric head on the boat? I'm a person, thah if it comes with a plug I buy it, but I would draw the line right here.

 

[seadaddler]

What ????????

What no indoor flushing toilet WOW that's crazy.
I once saw a Vacu Flush toilet in a 42 saber and WOW what a nice sailboat and the toilet my wife wanted for sure,but I just changed to a PHII and she thinks it works just fine.
Nick

 

[Guest]

Electric heads

Our 1991 P42 came equipped with two electric toilets. A bit noisy, but only during flushing. We've owned Belle-Vie since 2002 and sailed her thousands of miles. Each season we cruise for two months at a time all in PNW waters. These original toilets (Jabsco I think) always work, never clog and do a splendid job for which they were designed. I'll check the amp meter the next time to confirm this, but our model seems to draw closer to ten amps than twenty four. And each flush is maybe six seconds max.

But then our nine year old granddaughter guest for a two week cruise, who was accustomed to using wet wipes, even when we talked to her about the proper use of the toilets, refused to break her habits, until the verbal alarms went off, did she decide to change. The macerating head motor did finally chew the material enough to send it on its way to the holding tank.

Terry Cox

 

[sailingdog]

One point... the 24 amps isn't the issue, if the draw is for a very short period of time. More important is the overall amp-hour usage.

For instance, starting the engine uses 80+ amps...but the time is only seconds... Running the 500 Watt inverter under a full load, uses about 40 amps, but it might be on for an hour or more...

It's actually because the electric pump uses more water than pumping manually.

It also draws a whopping 24 Amps/flush, btw. And do get back to us again after your second year with it. Fwiw, even the Jabsco customer service manager doesn't recommend that toilet. But if you're happy with it, that's all that matters.

 

[agaliha]

So, Benny, I assume you have no running water on your Hunter since it requires electricity to pump the water? It's the same logic on the toilet. Do you eschew an electric bilge pump, too? Anyway, to each his own, but I'm just surprised how much better the electric toilet works than a manual pumper.

Also, I saved the manual pump so that if the electric fails I can reinstall it (4 bolts -- 10 minutes) and be back in "business."

Agaliha

 

[Chuckbear]

One thing I did not see mentioned is that these pumps are REALLY noisy so if you use the head in the middle of the night you will probably wake up your neighbors in the next slip. Chuck

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Do the math...

One point... the 24 amps isn't the issue, if the draw is for a very short period of time. More important is the overall amp-hour usage.

The average adult uses the toilet 5x in 24 hr period...average toilet flush is about 15-20 seconds. That's about .5 AH/day/person. Now multiply the number of people aboard x the number of days relaxing on a hook...and you'll watch those AH start to add up.

 

[Auspicious]

The average adult uses the toilet 5x in 24 hr period...average toilet flush is about 15-20 seconds. That's about .5 AH/day/person. Now multiply the number of people aboard x the number of days relaxing on a hook...and you'll watch those AH start to add up.

True enough, but for a couple sailing that's about the same as an incandescent anchor light and well under most reading lights. My reefer / freezer and SSB are a much bigger impact offshore.

I'm thrilled with my Jabsco Quiet-Flush (which isn't particularly quiet) and would never go back to a manual head. The darn thing might as well be a garbage disposal - it will chew through almost anything.

If/when it fails I am likely to switch to the Elegance but I won't go back to manual.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Not all electric toilets use the same amount of power

The early macerating electric toilets used 1-3 gals flush water, made enough noise to wake the dead, and drew anywhere from 30-60 amps. Today's macerating electric toilets typically draw 10-15 amps and use about a liter of flush water...some even have a dry bowl option. Whille sea water toilets are still noisy, most make only about half the noise they used to...and toilets that use onboard pressurized flush water are quieter than many household toilets.

 

[Guest]

Electric heads

Just a follow-up note to my earlier post.

The admiral and I sailed (motor sailed) over to one of the four Hope Island mooring balls in Skagit Bay for the long holiday weekend. Nice weather going over, but turned to stink last night and today on our return. Still nice being out on the water. We were the only ones there.

In between preparing our traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner, puttering, reading, listening to music, watching movies and enjoying the admiral's company I did some documentation research on our original 1991 electric toilets that have worked so well for us. They have a built-in back flow preventer (joker valve I suspect), high capacity macerator and bowl scavenger pump. Interesting! The 12 volt model is rated at 16 amps. I checked our amp meter and each flush draws ten to eleven amps. It usually takes about five seconds to grind and scavenge the bowl contents to the holding tank.

Flushing is noisy inside the boat, albeit brief. Standing outside the boat the noise is hardly audible. Part of our pump out process involves the skipper evacuating the holding tank and the admiral flushing fresh water through the system to keep the boat smelling nice. I took notice of the noise while I was standing on the dock during the evacuation process.

So, there you have it in a nutshell.

Terry Cox

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Aha...you'd left out the most important part!

Your toilet is almost 20 years old! Once upon a time, Jabsco actually built a decent product for the money...in fact, a surprising number of pre-1990 Jabsco toilets are still in service and working just fine. But (and I suspect this coincides with about the time ITT bought 'em and the bean counters took over quality control), nothing they've made in the last 8-10 years is likely to provide trouble-free service even as long as the warranty lasts.

According to the specs for your 1991 toilet, it's rated at 16 amps. However,today's version draws 25 (read it and weep (link is safe...the one on the Jabsco site is so long I used "tiny url.com" to shorten it) http://tinyurl.com/y9vvcau

Once again proving that they ain't makin' NOTHIN; like they used to!