Due to a recent thread by @AaronD about putting a MSD pumpout style portapottie in his Catalina, I been looking into what is available out there for a 5 gallon unit.
Looking a bunch of threads the options for seem to be:
Sanipottie 965 MSD
Sanipottie 975 MSD
Thetford, the 550P MSD
(Sealand has the 711-M28, but I exclude that becuase it won't fit on my boat and is too expensive for using in a small boat IMO)
Looking at recent reviews of the two Dometic Sanipottie models, the reviews seemed to be very mixed.
1) The 970 series has a a plastic rod for the flush system, and based on reviews, is prone to breaking.
2) The 960 series:
simpler than 975 (usually a good thing) and has a stainless steel metal flush rod.
Unfortunately some reviews complain of tank seam failure/leaks, and @$tingy_sailor reports bellows pump failure over a short time on his blog.
My current old Sealand unit has been reliable, and it's bellows are old but still work fine. I wonder if quality has slipped since Dometic took over ?
3)The Thetford 550P MSD seems to have better reviews than the Sanipottie units, but has recently been discontinued. It looks like the replacement model 365 may not support MSD functionality.
I find online store reviews are lacking, due to the fact that people always complain, but rarely bother posting positive reviews. (Not to mention that there is actually a, for profit, industry based on posting false reviews for some products)
Another problem is sample size... asking 2 people, or a single blog, for relability info is pointless.
I figure that asking the forum here may result in a slightly more accurate reliability reports.
So what say you ? Which one is more reliable ? Which one is crap ? (pun intended)
I don't want to deal with a broken system more than I have to.
Looking a bunch of threads the options for seem to be:
Sanipottie 965 MSD
Sanipottie 975 MSD
Thetford, the 550P MSD
(Sealand has the 711-M28, but I exclude that becuase it won't fit on my boat and is too expensive for using in a small boat IMO)
Looking at recent reviews of the two Dometic Sanipottie models, the reviews seemed to be very mixed.
1) The 970 series has a a plastic rod for the flush system, and based on reviews, is prone to breaking.
2) The 960 series:
simpler than 975 (usually a good thing) and has a stainless steel metal flush rod.
Unfortunately some reviews complain of tank seam failure/leaks, and @$tingy_sailor reports bellows pump failure over a short time on his blog.
My current old Sealand unit has been reliable, and it's bellows are old but still work fine. I wonder if quality has slipped since Dometic took over ?
3)The Thetford 550P MSD seems to have better reviews than the Sanipottie units, but has recently been discontinued. It looks like the replacement model 365 may not support MSD functionality.
I find online store reviews are lacking, due to the fact that people always complain, but rarely bother posting positive reviews. (Not to mention that there is actually a, for profit, industry based on posting false reviews for some products)
Another problem is sample size... asking 2 people, or a single blog, for relability info is pointless.
I figure that asking the forum here may result in a slightly more accurate reliability reports.
So what say you ? Which one is more reliable ? Which one is crap ? (pun intended)
I don't want to deal with a broken system more than I have to.
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