Holding tank

F

Fishstix2

New member
Does anyone know why the holding tank on the Tomkat is port side of the
berth rather than under the head? My friends have a 06 26’ Dory and their tank is under the head. This makes way more sense than pumping all the way to the front of the boat. Also would cut down on smell while trying to sleep.
Can it be moved without too much hassle?
 
You must have a very unusual Tom Cat. Most that I have seen use the Sea Land/Dometic nine gallon, self contained holding tank in the base of the commode. I have not seen a Tom Cat with a separate holding tank in the bow area.

I agree that is a very strange thing to do--and I believe it is not wise.

The water tank is either (or both) on the port and starboard sides of the boat, just aft of where the forward bunk is. The earlier boats had the water tank on the Starboard side--and it is probably that your boat has the water tank there, and they wanted to balance that with a holding tank.

How large is your holding tank? is it aft the bunk or is it under the bunk? Why type of head do you have? What number (or when was your boat built?).

I would start making some changes and correct this.
 
Our 2003 24' TomCat had that type of holding tank, but I'm not aware of any TC255 TomCats that were built with anything but the 13 gallon tank directly under the head.

Yours, must have been a special order boat. Built by Reynolds, back when they did special orders.
 
We have been using the enzyme/bacterial type of holding tank treatment in our RV's for a number of years--no odor, and no tank fouling. In an RV, you can clean and drain a tank better than in a boat.

A friend's son bought a 56' Carver, and the holding tanks were fouled. I had him fill them about half, put in one of the enzyme/bacterial treatments for a week, then dump 10# of ice cubes in each tank, and take the boat out and run her hard back and forth across the wake. Come back, pump the tank, and then rinse. = clean tanks.
 
We have an 06 Tomkat hull #15. The holding tank is a 25 gallon version under the port berth.
Our water tank is 40 gallons located starboard under the galley.
 
I know they sound weird but you could consider a composting head. We have one we took off our last boat and installed in Sierra. I believe Bob has one on Thataway also?
Pros.
They weigh almost nothing.
No need for pump out, easy to empty.
They have constant airflow vented with a tiny muffin fan outside, so virtually no odor inside the boat.
Fairly easy to install, you do need to route the 1.5 inch vent line to the outside and find a good vent cover for it.
Cons.
Can be more "fiddly"
You need to research the best composting peat type that will work for you to carry, with Google.
Cost.
Need to research different brands as they are all slightly different in size and use, we like our Airhead.
They are very different so if you look at comments and forums you can get a feel if they would work for you, keep an open mind and you might be surprised, it took us a while but we love ours, we were so over holding tank smell in the boat, added weight and finding pump out stations.
Good luck.
 
VacuFlush_10gal_tank.sized.jpg

This would appear to be your holding tank, which is described as being 10 gallons by a prior owner. it is a vacuflush system, which uses fresh water.
If it is the 10 gallon, the dimensions would be: Height: 16 in./406 mm Width: 10.875 in./276 mm Length:32.375 in./822 mm. If it were the 27 gallon the dimensions would be: Height: 21.375 in./543 mm Width: 14.75 in./375 mm Length: 42 in./1067 mm It is possible that in 2006, there were some other tanks available, but unlikely.

The Vacuflush systems are shown here

Boats before yours had the SeaLand Dometic, I described earlier--and this is the same unit as in #12 boat, owned by Brent and Dixie.

Your boat had, or has the Westerbeke generator under the aft seat.

The actual commode pictured below is Acuflush.
TC_AcuFlush_Toilet.jpg
I don't know if it was factory installed, or owner installed. (I would guess owner looking at the way the wiring was run. I believe that you would be the 4th or 5th owner--and I didn't trace down all of them. Your boat would have been started in January of 06 and probably delivered several months later. (However the hull numbers didn't always reflect the build slot--sometimes a dealer would order a boat and the hull number would be out of sequence.). My boat was hull build # 42 and started in May of 06.

The reason it was put under the port side of the berth is for reasons of access--that was the easiest place to service it. If you traced out and find the first owner, there may be some clues there as to why they wanted the Vacuflush system.

Personally, I would pull it out, and go back to the very simple system the factory used--the tank in the base of the commode. This would be 9 1/2 gallons.

The composting is also a good choice.
 
Our boat is hull # 10, but actually the fifth boat built. Early hull #'s were reserved for customers preordering. We went to the factory and spent two weeks where I did much of the rigging (mostly electrical ) myself. We drove away with our new 2006 TomCat in mid December 2005.

Factory_Picture_005.jpg Our head during boat rigging.
 
The first owner was Grady Davis of Punta Gorda who jointed in January 2006 and named "Dotty D". and unfortunately only made 2 posts.

Then named "Lazy Susan", owned by "Perry", and in Cape Coral who purchased the boat probably in Aug or Sept 07. The photos I put up were from Lazy Susan album. But he seemed to indicate the boat was already rigged with the toilet and generator. He sold it in Feb. 2011.

Here is his post about upgrades:

The vacuFlush toilet system and the placement of 3 batteries port forward were done by the previous owner. The Raymarine A65 GPS Chartplotter-Fishfinder System, VHF and window covers were also installed earlier. I had the Westerbeake 3kw Generator, Carbon Monoxide alarm, Mermaid 12,000 BTU Air Conditioner and Ceramic cooktop installed. I replaced the original 10amp battery charger with a xantrex 20amp multistage charger and replaced the 110v panel to accommodate AC and Genset. Also added a 110v outlet on rear shelf near AC vent and upgraded shore wiring to 10 gauge. The cost of all this was around $11,000.
Our health problems still persist and I have only taken the boat out periodically to keep everything running. It has less than 90 hours on engines and if things don’t improve soon I may be looking for a buyer.
Click to expand...
 
Here’s another guy happy with the Happy Camper tank chemical. I put some in the tank back in November when this thread was going and noticed how it eliminated the tank odor without adding any smell of it own.

Well, we haven’t used the boat in a few weeks and I sort of forgot about it. Today I checked and there is still absolutely no detectable smell and the 10 gallon tank is about 3/4 full.

I’ll stop at the pump out dock and empty it in a couple weeks when I pull the boat after the wind lets us get in one more crabbing trip. Then it’ll get a fresh dose of the stuff with some freshwater.

The blue stuff in the pouches worked but it’s own smell was annoying. The green stuff worked but only for a short time. This Happy Camper stuff is the new TyBoo head standard.

So a big thanks to Mark and whoever told him about it and and everyone else who may have mentioned it.
 
Rick,
You do indeed have a ‘vaccuflush’ system, which pulls sewage away from a simple tank under the bowl by vacuum and therefore won’t smell every time one ‘flushes’ directly into an under-toilet 9 gal holding tank like Model 711 Traveller.

We had a Vacu-Flush on the last boat (Regal 2665) and it worked very well. Weak points were the rubber one-way ‘joker valves’ lasted only about 2-3 years and were a royal mess to replace. Also, no marine sewage hose should be expected by a reasonable owner to not ‘permeate’ or leak stink past the 10 year from mfg date (what date is stamped on YOUR hose?). The pump typically lasts 2 weeks past it’s 12 month warranty, plus or minus 1 week. The flush ball seals typically last 1-2 years and cost $38 to replace. See all at

https://www.environmentalmarine.com/fin ... ty-toilet/

You could replace your toilet very simply with a Model 711 Traveller Dometic/Sealand (they merged) RV gravity toilet like on our TC255 for around $750 new.

We agree Happy Camper is great, but yet there is no way you can tank 9 gallons of raw sewage for a week and not get any smell when you open the flush valve. The 255 has an opening window in the head and we keep it open even when the air conditioner is on with head door closed.

Micah, Bob, Tom and some other Air Head/Alt advocates never admit it in their posts, but the ‘composting toilets’ WILL NOT compost urine. You must haul your pee tank up to some toilet and dump it there. Pretty often, since it’s only a 2 gallon tank and you may not want to walk it up there when totally full.

That is just not our style just yet. Most marina pumpouts are free and easy for us. Use your own adapter, not their gouged -up one.

I think that anyone who posts about the ‘pro’s’ of any ‘composting head’ should honestly mention that ‘con’ in the future. They always avoid it, but I can’t imagine why. They’re not getting rebates.

Don’t hesitate to call Tech Support at environmentalmarine.com
They are very helpful and will walk you through anything. Give them a call before you decide (they are VacuFlush now as well).

Good luck in your upgrades, and best of luck!
John
 
Ok John
I’m posting this for all to see and making it public. Yes...you have a separate urine tank. There I said it. Ours holds about 2 gallons and I have a spare on board but so far I have not needed to use it. The way we use our boat it’s not been a concern. At least every couple of days we get to a place to empty “the jug”. Yes....that’s my job.

Is a composing toilet for everyone.....in a word NO! But it can be a great option for many. The way you use your Tomcat and the fact that you stay at Marinas a lot makes pump outs practical. We boat in areas that have few working pump outs.

The way one boats and the areas that one boats in make all the difference. I was touring a boat once in Lake Superior a few years ago and saw that the “head” was full of fishing poles. I asked how they use the toilet? The reply was “We are fisherman and just use a bucket and toss our waste overboard “

Yes, let’s face it, that’s what many boaters do. In some waters off the coast when the tanks get full boaters just pump out their holding tanks full of waste and chemicals. This sometimes is done in sensitive areas when tanks get full at an inconvenient time. This is the nasty truth.

As C-Brats we do not want to be “that guy”. So ....use whatever environmentally responsible method works for you.

One more time.......on a composing toilet you DO Have a separate holding tank to empty!

Thanks John for “jerking my chain”!

I look forward to seeing you and Eileen at Hontoon where we can continue our discussion.
 
Back
Top