Marine Head Replacement

A

Alyssa Jean

New member
(Pat on Daydream with the composting toilet need not respond)

I am contemplating the replacement of the factory Jabsco Marine Toilet with either a vacuflush or Sealand 8818 electric. Saw both today at the Trawlerfest. The vacufluch only uses about a pint of fresh water to flush. It also has the largest unit to mount somewhere to make the system work. The electric's workings outside the toilet are much smaller. Both would flush to the existing waste tank. The power on the electric as I remember it is in the neighborhood of 6 amps. But this is a quick momentary discharge of the batteries. The fact that it uses fresh water eliminates most of the marine smell you get from using sea water. And that is where I do 99% of my boating.
Any thoughts or experience with the electric?
 
Well, I'd love to see the installation.I'm going to have to rebuild the head in Journey On since it didn't pump on the last trip. $30 and shipping for the !@#$ gaskets and seals. If the electric head lasts longer and uses fresh water, it sounds wonderful.

A pint of water seems awfully low, let us know if it's true. As for the power, you're not interested in the amps (power) but energy (amp-hrs.) How long does that head run?
 
Take a look at the Lavac head on Sea Skipper. I've used this model on three different boats for the past 12 years. Not a single malfunction in perhaps 1-1/2 years of actual use. In my opinion, they are the ultimate in simplicity and reliability. The diaphragm waste pump is plumbed so that with a flip of a "Y" valve, the pump becomes a back up manual bilge pump.
 
The Vacuflush uses a pint per flush, the electric uses a quart. I think the cycle time was around 5 seconds. So the amp/hours, in my opinion, is a minimal concern.
The other positive thing about the electric is that it has a built in S/S macerator as part of it.

I will check out the Lavac also.
 
My experience with electrics is only with Jabsco--less of problems than the manual heads, but high current draw, short peroid of time. I did have some electrolysis, on the intake thru hull, but if you are using fresh water, that would not be a problem.

I wonder if you really want the high model 8818, maybe the 8812 low profile would be better, because of the limits in the 25's head?

The Tom Cat uses the Sea Land Traveler, and this is as trouble free a head as you want--just dumps directly into the holding tank (also fairly high commode seat). Only drawback is the total capacity is just over 9 gallons. But then you could take the holding tank out or elimate some weight aft.
 
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