Sewage operations aboard my Tomcat

Am I correct in understanding that the AirHead uses none of the boat's water supply? Still not sure I understand how the solid waste material is cleaned out of the bowl (without water?) during the "flushing" operation of the AirHead.

Also, looks like a real throne in the pix. Are you sitting considerably higher on the AirHead?

Warren
 
I'll try and explain it in not so graphic detail. Think of the Airhead toilet bowl with a trap door in the center bottom. You put what looks like a very large paper cone in the bottom of the bowl into which you #2. #1 drains forward of that area in a recessed drain into a container. #1 gets poured overboard. When you are through with #2 you push a lever and the trap door opens and the paper, TP and #2 drops into the contained composting compartment. I think Pat said they had to clean out the dry compost material once last year and this was after a month trip with 2-3 people on the boat included. The Airhead has a small millivolt fan running 24/7 to keep the composting process going.
The entire toilet is self contained. No waste tank or need of a macerator pump. There is a 3" vent pipe which runs up and sticks out of the roof a few inches with a rain cap on it.
 
Mrw90,
The "standard" marine head supplied on the current CD 25 and the Tom cat 255 use potable water from the ships tanks, not sea water. This head is the Sea Land "Traveler"--which has a built in 9+ gallon holding tank--and uses a trap door similar to a portipotty at its base. This holding tank can be pumped overboard thru a macerator or it can be suction pumped.
 
You can use the Sealand 9 gallon in restricted waters by placing a padlock on the "Y-valve", preventing overboard discharge.

The use of toilet paper is no big problem with these new heads since the tank is right there, just a few inches below the toilet bowl valve. If you are worried about toilet paper building up, just go to Wal-Mart and get one of those internal head "sprinkler" wands. You hook it up to a hose and you can wash out your holding tank by sticking the spray wand down into the tank opening.

John
 
In places like Lake Champlain (no discharge) you have to actually disconnect the discharge hoses. Maybe that is why the sewage discharge is above the hull to deck joint...
 
This is an old thread -- but some things don't change!

The marina I am currently using does not have a completely equipped pump out unit. The part that fits to the waste tank deck fill on the coaming at the stern is not supplied. It's the part that couples to the vacuum hose. I have to supply that piece. I found this at WM -- and it appears to be the missing "link" (apologies to all boating anthropologists).

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... /0/0?N=377 710&Ne=0&Ntt=nozall&Ntk=Primary Search&Ntx=mode matchallpartial&Nao=0&Ns=0&keyword=nozall&isLTokenURL=true&storeNum=11&subdeptNum=70&classNum=71

Can anybody confirm that I have the right item. And if so, anyone know which size I'll need for a 2004 CD-25?

Thanks.
 
That's an interesting fitting. The pumpouts we've used have a rubber fitting on the end, which seals the deck fitting. No screw-in adapter needed. For example, this is what we used at Swan Marina in Olympia, Wa and Chula Vista, Ca, so I supposed that was standard. Indeed those rubber ends look like the tapered hose shown in the Fisheries ad.

Try that fitting, and if it doesn't work, return it. West Marine is good about that.

We often pump out on land, with the boat on the trailer, since we also Journey on as an RV. To dump the holding tank, I fit a normal dump hose with a "Easy Slip Elbow & Adapter" (Elbow Adapter). I shove one end of the hose in the RV sewer and hold the elbow adapter (which has a nice soft seal) over the macerator outlet port on the port side of the boat. Then, and only than, Judy turns on the macerator pump. When the pump cycles, Judy turns off the pump, I flush the side of the boat and the hose and, viola, we're done.

I've also located the holding tank vent line. As Bob said, it comes off the top port side of the tank. What had me fooled was that it came down, laid across the bilge, and then up the inside of the boat to the vent fitting. With that routing, guess what? The vent got filled with water (and other stuff) and wasn't a vent anymore. Another winter project.

If the dear reader gets a feeling that I'm very involved with the sewage system on Journey On, you're correct. There's a lot of stuff that goes through there in a summer.
 
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