Here you will find some great information about a terrible subject. This is the dreaded plumbing section that I personally wish never had to happen. Thankfully El Sueno has been pretty reliable where plumbing is concerned. However there have been a few minor repairs and things replaced. Below you will find information on this most poopy subjects!
The Jabsco Toilet Project
Lets talk about the Jabsco Manual Flush
When we picked up El Sueno from the marina in Eagle Harbour, My brother Dave just had to go use the facilities...didnt bother to check to see if it was working....Noooooo! lol. After using the toilet to its max capacity if you know what I mean, he then attempt to flush the toilet. You guessed it, non functioning. I of course felt terribly embarrassed for him and gave him a small bucket to remove ALL his doings (tears welling up now from laughing so hard). After the gagging subsided and all was cleaned out (still laughing) I set out to replace the parts on the Rotan toilet that was fitted on El Sueno. Rotan no longer supported parts for that particular toilet. I now was forced to make a decision about what to replace it with? The easy answer was the Jabsco toilet. Jabsco is a well respected company with years of experience manufacturing marine toilets of all types. We decided to choose the manual flush toilet for it reliability and easy use.
The information below was taken from the Jabsco web site
JABSCO marine toilets are well designed, well made, well tried and tested, and hugely popular worldwide. But they are only as good as the installation allows them to be. Get the installation right, and save yourself potential trouble of the most unwelcome kind. Further advice on toilet systems can be found at 'About Toilets' on the Marine Toilets Page of this website.
The book is written by an American for the US market, but the principles it describes and explains are the same for marine toilet systems anywhere. Peggie Hall is one of the USA's acknowledged experts (there aren't many!) on marine sanitation. She writes in a clear, direct style on the principles that govern the behaviour of microbes in dark, wet places, and how to keep them under control. In brief outline, Peggie Hall's book says:
1. Know the law. Toilet waste discharge is illegal in US (and UK) inland and coastal waters. Ask your harbourmaster, marina manager, cruising association, sailing club or river authority about the regulations. (The leading UK boating magazines have databases on boating matters of every kind, and will often help if you ask nicely).
2. Make sure that your toilet system can stand up to the movement and shocks of marine use. Every part of the system needs to be accessible for maintenance and repair.
3. The way to avoid foul smells is to design the toilet system so that air can circulate through it.
4. Train yourself and your crew to flush the toilet efficiently.
5. Cleaning substances made and sold specifically for marine toilets can be useful in a well-designed system. See 3 above. To clean your toilet we recommend 'Toilet Fresh Clean and Condition'
6. Prevention is better than cure. Change the rubber parts in the toilet at least every two years.