Toilet Matters

Those of a nervous disposition should look away now.

OK, So this is about the lovely shiny macerator loo our boat has (Tecma it is).

First, and as mentioned in our last post, our surveyor pointed out that the pipes leading to and from the holding tank were old(ish) and letting out a bit of a pong.

Having trawled the forums (including the yachting one ... them yachting people know a thing or two) the consensus was that white plastic pipes are not so good and the more expensive butyl rubber ones are the ones to have. So £175 later and with a slightly conscripted neighbour, we set about changing them. Most yachting people suggested double jubilee clips, so given the nature of the fluid involved, I did as I was told. It was all done in around 3 hours, which considering the route of the pipes, was pretty good going.

Note the Tecma wiring colours: blue for the water solenoid
and brown for the macerator. What else would you choose?

The second toilet matter was the flush. Nothing wrong with the flush: very efficient in fact. The only problem was that it chucked about a gallon of water down (even for a wee wee). There is a way of tweaking the amount of water taken in, but that proved unsuccessful.

So armed with two 40 amp 12 volt car relays (ebay) and a two way rocker switch (RS Components)  I connected an extra switch which could manually control how much water went in, and how long the macerator was on.

I'm still not sure the holding tank is going to last as long as our old dump through, but it should be close.

Now that is a weight off my mind, and I promise the next post will be about roses, lavender, baking bread and grinding coffee.