[C320-list] Dedicate one water tank to flushing toilet

[Scott Thompson]

In my experience the smell isn't from flushing with bay water but rather 
from letting bay water sit in the toilet and plumbing for extended 
periods. The micro-organisms in the bay water die and decompose 
producing the smell. You can avoid this by (a) flushing the toilet 
frequently and (b) flushing with fresh water whenever leaving the boat 
for overnight or longer. It also helps somewhat to flush the holding 
tank with fresh water after a pump out at the end of a trip. With this 
protocol our boat is sweet smelling even while using bay water to flush 
most of the time.

Regarding the original post: It makes no sense to me that you would need 
a new electric pump when switching water sources. I would ignore the 
advice from the marina unless they can say why a toilet that does not 
currently need a separate pump would start needing one when flushed with 
fresh water.

Scott


On 6/4/2018 6:44 AM, Bruce Hunter wrote:
> When shopping for boats we could tell the ones that used bay water to flush...nasty smell. When we bought ours I closed off the head's seacock and considered hooking up to the fresh water system. I then thought "keep it simple stupid" and obtained a small plastic Folders Coffee can that we fill up once or twice (sometimes more depending on the payload) and it works well, we first tried simply using the sink faucet/shower head but stretching it over was a bit of a PIA and sometimes messy, the Foldgers can sits right up on the shelf and works great. It also gives people an idea of how much water they're actually using.
> Bruce Hunter Nauti Time #719
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
>   
>    On Mon, Jun 4, 2018 at 2:52 AM, Graeme Clark<cg at skyflyer.co.uk> wrote:   Possibly a change in plumbing arrangements on later models but our toilet (“heads”) ingests seawater (or lake water!) to flush with. When we leave the boat we flush with some fresh water (from basin faucet) which helps reduce odor next time we return
> If we used fresh water to flush we’d empty our tanks in a very short time indeed!
>
> Graeme
> #366, 1966
>
>
> Sent from mobile: please excuse typos etc.!
>
>
>> On 4 Jun 2018, at 06:25, Utility Email <kswanson123 at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> I haven’t done that so no advice there.  However, a couple of points to consider:
>>
>> 1.  Beware of cross-connecting fresh water lines and tanks with toilet flushing as that could be detrimental to your health.
>>
>> 2.  Consider how this change in plumbing might affect the resale value of the boat when you elect to sell it.
>>
>> 3.  On our boat, we use the head sink shower nozzle for fresh water flushing.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> David B. Swanson, P.E., S.E.
>> Principal, LEED AP, F. SEI
>> Director, Structural Engineering
>>
>> Reid Middleton, Inc.
>> (425) 741-3800 office
>> (425) 741-5011 direct
>> (425) 508-7971 mobile
>>
>> www.reidmiddleton.com
>>
>>> On Jun 3, 2018, at 3:57 PM, Larry Smith <larrywindsmith at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> We don't use either water tank relying instead on street water for all
>>> faucets.  Has anyone dedicated one tank to only flushing the toilet?  Ours
>>> is a manual toilet original equipment.  Our Marina says we would need to
>>> add an electric pump because the toilet wouldn't be able to provide enough
>>> power without assistance.  Thanks.
>