Head woes!!

I cleaned the head on valkyr this past sunday and fixed the shower sump pump. Head was pretty nasty and I kinda nuked it with oxy clean and then a long soak in vinegar.. after I did that it started backflowing badly. Now the bowl fills half way up within 4 minutes or so of pumping it out. I am so tempted to just order a composting head and install it and rip all the head plumbing and tank out.. close off the through hulls and be done with it. I have a friend that he and his wife and two young children live on a 40 ft ketch and that is what they use. 2 years into it and they love it.

Right now I’m ballancing the major rip out and then install a 1000 dollar composting head vs.. just going down and getting a 130 dollar new generation jabsco head that will be a 20 minute swap out as it is bolt for bolt and connection for connection direct replacement. We will be living on the hook starting next summer so the holding tank capacity is going to be an issue then composting is looking attractive for that reason.

I hate heads!!!! lol
I just put up a article from the past on someone putting a composting head on Libertad a downeast 38 http://downeasteryachts.com/in…..stallation

It looks like a Sun Mar head. Nowdays the one to get seems to be the Airhead or Natures Head. those I know that have the Natures Head composting toilet say it is a bit stronger built than the Air Head one. I don’t have any personal experience with it though. The Air Head and the Natures Head seperate out the poo and the pee into seperate container which is supposed to make the whole process much less odiferous and longer to fill the composting bin. Urine just goes to a 2 gallon bottle that gets dumped.

a week later 🙂

I replaced the joker valve on the head a couple days ago to fix the issue on Valkyrs head and was successful but it really sucked doing it. I must have pumped 20 gallons of fresh water through the head before disasembly and still had to sanitize the whole head floor area. The vented loop must hold about a gallon of liquid. Other than that it was easy to do.. 15 minutes pumping fresh water though the system. 5 minutes changing out the joker valve. Thirty minutes cleaning it all up. Finding the joker valve was a pain. It’s just a standard jabsco cheap head that west marine sells. I had to drive a 100 miles to get the joker valve from a distant west marine. Most of the stores don’t carry just the joker valve ($13) instead they carry the rebuild kit for $60+ that has a joker valve in it. between the time and gas im not sure that i saved much by tracking down the just the joker valve. I should have ordered it online the week before and had it in hand already.

So I was thinking of putting off the natures head purchase till next spring or summer when we move the boat off the dock and are living on the hook. I wan’t to run the exhaust to the transom and up a pipe to over head heigh.. Part of the as yet undesigned radar/traveller arch I have been thinking of. However there already is a hole in the ceiling of the head with the dorade box over it. It would be very simple to run the vent hose up to it. My only concern is that if any odors come out of the vent they will be right there on deck and probabley flowing back over the cockpit.