Stench when toilet is flushed

[dhays]

That is quicker than my experience and we are in the same water.

 

[HeadMistress]

With regards to dead sea life smelling in the raw water intake - in other people's experience, how long does that take?

We have a manual Groco head plumbed with sea water that is only used to urinate. Our flush water starts to stink after about 6 hours. This doesn't seem right. It's been that way since we owned the boat (2 yrs). Cruising from SoCal to SE AK. What have others experienced?

Are you seeing black flecks in the flush water? If so, the source of your odor is dead and decaying animal or vegetable sea life trapped somewhere in the system. Try this to clean it out:

Fill a bucket with clean FRESH water to which you've added a quart of distilled white vinegar. Remove the intake line from the thru-hull (close the seacock first!), stick it in the bucket and flush the entire bucketful through the toilet. If that doesn't do it, stick a hose nozzle against the port on the back of it to flush out the channel in the rim. It's a PITA to remove the bowl and set it on the dock to do this, but cleaning up the mess you'd make doing it while bowl is still on the base is a bigger one.

If you' anchor regularly in shallow waters, invest in a strainer for the inlet line. Shallow waters typically have a lot of vegetation that deep waters don't--vegetation that toilets can pull in, that's also home to a lot of animal sea life, much of which is small enough to get pulled into toilet intakes to get stuck and die.

All that said...are you 100% certain it's your flush water that stinks and not odor from the toilet discharge line? Urine is NOT odor free! So if you're not rinsing behind your flushes and haven't replaced your joker valve in at least a year, that can be the source of your odor. See my post #26 to this thread.

Additionally, there's no more reason to avoid flushing solid waste and quick-dissolve TP than there is to avoid flushing 'em at home. Adding a couple of beer cups full of water from the sink ahead of use will keep the bowl clean.

 

[goboatnow]

Peggy,
It is definitely the flush water. I rebuilt the head, replacing all the guts including the joker valve, about 6 months ago.

We do get a lot of vegetation coming through in some anchorages and I suspect that some is clogged in the rim channel. I'll give your vinegar flush a try.

Thanks

 

[HeadMistress]

If you're seeing weeds in the bowl, we've nailed the source of your odor. You definitely need a strainer in that line. Till you install one, start closing the intake thru-hull and flush using water from the sink or a bucket next to the toilet.

If it's in the rim channel, blasting it with a lot of water under pressure is likely to be the only way to clean it out completely. As for the intake hose, you may be better off just replacing it...Shields or Trident #148 is ok for intake hoses and cheap.

 

[kartracer]

Peggie
Would installing and air pump as on home units help in any way?

Just ordered book!!!

When changing hoses what brand do you prefer??

 

[HeadMistress]

Would installing and air pump as on home units help in any way?

Aerating a holding tank will eliminate odor out the tank vent, but I don't see how it would be possible to aerate a toilet intake line. I'm not even sure how that could work in a household toilet...I've never heard of it before.

When changing hoses what brand do you prefer??

There are two that have proven to be odor impermeable--

Trident 101/102 (identical except for color) Trident #101 Sanitation Hose has been on the market for more than 20 years without a single reported odor permeation failure. It has one drawback, though...it's as stiff as an ironing board, which only makes a good choice for long straight runs. Hose runs that have bends tighter than the hose wants to bend willingly require cutting the hose and installing inline radius fittings. More than a couple of those and you might as well save some money and go with hard pipe. Average price if you shop is $7-8/ft cut to length needed.

Raritan SaniFlex Raritan SaniFlex hose has been on the market close to 10 years without a single reported odor permeation failure...I have yet to hear of any either and I'm pretty sure I would have. It's a bit more expensive than Trident 101/102, but has the advantage of being so flexible it can be bent like a hairpin without kinking. It has a list price of a whopping $15/ft, but can be found for $9-11.

Both are a good bit more expensive than the flexible PVC that's available from most marine retailers, but worth the extra price if you only want to do this miserable job ONCE instead of once every year or two.

 

[Sea Q]

Gaston, While you may have found a way to temporarily eliminate odor, you're doing so by killing the bacteria in waste that's needed to breakdown solids and TP, which is critical to a trouble-free system. You want to work WITH nature, not against it to PREVENT odor occuring in the first place, and the key to that is oxygen....when organic matter breaks down aerobically it converts to CO2, which is odorless. It's only when it breaks down anaerobically (without oxygen) that it can generate hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide--both stinky and highly toxic gasses-and methane which although flammable is odorless. Try flushing a couple of ounces of NoFlex Noflex Digestor into the tank every week. If that doesn't cure your odor problem, replace the the vent thru-hull with an open bulkhead thru-hull to allow more air exchange via the vent.

I suggest you also check out the link in my signature.

Noflex on sale

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/zaal

 

[dhays]

Noflex on sale

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/zaal

Thanks for the heads up. I love this stuff and will buy some more.