Mr. Blu
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2017
- Messages
- 147
- Location
- The Netherlands
- Vessel Name
- Mr. Blu
- Vessel Make
- Beneteau Swift Trawler 52
A remarkable story how you can make a lame duck of ST 52 with a toilet brush.
When we have guestst on our ST 52 we always kindly ask them to take the blankets and sheets off the beds and clean up the bathroom at the end of their stay. Cleaning the toilet bowl, mirrors, shower, washing bowl et cetera. We do not ask to clean up thorougly. Just leave the place tidy.
This summer we had a guest who thought that she saw something dirty(?)in the black hole, when the toilet flushes. After having carried out two flushes, she took the toilet brush and put it in the black hole.
The results were disastrous. The ball valve was blocked, but as the mechanisme tried to finish the the complete flush, parts broke off inside the motor and electronical equipment. That resulted in the valve staying opened, which kept the water supply - to clean the bowl - flushing. But also the holding tank kept building up the vacuum. And slowly it was reaching it's maximum. Normally the Vacuflush system then stops the holding pump. But the signal was not provided by the system and so it kept on sucking. But now a possible backwash was nearby, as the holding tank was nearly filled up.
To prevent further flushing I shut off the water supply and I shut off the holding tank. At that point we had a motoryacht of which the toilets couldnot be used anymore but also it was not possible to take a shower or use the water supply for dishes, cooking et cetera.
It was good fortune that we were in our home marina, where they have excellent toilet and shower facilities.
It appeared that on the ST 52 (and perhaps on other ST's too) there are no possibilities to shut off the water supply of the toilets. We therefor placed an extra tube on the water supply with a valve so the water supply could be stopped. Doing so we were able to use the ST again with a dismounted toilet.
Being in Croatia it was not easy to find someone who could repair the toilet. And I think that most repair companies just replace the old toilet by a new one. We, in the end, dismounted the complete toilet and replaced the broken parts. Not an easy job in a tidy space.
Not even for people like us having a watersports company, who are used to dealing with problems of this kind of sort.
And it costed us a tremendous amount of time. And putting a toilet together in a factory is something else than in a bathroom.
We now call this way of cleaning the "Riki"method. After the inventor. We do not recommend it: a sledge hammer has the same effect.
And we are still wondering what she has seen in the black hole of the toilet. Of course a lot of scientist are intrigued by black holes but I have never heard of one wanting to put a toilet brush in it.
When we have guestst on our ST 52 we always kindly ask them to take the blankets and sheets off the beds and clean up the bathroom at the end of their stay. Cleaning the toilet bowl, mirrors, shower, washing bowl et cetera. We do not ask to clean up thorougly. Just leave the place tidy.
This summer we had a guest who thought that she saw something dirty(?)in the black hole, when the toilet flushes. After having carried out two flushes, she took the toilet brush and put it in the black hole.
The results were disastrous. The ball valve was blocked, but as the mechanisme tried to finish the the complete flush, parts broke off inside the motor and electronical equipment. That resulted in the valve staying opened, which kept the water supply - to clean the bowl - flushing. But also the holding tank kept building up the vacuum. And slowly it was reaching it's maximum. Normally the Vacuflush system then stops the holding pump. But the signal was not provided by the system and so it kept on sucking. But now a possible backwash was nearby, as the holding tank was nearly filled up.
To prevent further flushing I shut off the water supply and I shut off the holding tank. At that point we had a motoryacht of which the toilets couldnot be used anymore but also it was not possible to take a shower or use the water supply for dishes, cooking et cetera.
It was good fortune that we were in our home marina, where they have excellent toilet and shower facilities.
It appeared that on the ST 52 (and perhaps on other ST's too) there are no possibilities to shut off the water supply of the toilets. We therefor placed an extra tube on the water supply with a valve so the water supply could be stopped. Doing so we were able to use the ST again with a dismounted toilet.
Being in Croatia it was not easy to find someone who could repair the toilet. And I think that most repair companies just replace the old toilet by a new one. We, in the end, dismounted the complete toilet and replaced the broken parts. Not an easy job in a tidy space.
Not even for people like us having a watersports company, who are used to dealing with problems of this kind of sort.
And it costed us a tremendous amount of time. And putting a toilet together in a factory is something else than in a bathroom.
We now call this way of cleaning the "Riki"method. After the inventor. We do not recommend it: a sledge hammer has the same effect.
And we are still wondering what she has seen in the black hole of the toilet. Of course a lot of scientist are intrigued by black holes but I have never heard of one wanting to put a toilet brush in it.
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