Vacuflush vs Raritan Elegance

I will be replacing my sanitation line and heads in a boat which has the holding tank apporximatly 30' from the toilet (Aft head with forward holding tank). Originally the boat had a vacuflush system, but for whatever reason the owner replaced it with manual toilets. I think I want to replace it with either a Sealand vacuflush system with fresh water or a Raritan Elegance toilet with fresh water. I think the advantace of the Vacuflush system is that it will pretty well clean the sanitation line with each flush (vacumm pump and tank would be near the holding tank) better than the Raritan which appears to have the vacumm pump within the toilet. Am I correct on this and/or does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

I think you are looking at two different technologies.

The raritan head is a "normal" marine head I believe. Whereas the vaccuflush is as you know a vacuum system.

For that length system if it were me I'd go with the raritan system but only because I think it would use more water and flush the lines better. I'd also adjust the flush time for a extra long flush cycle.

jstauffer said:

I will be replacing my sanitation line and heads in a boat which has the holding tank apporximatly 30' from the toilet (Aft head with forward holding tank). Originally the boat had a vacuflush system, but for whatever reason the owner replaced it with manual toilets. I think I want to replace it with either a Sealand vacuflush system with fresh water or a Raritan Elegance toilet with fresh water. I think the advantace of the Vacuflush system is that it will pretty well clean the sanitation line with each flush (vacumm pump and tank would be near the holding tank) better than the Raritan which appears to have the vacumm pump within the toilet. Am I correct on this and/or does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

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Welcome aboard J. I have a Sundeck and hope to finish an install on my aft toilet tomorrow. I swapped the front head over to the Raritan E a couple of months ago (it was mechanical) and tapped into the fresh water. K Pec is the fittings I used, to tie in with the existing grey water line my understanding is that Pec which uses a crimping tool is also the same hose diameter. At this point, I wish I had invested in the tool to go with the Pec. The aft was a Raritan electric model with a pump for sea water. VERY noisy. On both installs I had to glass in existing holes for the old pipe and reliant. The aft flushed fine with the old unit and I am certain the new one will too. Just as an option, you may consider tank truck hose for your tank lines. When we bought the boat the pump out hose had been laying in an oily bilge for years I suspect and several holes in it. The tanker hose would be impervious to oil, but probably more expensive. If you go that route I suggest the "T" bolt clamps for a tight fit. The Raritan Elegance already installed is quiet and has served us well

I was leaning toward the SeaLand vacufluch for the reason that ksanders thought it would be best to go with the Raitan in that the Raitan would use more water in order to flush the long line of hose. My thought was that the Vacumm system would be sucking the hose empty by using very little water, whereas, the Raitan would be pushing the elements through the line and without a fair amount of water it would end up laying in the hose. In order to use enough water to clean the hose would cause my holding tank to fill rather quickly. But, maybe I'm wrong.

ksanders is correct in that they are two different technologies. The vacuflush using a vacumm to pull the elements from the toilet to the vacumm pump and then pushes it into the holding tank. (The vacumm pump is located very near the holding tank.) The way I understand it, the Raitan Elegance using a vacumm pump at the toilet to clean the bowl and then pushes it to the tank. If it was a very short hose run (a few feet) to the tank I believe I would probably lean toward the Raitan.

Both systems have good reputations. If you have any questions about the Raritan, talk to Dale Weatherstone in their Ft. Lauderdale location. Sorry I don't have a name to give you at Sealand. If you decide on the Raritan, I'd like the opportunity to quote on it. I'm a Raritan dealer.

As for me and my house, we would go with the Raritan Marine Elegance!!! I have had both in my boats. I installed a Marine Elegance in our Monk and that thing is just awesome- absolutely the best and quietest head I've seen on a boat. I could not say enough about good it is. I absolutely am growing to hate vacuflush. We have vacuflush on our 45 now and I can't stand them. When they die I am swapping them out for marine elegance units. I'd do it now but darned if I am not spending enough $$$ on other big projects- that one will have to wait for now. Too many moving parts and complicated parts for the vacuflush- I vote for the simplicity and reliability of the marine elegance.

Forkliftt said:

...I used, to tie in with the existing grey water line...

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Did you really mean grey water (not black water)? I cannot imagine any connection between a grey water line and anything going in or out of a head.

jstauffer said:

I think I want to replace it with either a Sealand vacuflush system ...or a Raritan Elegance...

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I love my vacuflush - just had it rebuilt last year. In the 10 years I've had my boat it got plugged once...I'm not sure exactly with what (had maybe 15 guests on board at the time)...but letting it sit overnight it whooshed through the next day with a stab from a screwdriver.

Before I had it rebuilt by Dave Rigby (aka "The Head Guy"), he was recommending that I look at (not positive, but sounds right) the SeaLand MasterFlush. He wasn't going to make any more money on it (I have a wholesale account and would have purchased it for him to install), but he was saying it was the absolute best head made, bar none.

My Vacuflush can be directed to a LectraSan (and then overboard) or a holding tank. The LectraSan is "legal" in most of our waters, but it whooshes through there so fast it doesn't really do anything.

refugio said:

Did you really mean grey water (not black water)? I cannot imagine any connection between a grey water line and anything going in or out of a head.

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Refugio, sorry I was not clear. Since I am converting to fresh water flush I needed a source for water. All of the water lines onmy boat are a grey color. Sort of like mobile home lines I think. To "tie in" I used K Pec fittings.

refugio said:

My Vacuflush can be directed to a LectraSan (and then overboard) or a holding tank. The LectraSan is "legal" in most of our waters, but it whooshes through there so fast it doesn't really do anything.

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We have two Vacuflush heads that feed a Raritan Hold-N-Treat system.

The Hold-N-Treat combines a 15 gallon holding tank and your choice of Raritans treatment systems.

Since our boat uses fresh water heads I opted for the Purasan version.

I've had Raritan treatment systems on three boats now and would not have a boat without a treatment system.

I like the hold-n-treat because it has a USCG legal lockout (key operated), and because we didn't run into the "flush delay" that issue that you get when you slave an electric head to the flush output on the lectra-san (flush delay in that you can only flush once every 2 minutes).

Everything flows to the holding tank which sends the waste to the treatment system for processing.

Woodsong said:

As for me and my house, we would go with the Raritan Marine Elegance!!! I have had both in my boats. I installed a Marine Elegance in our Monk and that thing is just awesome- absolutely the best and quietest head I've seen on a boat. I could not say enough about good it is. I absolutely am growing to hate vacuflush. We have vacuflush on our 45 now and I can't stand them. When they die I am swapping them out for marine elegance units. I'd do it now but darned if I am not spending enough $$$ on other big projects- that one will have to wait for now. Too many moving parts and complicated parts for the vacuflush- I vote for the simplicity and reliability of the marine elegance.

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OK, now I'm curious.

What are your issues with the vaccuflush?

I'm no expert on the system, but mine seem to work pretty well. They clear the bowl, and are relaticly quiet, especially compared with the sea-era electric heads (which are a really good head btw).

We had the Raritan Elegance for a few seasons now, Great head and quiet!

If you are 30' from your holding tank, you probably do not want to flush the head so much so the whole line is clear, unless you are leaving the boat for a while and not using the head.

The Raritan can use a 1" outlet line with no problem. If you have some straight runs you could use PVC and rubber couplings, Pvc never permeates and is cheap.

Use regular fittings and cement and put the rubber couplings in to unslip the pipe if you ever have a clog.

JohnP

We went with the Sealand System. Changed all the hoses, the system is great and uses very little water therefore increasing your cruising time between pump outs.

Really improved the "boat smell".. Quite pricing but a good upgrade.

DT

Elegance

I just installed the Elegance and the Electroscan, I have to say it is awesome. no more Pumpouts for me and the head is hooked to the freshwater so I flush with freshwater. To the poster concerned about this, Raritan has engineered an airbreak in the system and it is above the toilet, it is certified and I have had no problems yet but hey, I have flushed it oinly 600 times so far (it counts), optionally, I have the hold-n-treat as well for those few times I will be in a no discharge zone, the elegance feeds a Y valve for either the holding tank or the electroscan. I am very happy, have tried 3 different heads before the elegance, this is by far the best in my opinion, no vacuum pumps and no vacuum connections to leak.

ksanders said:

OK, now I'm curious.

What are your issues with the vaccuflush?

I'm no expert on the system, but mine seem to work pretty well. They clear the bowl, and are relaticly quiet, especially compared with the sea-era electric heads (which are a really good head btw).

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IMO, the marine elegance is just that much better. Vacuflush, IMO, is a more complicated system and more parts that can break and go wrong. Plus they are noisy and I find they do not flush as well as the marine elegance at all. I think our vacuflush on our 4550 uses more water by far than the marine elegance on our Monk simply b/c it requires 2 flushes often times. If/when our vacuflush system gives up the ghost we will switch over to a marine elegance if we can.

Sorry guys...but anyone who thinks a vacuuflush is quiet....just doen't understand quiet.

I'm really dying to hear of a 'QUIET' marine tilet...never heard one so far...but I haven't heard them all......soooooo take a lesson from the RV industry for simplicity.

If gravity will work...let it do the work. ...it's QUIET! If you don't have the room/drainage...then you are stuck...buy whatever system you like but the vacu-system is anything but simple...it may be reliable for some...but just too many moving parts to be reliable for al for all the time.

7 years of Vacuflush

I had the Vacuflush system in my last boat. No problems in over 7 years. I thought they were noisy. One thing I think you may want to think about is the distance from the head to the Vacuflush unit. The vacuum pulling the effluent from the toilet has limitations. Vacuflush pushes the waste to the holding tank from the vacuum chamber. I'm not sure how far it can suck effluent to the unit from the toilet. I'm sure if you had a thirty foot run to the Vacuflush unit from your toilet it would not totally evacuate the waste hose with each flush. The vacuum chamber just isn't large enough. On my boat the Vacuflush unit was within a few feet of the toilet and pushed to the holding tank. On fresh water flushes, if you use the Electrascan treatment system you will need to add a salt water injection system, if you boat in brackish or fresh water you will need the salt water injection anyway. I currently use Galley Maid heads with the Electrascan treatment. I use sea water to flush as it doesn't draw from my fresh water drinking supply. My heads are 36 years old and still running like new. The pumps look like truck starters. They use a lot of energy to run as does the Electrascan. When I replace these I'll probably just rebuild these units as they have been unbelievably reliable. The Vacuflush uses very little electrical energy which is a consideration. If it doesn't complete the job you will have to wait for vacuum build up before flushing again.

I have the fresh water Marine Elegance toilet with the Purasan treatment system. I installed the Purasan when I had to replace a leaky holding tank. The tank is still clean since I will only need it in discharge restricted areas. The Purasan uses a large chlorine tablet to generate a small amount of chlorine with each treatment cycle so the sterilized waste can be discharged. It's less than a year old but works great so far.

I've followed the Head Mistress, Peggy Hall's advice and had good luck. I just found out that she has retired but lots of good advice is still available in the archives of her forum. The Head Mistress: Flush with the joy of retirement - SailboatOwners.com