Several Questions

1. Fresh water vs raw water heads for a cruising/on-the-hook boat?

2. Cost to buy & install an electroscan?

3. Cost to buy & install electric flush? Is vacuflush best?

4. Tundra fridge vs a regular apartment fridge -- is there major differences in power use implications (cruising/on-the-hook)?

5. Are the windlass that sit side by side preferable to the models that are stacked vertically?

Having one of each, I'm willing to weigh in on question #1.


Fresh water head is a lot cleaner and smells less. Raw water head will never run out of flush water!


Ken

Fresh water heads smell if not used frequently. OTOH flushing offshore at night is very entertaining as the phytoplankton light up

bayview said:

Fresh water heads smell if not used frequently. OTOH flushing offshore at night is very entertaining as the phytoplankton light up

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I think he meant salt water heads smell if not used. I have never had a problem with my fresh water head smelling.

4. Can't comment on the Tundra fridge. However I just replaced my large Norcold with a 50% larger Summit apartment refrigerator. I'm expecting reduced power consumption as this unit is extremely energy efficient. Will be posting a thread on this in a few days, once I'm underway.

5. Whether you go with a horizontal or vertical windlass will depend on number of anchors in the bow pulpit. If you have 2 with chain roads, you're pretty much looking at horizontal if you want immediate access to both. If both roads are rope, a vertical works well for both. If your setup is only one anchor, either works well, but vertical seems to be more common.

Ted

kchace said:

Having one of each, I'm willing to weigh in on question #1.


Fresh water head is a lot cleaner and smells less. Raw water head will never run out of flush water!


Ken

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Depending if you cruise in salt water or fresh water

L

Thanks for the replies thus far. Also feel free to chime in on manual vs electric head.

ERTF said:

Thanks for the replies thus far. Also feel free to chime in on manual vs electric head.

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My past boats have had manual heads. Their advantage is that they are inexpensive, simple, easy to maintain, effective, don’t drain power, don’t use your fresh water supply, and are relatively quiet. Electric heads have the advantage of being simple to operate for guests.

Fresh water flush is nice for a boat that sits a a while as a raw water flush the sulfur smell can be pretty strong on the first flush.

My current boat came with a nice electric, fresh water head. It has been great. However, if was in a situation where I was deciding what type of head to install in a boat, I would seriously consider a manual flush, raw water head.

The other option which I would seriously consider would be a Lavac head. I’ve never had one, but folks that have had them on their boats seem to be really happy.

4- We have a Tundra T-80 made by Taylor Made. ~8 cu ft. No longer in production. Works OK (refer temp 38-40F) but on 12 VDC draws about 5 amps DC and runs ~75% of the time in FL winter.
Draws a little over 1 amp on 120 VAC and runs maybe 50%.
The T-80 is the largest power drain on our battery bank by far.
2 summers ago the thermostat went bad. Tundra part cost $70. Found exactly same T -stat part number used for produce cooler $9 with $5 shipping. Works perfect.
The T-80 is a couple inches lower in height than an apt size refer. ~52 vs. 54. Since we have cabinetry above, the apt frig is a no-go.

1. We prefer fresh, but we have decent tankage. Maybe a hybrid for cruising with insufficient fresh water supply might work (with some safety provisions). Raw water flush probably OK if ya gotta, especially if you exercise it often.

2. We got an estimate for Purasan installion; think I remember it was going to be in the neighborhood of $3K in a Hold 'n' Treat version using our existing holding tank. Presumably the Electrosan would be similar. We haven't proceeded with that, yet; still thinking about it. The Hold 'n' Treat part seems important for those times when we might be inside an NDZ, since there actually is one not too far from our home port.

3. Can't speak to cost, but we prefer an electric macerating head to the Vacu-flush (and we've had both). The VF wasn't bad, we just prefer the electric macerating units.

4. Can't speak to Tundra, but we do like some of the advantages of an AC/DC fridge. OTOH, frost-free would be nice. Going that way means you need to consider the costs of the fridge and its inverter when comparing prices.

-Chris