Vacuflush cleaning by the Riki method

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.

I have similar issue with my Dometic head. The ball valve won't open, even though I hear the click, when I press the flush button. I can manually move the valve by turning the nut per these instructions, but that is not optimal! Were you able to manually move the valve with the broken part you showed here? Is it possible that Riki traveled to the US?

Thanks,
B

SailorBruce said:

I have similar issue with my Dometic head. The ball valve won't open, even though I hear the click, when I press the flush button. I can manually move the valve by turning the nut per these instructions, but that is not optimal! Were you able to manually move the valve with the broken part you showed here? Is it possible that Riki traveled to the US?

Thanks,
B

Click to expand...

Bad luck. I think, based on the click that you hear, that the same part is broken as was in my toilet. Pictures are added to this post. I do not know where Riki is at the moment. Anything is possibile with her. I am in Calgary (Canada) at the moment but don't tell anybody. [emoji3] The broken part is replacebile (don't know if that is a correct word)
but it is a hell of a job. We kept the electrical connections intact but that makes it not easier.
The part turns a straightforward movement into a turning movement, which opens and closes the valve. Good luck. My prayers tonight are for you.

Paul

The nut you refer to is not present in my toilet, so I really do not know.

We always give a brief to any new crew aboard our boat. It includes all the safety equipment and how the systems aboard work. This includes the heads and we give specific instructions on the usage and what can and cannot go into the heads.

Thanks for the photos! I appreciate the extra info. I guess I'm headed to a dark head for the next couple of hours.

Comodave we also instruct our guests how the equipment works, and what to do in case of emergency. But unfortunately this time we had somebody on board which can best be described as a walking liability. Instructions then do not help.
At some moment we were in full open water when the alarms of both bilgepumps went off and also we could hear the bilgepumps running.
Appeared that Riki wanted to switch on the lights of the stairway to the cabins. She saw some switches and started to switch them on one by one hoping that the lights would start.
She, however, was switching on the switches on the lower helm, where no light switches are. But not only she had switched on the bilgepumps also the fresh water pump was switched off and the seawaterpump switched on with the inlet valve closed! We had instructed her properly, but nevertheless. And there are more stories…
It is very dangerous to have somebody like that on board. We have learned our lessons, she can take the ferry next time..:lol:

Mr. Blu said:

Comodave we also instruct our guests how the equipment works, and what to do in case of emergency. But unfortunately this time we had somebody on board which can best be described as a walking liability. Instructions then do not help.
At some moment we were in full open water when the alarms of both bilgepumps went off and also we could hear the bilgepumps running.
Appeared that Riki wanted to switch on the lights of the stairway to the cabins. She saw some switches and started to switch them on one by one hoping that the lights would start.
She, however, was switching on the switches on the lower helm, where no light switches are. But not only she had switched on the bilgepumps also the fresh water pump was switched off and the seawaterpump switched on with the inlet valve closed! We had instructed her properly, but nevertheless. And there are more stories…
It is very dangerous to have somebody like that on board. We have learned our lessons, she can take the ferry next time..[emoji38]

Click to expand...

The end of the story. We had to take her to court to get the damages settled. Her insurance company made a ridiculous proposal but at the end of the day we received € 2.500 ( the equivalent of approximately 2.900 US dollars) as compensation. Case closed.[emoji3]