Noisy Jabsco

Both my oem electric Jabsco heads on my ‘84 are very noisy and sound like oogah horns. Is the noise likely caused by dying pump bearings or is there something else failing that may be the cause? I’m investigating before I replace the entire units with Raritans.

Tak

I just replaced motor on my “quiet flush”. Made a huge difference. It’s still noisy but much much better.

I like the Raritan Marine Elegance heads. They are very quiet and use little water. You can get them in short or tall version. Fresh water flush or sea water flush.

Our Jabsco electric freshwater flush was the Quiet Flush model. I replace the pump/moto assembly after a leak... think it was about 10-12 years old at the time, but I'm geting hazy...

Anyway, it went back to "Quiet" from that replacement.

-Chris

ranger42c said:

Our Jabsco electric freshwater flush was the Quiet Flush model. I replace the pump/moto assembly after a leak... think it was about 10-12 years old at the time, but I'm geting hazy...

Anyway, it went back to "Quiet" from that replacement.

-Chris

Click to expand...

Good! Not that you’re getting “hazy”, but that it got quieter! Both of my heads are the compact units so if the replacement motor makes them quieter, I may replace the captains head w/ a standard size and just the motor on the forward head.

Thanks guys,

Tak

The noise comes from the intake/flush water pump section. Our old Raritan Crowns were similarly obnoxious. I removed/eliminated the intake pumps and converted them to fresh water flush. Noise is gone. The cost was for a few feet of hose, two Sharkbite/PEX fittings to tie into the fresh water lines, two fresh water shutoff valves, some wiring, and the two JABSCO combination solenoid/vacuum breaker valves (which must be mounted a safe distance higher than the rim of the toilet bowl). Maybe $250 total for both heads in today's dollars. Old heads become quiet flush, just like that.

The rpm/pumping action of the macerator section of the old Crown toilets probably doubled without the drag from the intake pump, electrical power consumption went down....and they are quiet. This is a low cost alternative to new heads....but they do dip into your fresh water supply. That said, the flow to the bowl can be regulated by a manual shutoff valve (if you install one),and can obviously be flushed using a bucket of lake/seawater if you need to conserve on-board water. Also easy enough to install a remote diaphragm style raw water intake pump if you want the sea water configuration..

Install an elevated loop in the discharge line to achieve a small pool of water in the bowl after the flush and block odors from inside the lines and the tank....

The basic Jabsco electric toilet has a rubber impeller to bring in the flush water. It is inherently noisy.

The quiet flush avoids this by using a remotely mounted diaphragm pump to bring in the flush water. The pump is quieter than the rubber impeller and it isn’t in the same cabin as you when you flush.

Your toilets are more than thirty years old and probably the rubber impeller type. You can just replace the motor/pump assembly to go back to the original noise level or upgrade to a newer design.

To me the best marine toilet on the market is the Marine Elegance. I would opt for the one that flushes with fresh water. If you’re worried about fresh water consumption, get the model that lets you select between fresh and raw water.

My Jabsco Quietflush recently started making a terrible squeal that I thought was the bearings failing. It still flushed okay. Disassembly revealed a clear hair tie in the macerator. Probably not your situation if both heads are doing it, though!

Clear hair ties have now been banned from the boat.

Thank you ALL! As usual, I got the info I needed.

Tak

what to do with the thru hull?

Yesterday I ordered a Raritan Marine Elegance. After perusing HeadMistress' book and looking at the responses here, I am converting to freshwater.

Any ideas on plugging, blocking, rendering harmless, spiking or otherwise doing away with the now defunct raw water thru hull?

Tak

I took the seacock out and glassed the hole closed.

Repurpose it to use for a washdown pump, HVAC pump, watermaker...???


--Peggie

Close the seacock, remove the handle and cap or plug as appropriate. You may want it in the future. If you find you’re using too much fresh water to flush, you might want to have the option to use raw water.