Fresh water head FYI

[SCORPIO]

I have a manual Jabsco head on my '89 300 DA. The surveyor noted that it is a fresh water flush head but wasn't sure exactly where the water was pulled from. Recently, the head doesn't want to pull water into the bowl when set to wet bowl. This problem happened on seatrial and required the seller to install a rebuild kit. I figured it was time to rebuild the head again and since I had a kit onboard, I thought why not. So after doing a total head rebuild, I try the head and ... no change, no water coming in! Now I'm getting PO'd and the picnic is about to start. I happen to notice that as I'm pumping the head, I see bubbles in the clear inlet line. I figure I have a restriction (as per the troubleshooting section in the kit instructions). So I start to look for a restriction when I find the actual problem. I traced the hose back under the aft bunk and I see that it connects to a tee off the water line, NOT the line running from the dockside water hookup but the line coming from the fresh water tank. We rarely use the tank as we mostly use the dockside hookup. Want to guess, yes, the water tank was EMPTY! I put some water in it and PRESTO the head works! So, the moral to this story is, the fresh water head only works off the fresh water tank and the dockside system does not share all its plumbing with the onboard tank.

 

[Sundancer]

Chris:

You need to CHANGE the line! You could have bugs creeping up that line back into your freshwater tank! Even though you may not use it for drinking, it's still a risk. My freshwater supply comes from a seacock in the aft bunk and has a large Groco strainer in there.

 

[twomad]

i have a 88 300 weekender and the head is fed by its own thru hull with strainer that is under the top step to the cabin, i have a friend with a 88 sundancer and his is fed by the freshwater tank which he is constantly filling

 

[SCORPIO]

Chris:

You need to CHANGE the line! You could have bugs creeping up that line back into your freshwater tank! Even though you may not use it for drinking, it's still a risk. My freshwater supply comes from a seacock in the aft bunk and has a large Groco strainer in there.

Sounds like the setup for my air conditioner. If you don't have AC, SeaRay may have used that thru hull and strainer for the head. I'd like to keep the fresh water feature as we boat in salt water, and that can cause bad smells in the head. However, I agree that some sort of back flow preventer needs to be devised, thats at the top of my winter mods list. Anybody have any ideas? How are the heads plumbed on your boats?

 

[Sundancer]

How about a separate tank? Somewhere I saw system that was fed by turning on the sink and it was tied into a separate tank. So they filled it from the sink drain with a valve for normal overboard sink waste and valved the other way to fill the tank. The kept any think from getting upstream.

 

[JimT]

You can use water out of the sink faucet to fill the head before and after use. We did this on our sailboat to avoid using seawater. Much simpler than plumbing a fresh water system.

 

[JVM225]

You can use water out of the sink faucet to fill the head before and after use. We did this on our sailboat to avoid using seawater. Much simpler than plumbing a fresh water system.

That's what I do with the manual head on my boat. I usually keep the shower hose attached to the faucet in the head anyway, so it makes it easy to use fresh water from there.

 

[AKBASSKING]

I have 2 seacocks, one for AC and the other for the head. The way the Admiral uses water, I am glad I am pulling sea water for the head.

I think the way your system is set up is due to water pressure from city water (manual head). I would agree that having the head hooked up to your fresh water tank, which you may use to wash dishes etc may present some issues.

If you want to stay with fresh water, the alternate water tank sounds like a good idea and wouldn't be hard to install if you have to room.