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Skip Gundlach
 
Posts: n/a
Default Air Head, or not under pressure to perform...

As always, Terry, your post is informative and entertaining.

I'm not the least bit concerned about disassembly, and have made it
pretty easy should it be needed.

I've also got PVC for all but the first 16" (AVS96) and the last 4",
amply secured - though I believe this space has seen some discussion
about the difficulty of destruction of PVC if properly glued up. I
realistically expect this to be the last time I have to deal with the
system for a very long time.

My quest for a dry pipe was entirely based on Peggie's assertions that
that's how it worked. I'd not expected it, and in fact refused (how
can 1.5" of water not go down the side of a bubble??) to believe it.
Whether or not it can or can't is now moot, as mine doesn't, at least
completely. However, before I "learned" that fact, I'd expected to
properly care for the system by appropriate-interval disassembly and
regreasing along with periodic applications of vinagar, accompanied by
a copious fresh (well, salt, but unencumbered) water rinse before the
dry flush, as much as it may or may not put out.

I still hold that it might be possible to get all the liquid out the
bottom, and have a somewhat pressurized air column until more water is
introduced, or the joker allows bleedback into the bowl, following a
sufficient air/dry pump. It's the diving bell concept in miniature -
and, I suppose, to a certain degree, your (I love it!) pressurized
holding tank emptying modus as well. Doesn't yours bubble after all
the liquid's out?

One question, not being familiar with them - what's a MJ coupling? If
you look at the pix of my termination, you'll see I used a rubber
coupling to go from the PVC to the Y, with a butt joint in between. The
coupling is held on to both the Y and the PVC with two clamptites each,
and the butt is covered with a standard clamp (one of the ones which
came with the coupling).

Should I have to get into that, snipping the clamptites, unscrewing the
strap clamp, and sliding the coupling back on the PVC will allow me to
remove the Y (the reverse of my installation). On the other end, the
joker comes out easily, and will be a 10-minute change as needed.
Should I have to get into the PVC section, it's a
screwed-on-with-Teflon-tape nipple. And, of course,as previously
mentioned, in the unthinkable (inconceivable) possibility of a clog
downstream of the loop, I can snake it (from either end, but with no
in-the-bilge residue if done from the cleanout).

As our use will be offshore nearly always (in sanitation terms,
anyway), we'll rarely use the holding tank. Otherwise, your solution
just tickles me to death, and if we were in a place to use it, I'd want
to give it a try.

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/p7rb4 - NOTE:new URL! The vessel as Tehamana, as we
bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."