BoatBanter.com - White or black sanitary hose?

White. Schedule 40 :{))

See prior threads for info on the prior gold standard, sold by SeaLand, I
think, which was PL'd for them by a company in Ohio which, after taking it
back, eventually decided to not make it any more.

SL got someone else to make something for them which the HeadMistress thinks
isn't nearly the equal of the prior, but Trident apparently makes something
(black, I'm pretty sure) which not only is very stout stuff but has biocides
in one of the middle layers, if memory serves me.

However, I'll not need any, having replaced mine with PVC. SL sells
PVC-to-hose nipple adapters (they recommend using PVC, too, for other than
challenging areas) if you want to use some hose, but with a small amount of
creativity, you shouldn't need any, or, at most, a very small amount.

I made my terminations carefully cut to be exact butts with the toilet or Y
or overboard, using various connectors to make the bends happen. Then I put
regular underground waste rubber couplings on the end joints (all other
joints being PVC glued), but added a third clamp right over the butt. Thus,
any possible seepage is limited to the very small crack in the butt joint,
and held there from migration to anyplace it could affect smell in the boat.
A small piece of sanitary hose over the regular marine fitting takes it out
to exactly the exterior of 1.5" PVC S40, so that part's tight, too. Some
teflon grease or KY equivalent on the pipe makes moving the sleeve later a
breeze; I did that in the course of my toilet rebuild (entirely other than
the bowl!) in our aft cabin, and again when I replaced the Y in the forward
head. The rubber coupling slid up the pipe with no complaint, and
reinstallation was a matter of sliding it down again and tightening the
clamps.

For those concerned about the integrity of PVC, ours held up during our
wreck, some 3-5000 fairly high drops at a 60* angle onto solid limestone
(estimated number based on wave period and length of time of the storm),
during which time the sole heaved several inches as we watched, due to the
fiberglass flexing, and, partially, delaminating. If it holds up to that,
IMHO, ain't nothing gonna hurt in in general use!

Doing the runs was fiddly and time consuming and very painstaking; I marked
the pipe and joint angles with a sharpie so I knew, when I glued it, the
exact rotation to insure the proper angle, and dry fit everything several
times before taking it all apart and gluing it part by part. Once in fed
through whatever it had to do, I clamped (electrical horseshoes) it all in
place. If you're adventurous, you can wander through the early refit
galleries in my gallery link below, and see how we did it on our boat. Even
a blind run, under the toilet in someplace invisible without a mirror and a
very bright light, was managed reasonably in the forward head.

YMMV but there's NEVER a head smell. PVC's a WHOLE lot cheaper than
sanitary hose, too, and won't mind your putting muriatic acid or vinegar
through it from time to time to get off the scale. Those who remove their
stinky hoses and bang them on the dock to remove the scale are simply crazy
in my view. The NEW (well, new-ish) hoses we took out of our boat during
the refit had to be in a garbage bin FAR from the boat to not stink it up,
even from outside. I don't ever want to have something like that in my boat
:{))

L8R

Skip and crew

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
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