rhys wrote:
On Sat, 06 May 2006 09:33:23 -0400, Jeff wrote:


Although I'm generally pleased with the Lavac, I hesitate to recommend
it to people that are really looking for something as close as
possible to a home toilet. Most guests are baffled by its operation,
and prefer to hold it until they get ashore!


My wife and I are going to sail test a steel cruiser shortly and her
rationale for wanting this particular boat as a
liveaboard/passagemaker was the presence of a new manual Lavac.

For someone just five feet tall, she seems consumed by the notion that
Lavacs are the one marine head you can "flush a pair of jeans down".
Personally....

R.

Sorry, Lavacs are not that powerful. The pump is simply a Henderson
Mk V bilge pump. The manual version can pass small debris and waste
fairly well, but the electric can get its flapper clogged by a small
bit of solid waste; I end up stripping our down once a year (a 20
minute task). The difference is that you can give a mighty yank on
the manual, while the electric just chugs along at a modest pace.

There is one electric vacuum head that can pass a t-shirt, but I think
it requires fresh water; Peggie probably knows which one it is.

Jeff wrote:
There is one electric vacuum head that can pass a t-shirt, but I think
it requires fresh water; Peggie probably knows which one it is.

That would be the Headhunter toilets, which are not vacuum toilets, but
ultra-pricy mega-yacht toilets. Headhunter demos 'em a boat shows
flushing panty hose, loose change, BIC lighters etc.

It's also important to remember that while the TOILET may be able to
pass all that stuff, if it ends up in the holding tank, how will you get
it out of the tank?

--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/books...ku=90&cat=1304