First ever pump out...

[Guest]

Never open the toilet flap of a dump through while the pumpout nozzle is in the 'ole, unless you want your bathroom repainted Mr Bean stylee. Still not sure exactly what happened to cause the explosion. Luckily it seemed to avoid me completely as it made its way towards the walls and ceiling. 

[Dr Bob]

9 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Walk / Trolley / Car / Public Transport / Bike Trailer

You'd need to wear a mask on the bus carrying a couple of cassett?es 

[Alan de Enfield]

21 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

You'd need to wear a mask on the bus carrying a couple of suitcases

Amended that for you.

[Keeping Up]

34 minutes ago, Rumsky said:

Never open the toilet flap of a dump through while the pumpout nozzle is in the 'ole, unless you want your bathroom repainted Mr Bean stylee. Still not sure exactly what happened to cause the explosion. Luckily it seemed to avoid me completely as it made its way towards the walls and ceiling. 

I would surmise that your breather vent must be blocked. I always open ours about 3/4 way through, to flush some water through and then to check that it has been emptied completely.

[Jerra]

8 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Amended that for you.

Your cassettes look like suitcases?    Or do you have suitcases you put them in?    Our cassette looks exactly like what it is and most people know what it is.

[Alan de Enfield]

43 minutes ago, Rumsky said:

Never open the toilet flap of a dump through while the pumpout nozzle is in the 'ole, unless you want your bathroom repainted Mr Bean stylee. Still not sure exactly what happened to cause the explosion. Luckily it seemed to avoid me completely as it made its way towards the walls and ceiling. 

 

[OldGoat]

I never understand why people get wound up about 'waste disposal' - perhaps that's because we have lived and worked with animals over the years.

Holding the tails of cows to stop them ***ing as they went up the ramp out ot the milking parlour, mucking out the hunter's loose box, assisting with the pumpout (!) of our large septic tank and latrine duties when it was fashionbable to be a cub / scout.

Yes. it can be unpleasant - the first time - then you get used to it.

 

Looking at the above posts I get the impression that many boats are not fitted with a breather - let alone a flush pipe??

Whe I fitted out our hull I fitted both a vent and a flush pipe and the last two had fittings on the roof - because that was what I understood were the 'industry standards' / normal practice.

 

Now it seems fitters do what they can get away with that which they can get away...

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Keeping Up said:

I would surmise that your breather vent must be blocked. I always open ours about 3/4 way through, to flush some water through and then to check that it has been emptied completely.

Sounds possible. It's never happened again since, I always just crack open the toilet flap with the lid closed just incase. 

[dmr]

2 hours ago, Rumsky said:

Never open the toilet flap of a dump through while the pumpout nozzle is in the 'ole, unless you want your bathroom repainted Mr Bean stylee. Still not sure exactly what happened to cause the explosion. Luckily it seemed to avoid me completely as it made its way towards the walls and ceiling. 

The tank is getting sucked out (negative pressure) so no way should stuff come up through the bog. Holding the flap/valve open during a pumpout is a very good idea for several reasons.  Its good to make sure the level really is dropping, that the tank is eventually empty, and that there is no sludge left behind. You might even spot any foreign matter that has found its way into the tank, and if you rock the boat (as you should) then you might get a glimpse of the bottom of the tank to check for corrosion etc.  The pumpout and rinse out are usually both on the gunnel so rinsing by dropping water down the bog is much more effective at moving any lumps towards the pumpout hose.

 

If stuff shot out up the bog then the only reason that I can think of is the boat was rocked whilst the tank was full to the brim.

 

...............Dave

[sirweste]

Just to add, to balance the opinion, I'm more than happy to use the pump out on the offside. Rocking to get the last bits is either done by swinging off the roof 'rail' or popping up on the roof. Can't be arsed with winding just for a pump out.

[Keeping Up]

19 minutes ago, sirweste said:

Just to add, to balance the opinion, I'm more than happy to use the pump out on the offside. Rocking to get the last bits is either done by swinging off the roof 'rail' or popping up on the roof. Can't be arsed with winding just for a pump out.

Same here.

[Hudds Lad]

2 hours ago, Keeping Up said:

I would surmise that your breather vent must be blocked. I always open ours about 3/4 way through, to flush some water through and then to check that it has been emptied completely.

we do exactly the same, saves getting that "pyramid of poo" under the hole if it's not been properly pumped out by previous share owners/marina staff.

 

i also turn off power to loo so its not pumping water from the tank through and have a torch to peer down into the void whilst its going on.

[Mike Todd]

5 hours ago, dmr said:

The tank is getting sucked out (negative pressure) so no way should stuff come up through the bog. Holding the flap/valve open during a pumpout is a very good idea for several reasons.  Its good to make sure the level really is dropping, that the tank is eventually empty, and that there is no sludge left behind. You might even spot any foreign matter that has found its way into the tank, and if you rock the boat (as you should) then you might get a glimpse of the bottom of the tank to check for corrosion etc.  The pumpout and rinse out are usually both on the gunnel so rinsing by dropping water down the bog is much more effective at moving any lumps towards the pumpout hose.

 

If stuff shot out up the bog then the only reason that I can think of is the boat was rocked whilst the tank was full to the brim.

 

...............Dave

If you negative pressure a tank and then suddenly release it then there will be a surge wave in some direction. (Look what happens if you suck on a straw in a drink and then suddenly let it go) In this case it may have just swept up the toilet rather than anywhere else. Might be difficult to predict without doing an experiment . . . 

[OldGoat]

6 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

If you negative pressure a tank and then suddenly release it then there will be a surge wave in some direction. (Look what happens if you suck on a straw in a drink and then suddenly let it go) In this case it may have just swept up the toilet rather than anywhere else. Might be difficult to predict without doing an experiment . . . 

Which confirms my suspicion that there are (lots) of boats around without a breather on the poo tank.

That's to my mind - poor standards / bad practice / bad design.

[dmr]

5 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

If you negative pressure a tank and then suddenly release it then there will be a surge wave in some direction. (Look what happens if you suck on a straw in a drink and then suddenly let it go) In this case it may have just swept up the toilet rather than anywhere else. Might be difficult to predict without doing an experiment . . . 

Yeah, thinking about this more there are some pumpouts with a long hose and the pump itself some way from the boat so potentially a lot of sewage in the pipe with the potential for some springy trapped air. In some cases the pump could maybe be several feet above the boat so gravity could be acting too.

 

Ive just done an improvised water tank fill with a very long hose running to a tap some 20m higher than the boat. When done I turned off a tap next to the boat then walked up to the higher water tap, turned it off and disconnected the hose. A Lot of water shot out so something was sending water up hill.

 

................Dave

[ditchcrawler]

8 hours ago, Rumsky said:

Never open the toilet flap of a dump through while the pumpout nozzle is in the 'ole, unless you want your bathroom repainted Mr Bean stylee. Still not sure exactly what happened to cause the explosion. Luckily it seemed to avoid me completely as it made its way towards the walls and ceiling. 

Always have ours open to see how its going and when to add a couple of buckets of flush water. The tank is "should be " vented anyway

[Guest]

14 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Always have ours open to see how its going and when to add a couple of buckets of flush water. The tank is "should be " vented anyway

Yeah its vented, as someone said earlier the vent must have been blocked when this incident occured. Maybe I should have said 'be cautious' when opening then flap rather than 'never', as this is what I've done since and its never attempted to redecorate my bathroom.

[Gabby_Boating]

For all of those interested, the first pump out was a success! Nowhere near as bad as I was expecting...  thanks all