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Removing a pump out toilet


Jerome1

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7 minutes ago, Mandolin said:

Sorry I’m having trouble working out how to reply on this forum. Wow I love the idea. The bank manager might not right now. Very grateful for the help. Now to buy the boat.

 

Ours was a macerator toilet with an underbed tank. The cost we paid included the cutting up of the plastic tank and its disposal. The plastic tanks are often installed before all other internals so they can be difficult to get out intact. It was a job I was happy to pay someone else to do.

 

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1 minute ago, haggis said:

If you buy a boat with a pump out toilet I would suggest you "live with it" for a while and consider later whether you really want to get rid of it or not. With cassette toilet you have to carry them to Elsans, which can be very unsavoury places, to empty  them regularly (days apart, rather than weeks, I gather) . With composting (or separating ) toilets you need to find a way of composting the poo (not now allowed to put it in C&RT bins) and with a pumpout loo you have to pay to have it emptied which can be anything between 2 and 6 weeks use depending on the size of the tank. I would recommend living what your new boat has for a while before leaping into action to change it.

Get yourself a self pump out kit and never spend a penny again!  Beats carrying you waste around every time.

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Just now, Mandolin said:

What is a self pump out kit?

 

It negates the need to pay for your tank to be emptied. They empty into an Elsan point.

 

They are sometimes banned from use in some Elsans and often frowned upon due to some boaters not using them correctly and blocking Elsan points and or leaving a mess.

 

(Though of course a cassette can leave a mess too if you miss the Elsan, which takes some doing.)

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1 minute ago, Mandolin said:

What is a self pump out kit?

 

Just what it says. A DIY kit to allow you to pump out your holding tank. They may be manual or electrical. I always was happy to pay for a pump out even if  had to do it. I understand finding a place to discharge  the self pump out can be difficult and people who insist on doing it at Elsan points can block them or cause them to overflow. many Elasn points are an septic tanks, not mains drainage. It is also likely to be a two person job. One to cntrol the machine and one to stop the discharge hose waving about, especially if electric. I am not sure if Tracy was not indulging in a bit of devilment.

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If you’re squeamish about effluent then boating may not be for you, whatever system you choose you’ll have to deal with it in one form or another, there’s no flush and forget on a boat.

It’s either a tank of sewage, several boxes of sewage, or boxes of dessicated poop and bottles of truckers tizer.

 

Whoever owns a particular system will have horror stories about the other types and tell you theirs is best, in some cases without even having first hand knowledge of what they’re knocking. A lot depends on your circumstances/lifestyle and what you’re prepared to do.

 

Best thing IMHO is try it out for a while but get quotes for removal once you know the details of the install, and if you don’t like it then change to something different.

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27 minutes ago, haggis said:

If you buy a boat with a pump out toilet I would suggest you "live with it" for a while and consider later whether you really want to get rid of it or not. With cassette toilet you have to carry them to Elsans, which can be very unsavoury places, to empty  them regularly (days apart, rather than weeks, I gather) . With composting (or separating ) toilets you need to find a way of composting the poo (not now allowed to put it in C&RT bins) and with a pumpout loo you have to pay to have it emptied which can be anything between 2 and 6 weeks use depending on the size of the tank. I would recommend living what your new boat has for a while before leaping into action to change it.

 

I'd echo this, after reading up etc I thought cassette would be the most practical for continuous cruising. In the end the boat I ended up with has a pump out and macerator toilet. Lasts about a month for the 3 of us, just get it emptied when we fill up with diesel. Makes life a lot easier and we can stay in remote locations for weeks on end without worrying about anything. Try live with it first you might find out you like it.

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12 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Whoever owns a particular system will have horror stories about the other types and tell you theirs is best, in some cases without even having first hand knowledge of what they’re knocking. A lot depends on your circumstances/lifestyle and what you’re prepared to do.

 

I can confidently assert that the worst type, now thankfully mainly in the past, are the old Elsan/Sanitas bucket and chuck it. When getting full you stood a good chance of getting slashed by everyone else's deposits.

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As most composting toilets seem to separating toilets nowadays because normal liquid deposits mess up the composting I am still none the wiser as to how you clean the bowl if you have a bout of the squitters, suffer IBS or Crones, or what happens if all aboard get food poisoning. Then if you are unlucky enough to get the toilet infected there are the maggots of fruit/sewerage flies until the flies emerge. I would much rather have  a pump out or very much second best a cassette toilet than a composting one. I don't understand why people shudder at having a sealed tank of sewerage under the bed but seem to be contemplating storing buckets of partially composted deposits around the boat.

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Our boat had a macerator with remote tank (under the bed) this was removed, the bathroom 'made good', bulkhead wall moved, a cassette toilet fitted, whilst the bed was dismantled, the flooring where the tank had been was made good, the bed was then re-built as a cross-bed and a wardrobe built.

 

Cost was £11,000 in 2006, I imagine it would be a fair bit more today.

Labour was at £50 + VAT per hour.

 

Are you planning to liveaboard ?
Do you own land where you can have composting heaps ?

Do you have storage space on the boat to store 'buckets of poo' for 2 years+ ?

 

Do a search on the forum for composting toilets and once you have read the rules regarding composting disposal, then decide ........................

 

Strewth that's bluddy expensive.

 

We had a high spec. kitchen with five Neff intergrated appliances and granite worktops fitted at home just over four years ago for around that cost.

 

Just shows the differences between boaty stuff and house stuff.

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I must admit I am of the "out of sight, out of mind"  persuation  and it has never bothered me having a tank of waste under the bed! What would bother me is if the loo was smelly and I find a macerator with the big (at least 6 weeks ) tank fits the bill nicely and we don't have to put stuff down the loo to keep it sweat, it does it all by itself 🙂 . One of our boats has a cassette loo  and it is an absolute pain "dosing" it and searching for Elsans.  

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Just now, The Happy Nomad said:

 

Strewth that's bluddy expensive.

 

We had a high spec. kitchen with five Neff intergrated appliances and granite worktops fitted at home just over four years ago for around that cost.

 

Just shows the differences between boaty stuff and house stuff.

 

Thats what I said when we bought the boat, but all the invoices were in the 'book' that came with the boat.

It was done by 'Weltonfield Narrowboats' who had her from new as a hire boat, and when sold out of the fleet at age 8 the new owner wanted the changes done (apparently cost was not important)

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3 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Just what it says. A DIY kit to allow you to pump out your holding tank. They may be manual or electrical. I always was happy to pay for a pump out even if  had to do it. I understand finding a place to discharge  the self pump out can be difficult and people who insist on doing it at Elsan points can block them or cause them to overflow. many Elasn points are an septic tanks, not mains drainage. It is also likely to be a two person job. One to cntrol the machine and one to stop the discharge hose waving about, especially if electric. I am not sure if Tracy was not indulging in a bit of devilment.

No devilment at all, I have been doing my own pump outs for 35 years. Electric kit is easier, I have a remote control so I can do it single handed.

Never left a mess anywhere and I pump out mostly into lavatories. The waste is totally macerated, no chance of blocking any drain.

Using a bent waste pipe that goes over and into the bowl means I don't have a hose snaking about.

There are lots of places to pump into. lavs, manholes, elsan points. In desperation I could pump into a field but never have done.

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I have the feeling that there are more stoppage notices now for Elsans out of service than there used to be, and sometimes they can be out of service for weeks. Is this just better reporting by CRT, or is the system creaking with increased use / improper use.

 

We had a cassette on the last boat, got on with it fine, the new boat has a macerator with the tank under the bed and we are getting on fine with that and happy with the choice we made when we specified the new boat.

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Suggestion -

Live with the current pumpout arangement - provided that your cruising area has a reasonably practical number of pump out stations. Because you have to pay for these it should be a mix of CRT and boatyard facilities.

For why -

most folk are put-off by the sight of one's 'output' discharging into an elsan point. with a pump pot facility there's only a sight glas to view the flow, or if even that upsets you, then wait until the hose vibrates or you can hear the sound of the remote pump changing pitch.

The first time may be unpleasant to your sight - but it's fear of the unknown that disturbs.

Having removed the hang-up worries -then consider a PU kit. You have the unpleasantness of your pipe discharging into a hole  (and making sure the pipe stays within it), but it's really not that awful. Just a change of attitude...

 

(OK I', used to dealing with large animals' output - and that conditions you to know what to expect...

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3 hours ago, Mandolin said:

What is a self pump out kit?

A disgusting item that should be banned!

It allows people to pump out into ditches, usually under the cover of darkness.

Or to spray the contents of their PO tank around the walls of elsan tips. Unintentionally, but it happens.

 

Good advice above about living with what your boat comes with. You can then make a decision based on experence

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