Porta Potti vs Fresh Water System

[wrench 3]

Mine often goes longer than a month between pump outs with no odor in or around the boat. It is a little more pungent when you do pump it out though.

 

[shrew]

I pump mine empty every sunday afternoon/evening and its ready to go for the entire weekend when I arrive the following Friday. No head odors. To me the holding tank on a porta-pottie is way too small compared to a holding tank. You don't need a vacu flush, a regular pump flush is fine. Never having to PORTA the portie pottie is PRICELESS to me. I would never go with a port pottie again.

 

[muskyfins]

so in the same vein, who uses a sea **** and who uses fresh water system?

 

[ssobol]

A porta-potti is a much simpler system. Much less to go wrong. You can take it out and hose it down.

If the thing gets too "gummed up" or breaks, you can just pitch the whole thing and get another for fairly little money.

You can still empty it even when there are no pumpouts around. One marina I was at had a special station for dumping and cleaning porta-potti's (didn't have to use it though so I can't say how well it worked).

 

[smokeonthewater]

I wouldn't waste potable water on a toilet when lake water is readily available... seacock all the way....

Emptying every few weeks.... heck let it sit in there as long as you want...

I live in an RV full time.... the black tank ONLY gets dumped when it gets full.... That's every 2-3 months

My bud lived on a house boat... he often went 6 months between pump outs....

If you start to get an odor at the vent. drop some chemical in it.

 

[wrench 3]

so in the same vein, who uses a sea **** and who uses fresh water system?

I'm running off of a sea **** and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Blind Date]

On my SeaRay the vacuflush was standard and plumbed to the pressurized potable water system. That's really the best/only way to do it on a boat the size of mine as the vacuflush needs pressurized water to work. Potable water consumption from the toilet has never been an issue for me in the 11 years I've owned the boat. It doesn't use that much water and were 're talking about a 25' single engine cruiser. I'm not out at sea for weeks on end where I need to worry about rationing water.

If you decide to put a toilet back in I would plumb it the way it was when it was built before the previous owner took it out.

 

[muskyfins]

To call the water in my fresh water tank potable is a stretch. I don't drink water from the tap around here. Mostly because it tastes like it has already gone through the head. LOL

Anyway, the plumbing is all still there. The only thing removed was the toilet itself. There are a series of valves to use either the sea **** or fresh water depending on which valves are open or closed. I'm a bit skeptical of using the sea **** mostly because I have the officially worst luck on earth. Some unforeseen problem unheard of in the marine industry and she's resting next to Davy Jones' Locker. Best off for me not to mess with it if it hasn't been open in years.

 

[Blind Date]

I hear you on drinking the water from the "fresh" water tank.. Me neither and I suspect we're not unique. It gets used for the toilet, washing my hands, dishes, ect.

 

[Mikeopsycho]

Use the sea **** and just close the ball valve when you're away from the boat for any length of time. In my area pump outs are few and far between, and expensive too, but I still prefer a marine head over a porta-potti (I've had both). When on the hook away from pumpout stations for long periods, I manually pump our black water into a 10 gallon portable rv tank with wheels, via a hose connected to the dockside pumpout fitting, and empty this into the next pit toilet or toilet I come across. For dumping the portable tank I put a 45* elbow on the outlet and kinda hook this on the edge of the toilet for better control during the dump process, (yes, I learned this the hard way). Nose clothespins are optional.

 

[JoLin]

so in the same vein, who uses a sea **** and who uses fresh water system?

My boat has both. I can flip a valve at the toilet and draw water either from a dedicated water tank the PO installed, or draw sea water through the seacock. The fresh water flush is so superior in terms of reducing holding tank odor, that I never use the raw water. I only keep the raw water plumbing in place in case I ever run the tank dry.

My .02