Head Vented Loop Locations?

  • August 11, 2013 5:05 PM
    Message # 1363095
    Deleted user
    The Westsail Manual instructs a vented loop to be located high in the cabinet outboard of the head. There are 2 outboard and the outermost allows for the vented loop to be mounted higher above the waterline. I would think a loop in the inner cabinet would find itself below the waterline while the boat is heeling.
    Anyone using the outermost cabinet?
    Also, are you installing vented loops both for intake and discharge?

    I noticed that at the bottom of the cabinet containing the seacocks that there is a puddle of water that isnt draining. Must be that owners are drilling holes for the water (water from opening and closing seacocks) to find its way to the bilge? The hull is awefully close here for messing about with drill bits.

    Thanks,
    Carl
  • August 14, 2013 4:43 PM
    Reply # 1365448 on 1363095
    Deleted user
    I should have built a taller base for my toilet. I must be the only one with my head installed below the waterline requiring a vented loop. And a composting head isn't for me.
  • August 31, 2013 10:31 AM
    Reply # 1378634 on 1363095
    Deleted user
    Carl, No, you aren't the only one with a head below water level.  I have a Groco EB head and originally installed both the discharge and intake loops in the void behind the outboard bulkhead, right under the deck level.  When it came time to "commission" the head I couldn't get any suction on the intake line.   After repeated experimentation, with the head in the boat and up on the dock trying to draw water from a bucket, I still couldn't get any suction with a vented loop.  I finally called Groco and they told me that I couldn't use a vented loop on the intake side!   It makes me nervous to have the line "unprotected" where a leak/failure could flood the boat, so I put an in-line valve on the intake line just inside the sink cabinet.  It's more secure, but I still haven't used the head!   Tom Koehl
  • September 04, 2013 8:06 AM
    Reply # 1381476 on 1363095
    The place for the vented loop is after the pump and before the bowl. It must be on the pressure side of a pump.  Still, you are hoping that the pump in the head doesn't leak.

    I keep the thru hull closed if not on the boat.  I suppose a valve would help, but keep the head rebuilt regularly and you are ok.  

    Jasmine has an unusual interior that I designed that has a shower sump under a grate  in the head. That drains to a sump aft under the companionway. There is a bilge pump in that.


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