The conversion to an optional saltwater toilet is a reasonably easy mod . The starboard forward toilet is the one I chose for simplicity, and it’s the one that guests can use.
The toilet gets its water from a T under the sink. Remove that T and replace it with an elbow. Easy. The toilet is now isolated.
Run a new pipe under the floor from the toilet solenoid to the pump cupboard. The fittings on the solenoid can simply be rotated and used. The toilet can now be supplied from the pump cupboard.
Put a tap and a t in the aft vertical water line that supplies the boat with water from the starboard pump, and connect the new line from the toilet.
I removed the 3rd pump.
Put a t in the forward vertical line from the starboard pump and connect the anchor locker tap to it.
That’s it for the pressure side.
For the feed side, I have a temporary line from the port side , from the water maker pickup. This runs from the port bilge , behind the couch forward to the starboard pump locker.
If it works well, and when I can get some pipe, I will run a line through the tube below the tanks from pump locker to pump locker and back to the port bilge as a ware supply.
The red tap in the photo is the new tap. If it’s open, and the starboard pump is off, the toilet is fresh and supplied from the port pump. It’s closed and the starboard pump is on, it’s asalt water toilet.
The deck wash tap is either salt or fresh, what ever the toilet is being supplied with.
I kept the starboard fresh water feed, so I can supply the starboard pump with fresh water from the tank in case the port pump fails.
You need to be very careful with this. I had considered doing it on my past boat, but gave up, due to the risk of bacterial contamination of the fresh water source. While it’s unlikely, it’s not 0. See the following for a good discussion on this: https://forums.sailboatowners.com/threads/converting-jabsco-heads-from-salt-water-to-fresh-water-flush.1249935560/
– Geoff
That is a discussion about going from salt to fresh with a manual pump system. It literally has nothing to do with the toilets on our boats. Manual salt toilets use a suck and blow manual pump which has the opportunity of reverse flow. This is not what we have on our boat . The toilets on our boats can be supplied with fresh or salt water from manufacturer documentation.
We have 3 electric fresh water toilets. With 600 liters of fresh water on board and at times, 4 girls on board, the water just disappears. That’s fine if you are somewhere that you can make water, but there is water that I won’t put through the watermaker.
The system on our boat, which is pretty standard, is electric fresh water pressure pump that supplies fresh water to the whole boat. There is a solenoid and top fill system that puts water into the top of the bowl. This system has zero chance of back flow into the fresh water system.
As it’s both fresh and salt flush, it will be left as fresh unless there are a lot of people on the boat, where salt flush comes into its own, and there is no stale salt water smell.
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