Funny Vacu flush story-gctid816425

[carguy]

First off, I'm going through one of those phases when a lot of stuff I own is breaking. Ice maker bit the dust, two lawn sprinkler heads cracked, radio in my trusty SLK stopped working, lost an alternator on the boat........the list is longer but you get the idea. I went down to the boat a couple days back to piddle around with some stuff and went to use the head. No vacu flush pump. Checked the circuit breaker and it was fine. All other a/c connected to shore power one working. So I pulled up the carpeting (my wife made a carpet to cover the original 20 year old factory one) opened the hatches and started checking wiring. No voltage at the pump. I kept hitting the flush lever to see if it would activate the pump but nothing. As you know, when you do this without vacuum, the head will spray a fair amount (like a mini volcano).

I started tracing wires and found the one that goes from the pump to.............the little switch next to the head that says 'sleep'. Apparently someone on the 4th decided to turn it to sleep mode.' So basically after 20 mins of swearing and pulling up carpeting, the solution was right under my nose. Lesson learned.

[Pcpete]

Simple stuff first......yeah, like I do that every time. Not!

[Dadrock33]

. . . . uh-oh . . . you mean there's a "sleep" mode switch for the vacu-flush head? Oh man, the Admirals gonna have MY head if she finds out about that . . . shoot, now I have to go find out where there might be and even if I have one!! . . . :sick:

. . . she's already upset about hearing that "kachunka, kachunka, kachunka" sound when someone goes in the middle of the night . . . . think there's a silent mode I read about earlier . . . . hmmmm

[Jeffw]

When I had a vacu-flush, I switched the power lead to the water pump switch. So, no pump, no flush, no noise.

[carguy]

"Dadrock33" post=816481 wrote:
. . . . uh-oh . . . you mean there's a "sleep" mode switch for the vacu-flush head? Oh man, the Admirals gonna have MY head if she finds out about that . . . shoot, now I have to go find out where there might be and even if I have one!! . . . :sick:

. . . she's already upset about hearing that "kachunka, kachunka, kachunka" sound when someone goes in the middle of the night . . . . think there's a silent mode I read about earlier . . . . hmmmm

If you have one, it should be near head itself. It turns off the circuit for those that are too lazy to walk the 3 steps to the breaker panel. I suppose in big boats, it makes sense but in my 35 footer, it's kind of dumb.

[Jeffw]

I'm not lazy or dumb. Not sure about your vacu-flush, but mine was 12 volt, no breaker, that's why I connected it to the (12 volt) water pump switch, that needed to be on to flush anyway.

[carguy]

"Dadrock33" post=816481 wrote:
. . . . uh-oh . . . you mean there's a "sleep" mode switch for the vacu-flush head? Oh man, the Admirals gonna have MY head if she finds out about that . . . shoot, now I have to go find out where there might be and even if I have one!! . . . :sick:

. . . she's already upset about hearing that "kachunka, kachunka, kachunka" sound when someone goes in the middle of the night . . . . think there's a silent mode I read about earlier . . . . hmmmm

Well, just don't tell her! I think the idea behind it is so you can turn it on when you are in the head and activate the pump. That way you don't hear the pump running in the middle of the night when you loose a little vacuum (which they always do). I've heard about the new 'silent' pumps but I've also read that they aren't much quieter than the standard. As ours in under the floor in the stateroom, we'd probably still hear it. It's a complete first world problem.............."the waste pump in my yacht can be a little loud'.

[Guest]

I have a pull switch next to the head that shuts off 12v. However, the guest head will lose vacuum every 6 or so hours and pump for 6 seconds. With the boat in California & in slip, we adopted the drought STATE philosophy, "if it's yellow, let it mellow" reducing flushes and tank content.

We are NOT LIVE ABOARDS, but close.

I have the holding tank pumped out every other week to keep things under control.