I'm head challanged and need help

J

jeffreytcole

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Apr 25, 2007
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26018
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At the risk of sounding completely stupid here's my problem...

I don't have a clue how the head is supposed to work/operate. I have a Jabsco electric conversion I've determined with the help of you good people.

I turn the switch on the pump and nothing happens. I determined that there is no power going to the head by checking the pos and neg wires going to the switch. Problem is, I don't know if I have to turn something else on first to get power there or not.

I would prefer if necessary to replace to go back to a manual head (one less thing to worry about).

I have switches on my DC power panel and one is for "marine head". When I turn this on my DC meter drops waaaay down, lights dim etc. and there is a hum from what I think is a macerator pump in the engine compartment near the holding tank.

If someone could explain how the system is supposed to work, I may be able to figure out why it's not.

Thanks in advance
 
Does the head's pump motor turn easily? On the back of the motor the shaft sticks out about a 1/2 inch and it has a slot in it. See if you can turn it with a screwdriver. There should be some resistance since you are turning the rubber impeller but not too much. I have the same unit and the motor rusted out last year, and it would draw too much current when it tried to run and tripped the breaker. That's certainly a possibility for your case. The motor is in a damp place and handling corrosive liquids that may leak through the seals. Not going to last forever.

If it were that, a new motor is around $100 and you would be wise to do the seals and impeller at the same time. I think the kit is around $40.

If it were mine I might try putting 12v directly to the switch, say with a battery charger or a spare battery and jumper cables, and see if the head operates then. It might narrow down the problem for you one way or the other.

I have no idea about the other pump or switch you mention. Maybe if you said what kind of boat you had someone here would be familiar with what systems/switches you may have.
 
I have a JABSCO electric conversion and the hot lead has a in-line fuse. Could be the same and your in-line fuse has blown. More than likely you are right about the switch being the macerator pump. Why not go in the engine room and open the overboard discharge for the macerator line and have someone else flip the "marine Head" switch momentarily? If the discharge valve is not open the pump will have excessive pressure and not operate properly.
 
I will take a look at that pump discharge this evening, I checked the hot wire to the head where it comes into the head from "wherever it comes from" and there was not an inline fuse there. Prior to my tenure on the boat, it was rewired by a "proffessional" so there is no rhyme nor reason to the wireing and there may be a fuse inline somewhere else.
 
Well, unfortunately it appears this pump only goes to the waste tank and is downstream of the "Y" valve.

I assume the flush water comes through the hull on the bottom of the boat as there is a straight hose from the through hull valve going into the cabin from the engine room and the other hose coming from that opening goes to a "y" valve and then to the macerator? pump and to the waste tank. The other side of the "y" valve appears to be capped off.

I am still trying to figure out how the head is supposed to work (concept) so I can figure out why it's not. I kick myself for not checking it out with the previous owner but it's a lesson learned.
 
I think you wired it wrong, my head takes 30 amps. DC you can't switch that in the head. You have to wire it through a relay with like number 6 or 4 wiring comming to it. If you don't do it right, you will have to small wiring going to it and it won't be able to start the pump, but will try and darken the lights and do what you are saying. Get someone that knows what is going on, to help.
 
Several years ago (on a new boat) I had the dealer install the electric conversion kit on the manual head for me. All seemed OK at first as I didn't fully understand just how it should sound when used. It wasn't too long before I realized there was a problem, at times the pump didn't want to operate and it blew fuses (the in-line fuse), I called Jabsco and was told to check the size and length of the wiring used to connect it to the battery. In doing so I found that it had been connected to a +12VDC source up under the helm, that's a NO-NO. I had to use a heavier gauge wire, installed a small 30amp circuit breaker for it and ran it all the way back to the battery. After that it worked great (al beit always too loud). Following is a link that might be of help to you.

http://www.jabsco.com/products/mari...electric_conversions_29200/iid_1968/index.htm
 
I'm going to guess that the head DID work some time in the past. So it's a matter of finding what went wrong. Start by tracing wires from the head back to the power source and finding out why you don't get power. That alone may be enough to solve the head problem.

My guess is the switch on the DC panel is a circuit breaker and it has to be on for the head to operate. Or there's ANOTHER unmarked breaker/fuse you haven't found yet.

It's possible that the macerator AND the toilet are on the same breaker (it works fine as long as you don't run them both at the same time). However it means there's another switch for the macerator somewhere (possibly hidden). So you'll have to trace THOSE wires, too, find the switch if there is one and turn it off.
 
OK, Jeff, here goes... Marine toilets, unlike household toilets, usually consist of two pumps - one to bring in rinse water from outside the boat and rinse the bowl, the other to pull the contents out of the bowl and pump them off to a holding tank, treatment system, overboard, or wherever it's going (hopefully not directly into the bilge).

This is accomplished in a variety of different ways. Most manual toilets use a double-action piston pump or double-action diaphragm pump, where both sides of the piston or diaphragm are utilized; one side to bring in rinse water, the other side to empty the bowl and pump it away.

Some electric toilets have built-in macerators (grinders); others do not. Many have both the intake and the discharge pump connected to the same motor, so that they both run at the same time. Some have individual pumps to control incoming and outgoing water, so that you can just bring water in, just pump out, or do both at the same time.

Some electric toilets don’t use raw water for rinsing the bowl, but instead are connected to the pressure water supply on the boat. You push the button, step on the pedal, or pull a handle, depending on the particular toilet, and pressure water comes into the toilet bowl to rinse it. But the discharge pump still pulls the contents out of the bowl. In the case of vacuum toilets, a remotely-mounted vacuum pump is used to pull the contents out of the bowl; somewhat different operating concept.

That’s the basics. You’ll note that manual toilets are strictly raw water-flushing. To my knowledge, there is no manual toilet that can be used with pressurized water from the ship’s system.

Following are the technical data sheets for the two conversion kits offered by Jabsco. You should be able to get most of the specific information you need, as well as parts lists, etc. from them.

http://www.jabsco.com/files/29200_electric_conversion.pdf
http://www.jabsco.com/files/37255_series_qf_kit.pdf
 
Thanks Vic,

This helps me at least understand WHAT is supposed to happen so I can try to figure out what's not.
 
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