Hi Folks, Raritan's new Marine Elegance head, with vortex-vac technology, will be going into production on November 15th, and should be available everywhere by the first of the new year.
Amelia, actually it will be a good deal cheaper than the Atlantes "Freedom." The average retail price for an Atlantes "Freedom" is around $1,350.00. The Marine Elegance, for pressurized fresh water-flushing will retail for $899.00. For raw water-flushing, it will require a remotely-mounted seawater pump (included with the raw water version). The raw water units will retail for $979.00. The extra $80.00 simply covers the cost for the additional raw water pump. Pressurized fresh water units have the solenoid valve and the vacuum breaker already built into the head, for ease of installation.
I'm sure BoatFix will be carrying them once they're available, and in all likelihood, will offer them at a substantial discount from the retail pricing listed above.
These units work like a champ, everybody knows how well Raritan's SeaEra heads work; they're practically bulletproof. Think of the new Marine Elegance as a spiffed up version of the SeaEra - it works just as well, but is a step up from the SeaEra, with the all-ceramic base, household size seat, vortex-vac technology and programmable wall switch. All Marine Elegance units have a built-in loop to keep water in the bowl between flushes. Available in 12 or 24 volts DC, and in white or almond (bone) color.
The vortex-vac technology is keyed around a special Raritan-designed "pancake" motor that is 4 1/2" in diameter but only 3" long. It fits comfortably inside the ceramic bowl, and only has to draw a vacuum of a few inches, whereas the VacuFlush and Lavac units have to pull a vacuum of several feet in order to work.
Raritan has had a test unit set up in their men's room in the plant all summer, and thus far into the fall. Being used numerous times daily by factory workers, it hasn't clogged once!
There are a couple of things to note however - it is only 14" tall from deck to seat, whereas the Atlantes "Freedom" is the same height as a toilet at home (16"). This is to try and accomodate the "step" or "shelf" in many boats where the head is mounted up above the actual deck level. Also, the rear of the Marine Elegance is angled, for installation in boats where the head backs up to the side of the hull. Future units will also be available in a taller format and a squared-off rear, but for the present it is only available in the configuration indicated.
Here's a virtual presentation of it:
http://www.raritaneng.com/images/raritan2.swf (takes a few minutes to load)
There are a couple of minor typos in the presentation, and we know about them. We were in a rush to get it on our website before the fall Boat Shows began, and we'll go over it and make the corrections at a later date; however the actual information that is supplied,
is correct.