Raritan Crown head issues

S

Steve19067

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exMember
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Jun 14, 2011
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32635
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HI all;

We just purchased our first boat, a 1987 Carver Santego 270. We are having an ongoing problem with the septic system and I wanted to see if there were any suggestions for us. The toilet itself seems to work fine although there seems to be a lot of water in the bowl. I would say it stays about 2/3 full which is a lot of water to flush and causes the 20 gal. recovery tank to fill quickly. Again..being our first boat, I am not sure if this is normal or not.

The main issue, though, is a sewage smell whenever we turn the factory A/C on. The A/C units return is adjacent to the recovery tank in the same bilge area. There is no smell from the other bilge areas or in the head itself.

Any and all help would be greatly apppreciated. I am truly enjoying this site and have already found tons of useful information.

Thanks,
Steve
 
Do you have any standing water in the bilge? Possible when you turn the A/C on you are leaking water. Most marine A/C draws outside water in to cool the system and subsequently dumps it outside, but you could be taking some water inside which could cause the smell, and can smell like sewage. Your bilge pump may be pumping most out too then, but if there is any standing water, not a good smell.
 
Close the thru hull for the head some, mine is open about 20-30%.
 
Thanks for the replies!

I will try backing off the inlet valve some. I am assuming this could be the 'excess water in the bowl' problem?

The smell issue...I was not aware that seawater in a bilge can be so strong but I will certainly look into it. There is not what I would call an excessive amount of water in this bilge and I have not yet seen this bilge pump kick on. If it is just standing water, will bilge cleaner help? Anything stronger I can use? I would definitely like to get that cleaned out regardless of whether or not it is the cause of the smell.

The toilet is a raritan Crown electric model and I believe it is original to the boat (1987).
 
Regarding the smell, do you boat in fresh or salt water?
Does your AC condensate drain into the bilge or into a sump pump?

Regarding the excess water in the bowl...when you pump out waste, does the bowl basically empty and then slowly fill up or just not empty all the way? I'm guessing it slowly fills up which may mean you need to replace the duck bill.

Edit...
One other question, does your shower drain into the bilge or into a sump pump? If you do have a sump for the shower and AC condensate, check it out. Make sure it is working properly and do a good cleaning. That sump can get real nasty in a short period of time.
 
JimPend;

We just bought the boat in June in Baltimore (brackish), brought it up to Bucks County, PA (fresh) and then took her around New Jersey to Barnegat Inlet (salt) so she's been through it all and the odor seems constant throughout the water compositoon changes.

I had not thought about A/C condensate and I assumed it was carried away with the water discharge. The A/C unit is below the water line so if there is a condensation line, it would have to drain to the bilge.

Re: bowl level. The bowl does empty completely but then fills up slowly to 1/2 to 2/3 full.

I do not know if there is a sump for the shower drain but there is a pump in the bilge and the switch for it is in the head. Could that be used for A/C condensate? I had not thought about that line either but it can't hurt to deodorize that one and pump fresh water through it now and then.

Thank you again for all your help. We WILL get to the bottom of this!

S
 
The reason I ask about salt vs fresh...bacteria that causes odor usually grows much faster in fresh water.
You need to find out where the shower and AC condensate drains to. If it goes into the bilge, that is not good. If you do have a sump, clean it out. It will get nasty and smelly in a hurry.

Get the brand and model number for your head and get a re-build kit and replace the parts that come in the kit. It's not a fun job, but it's not rocket science to do. That will take care of most any issues you have with the head.
 
One other thought about the head...turn off the water supply thru hull and then pump out the head. If it fills back up, you definitely need to replace the duckbill valve.
 
Thanks again for all the helpful posts. I am heading to the boat tomorrow AM to tinker with/clean the system. I will let you all know the results tomorrow afternoon. :)
 
If it dirty looking water in the bowl it's the joker valve.
 
Can you quickly explain joker valves and duckbill valves? Does every marine system have both of these?
 
Joker and duckbill are the same thing. When you pump water out of the head, the joker/duckbill keeps the water from coming back in the bowl.
When you buy a rebuild kit and start to replace parts, it will all make sense. I've done 3 rebuilds on 3 different boats including a Raritan crown on an '88 Carver.
 
The scoop;

A buddy and I went to the boat yesterday to pump out and try a few thingts. I did shut the inlet valve down to
 
Stupid Computers! Anyway....we closed the inlet valve down some hoping that will take care of the 'high tide' in the bowl. Time will tell about that one. Using vinegar and water, we sprayed and scrubbed all around the holding tank and lines and hosed it all down. We did see some powdery white residue around the outlet hose from the tank but it was dry, probably old and was not enough to cause the odor we have. After the scrub down, we went to the pumpout, pumped out, refilled the system half way with seawater from the head and fresh water into the pumpout fitting and then repumped out. I added a double dose of holding tank deodorizer and pumped about 1-2 gallons of water into the system and left it sit. The plan is to not use the head for now so I know if the odor is fresh or old.

I do believe the odor is from the bilge, possibly an old leak? I am going back down there for the weekend and the plan is to flush out the bilge with bilge cleaner/deodorizer...probably a couple of times. After yesterday, I am convinced it is in the entire bilge and not coming from a single isolated source. For all I know, it could be something other than sewage, as you guys have suggested. I am kind of hopeful it is, as this would probably be easier to deal with. In any case, I will do a head system rebuild in the off season if I can get a handle on this for the rest of this season.

Thanks again for your continued suggestions and concerns....I'll keep ya's posted!

S
 
I have a 1987 Voyager and had the same problem when I purchased the boat. I could go through all the things I tried but that would take too long so I'll just tell you the solution.

The holding tank sits on a plywood bed. I removed the holding tank and found that an old leak had soaked the foundation with some really icky water. So, I removed everything, holding tank, foundation, macerator, sanitary hoses and all. Scrubbed and repainted the entire area, fabricated a new foundation and painted that with epoxy then reassembled everything with new fittings and tubing.

Now, after over a year, not even a whiff of odor. I do firmly believe that once it is contaminated the only thing that will eliminate the odor completely is to remove and replace all of it.

Bob

PS: Oh yeah, 2 years ago I also had replaced the original head with a Raritan Marine Elegance. Excellent!!!
 
Odor update...

My wife and I went and stayed on the boat this weekend. The temps here in the NE have been high....102 yesterday (Saturday) and high 90's today. When we got there Saturday mid-afternoon, as you can imagine, the smell in the bilge was really bad. Here is what we did. I disconnected the forward bilge pump and I poured about 15 gals of water with bilge cleaner in there and let it sit for 2 hours, rocking the boat repeatedly (way too hot to go out). I pumped out the water which was very black and skanky. Then I repeated the process. The water this time was fairly clean and the odor SEEMS to have dissipated a LOT although time will tell if this is the problem or not. I still want to rebuild the head and check (as RnBenton suggested) the areas under and around the holding tank but want to try to wait til the off season for that if possible.

Re: the sump. I do not believe there is one. I believe the A/C condensate discharges through the water discharge line and the shower stall itself acts as it's own sump and pumps out with the activation of the pump via the switch on the wall of the head. The drain line from the shower goes directly to the pump in the bilge.

Again...keeping our fingers crossed that we will be OK for now but I will keep all of you posted!

Thanks,
Steve
 
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