Re: Explain the toilet head system to me
from what i have learned, there are two types of MSDs (Marine Sanitation Device) that are coast guard approved, and all boats with a toilet must have a coast guard approved system. one type treats sewage so that the discharged effluent meets specified standards for bacteria content and contains no visible floating solids. expensive system that's for big boats and ships. also the law states that there is no discharge allowed on inland waterways and lakes and you have to be at least 3 miles offshore to discharge. more common systems are the type with a holding tank and a couple of options on how to empty (discharge) that tank. unless your always way offshore boating, your gonna have the more common system set up something like this. ok so you have a toilet. you need a fresh water source to use for flushing. some boats use water supplied by the fresh water system, some have whats called a "grey water" system which has a holding tank for sink and shower drains and uses that water for the toilet to save your fresh "potable" water supply. and other boats use sea/lake water from a through hull fitting. now you need a way to get the water in the bowl to the holding tank. these a couple different types of toilets. i have whats know as a vacu-flush system. vacuum pump sucks waste from the bowl and sends it to the holding tank. other toilets have manual hand pumps or electric macerator pumps that chew up solids. the vacu-system is as close to home plumbing you can get. ok now you have a holding tank full of "black water" which needs to be emptied when full. most common way is a deck fitting and a pump out station. some marinas have traveling pump out boats that come to you. obviously the other way is to go three miles out and discharge using the through hull. if your boat has this option. mine does not. i know there are all sorts of lock out rules to the plumbing if you have a overboard discharge option so it cant happen accidentally. that why in some heads you see a key and switch. that's about it. to break it down you basically need
1. water supply to toilet
2. toilet
3. choice of system to get water from toilet to holding tank
4. holding tank (vented)
5. through deck discharge outlet
now that "Y" fitting you have sounds completely illegal the way its plumbed in.
pretty much everything i explained can be found
here. i just felt like typing.
