You may be wondering why there is a post in here about a new toilet… That doesn’t sound like an adventure (or at least not a fun one). Well, this project was quite the undertaking, so I wanted to document what I did and why - in case it’s of value to myself in the future (or anyone else).
The toilet that came with the boat was the original when the boat was made in 2007. The pump was barely working (brought up little water each time) and likely just needed to have the plunger replaced. Unfortunately, when I was scouring the web for a new plunger I found that this particular head was made by the Wilcox-Crittenden company, which had gone out of business. Every site I found said that spare parts no longer exist and you need to replace the toilet. Boo!
After much research, I decided that our next toilet should be electric (which is easier to use for guests) and should have a macerator built in (much less maintenance and allows you to flush toilet paper). Most of the forums point to Raritan as the brand of choice and their top of the line head is the “Marine Elegance” which is a full size head with a smart controll panel, a built in Macerating pump, and an external raw water pump (on the sea water version). I read a Catalina 34 forum post which talks about the process and it was quite involved. It was also a Catalina 34 mk1 and we have a mk2 so I knew there were going to be some differences. All in, it took about 4 days to install - a full weekend and then the evenings on Monday/Tuesday. The biggest challenge (which my father in law helped significantly with) was creating a post to install the toilet on top of - since without it the head overhung the mount by a quarter inch or so.
At the same time as this install, I also decided to do something called the Peggy Hall Mondification where you plumb the sink discharge into the same seacock as the raw water intake for the head. This allows you to funnel the fresh water from the sink into the head - minimally/partially during regular use but you can also do a full flush of the system by closing the seacock and filling the sink with freshwater or pour any of your head oder perventions stuff down the sink to run it through the whole head system. To do this, I closed/sealed one seacock first:
Then I installed a y-valve on the seacock to plumb the sink into the same seacock. I did a Y-valve (vs a T-valve) with the hopes that it would prevent the pump from drawing air out of the sink line. At the end of the day, the pump is still drawing some air out of the sink line, but not enough to affect performance.
I added a strainer (as is suggested for any raw water intake) and mounted the raw water remote pump on the inside of the cabinet, well above the water line. Instead of drilling into the fiberglass, I expoxied a piece of wood to the inside of the cabinet and then screwed the pump into the wood. I was a bit worried that the epoxy wouldn’t be strong enough - but my fears were misplaced. I could probab hang off that wood and it wouldn’t go anywhere…
From the pump, the line ran up to the existing anti-siphon loop which is behind the head.
And back down into the head. The head has two lines now - one for intake and out for discharge (vs the 4 it had before) and one cable that powers the mascerating pump which is built into/behind the head.
Behind the head is fairly simple and should make maintenance easy. The joker valve is inside the fitting that connects the toilet to the discharge pipe, so replacing it will involve loosening one clamp to access the valve (after flushing with freshwater).
The head came with a smart control panel (which I forgot to take a picture of) which has 4 control buttons - fill, empty, normal flush (which actually flushes 3 times) and water saver flush (which just flushes once). I installed this just across from the head so you could see it when you sit down. All of the wiring (main power - 10 AWG wire from a 30 amp breaker, macerator power, remote pump power, holding tank sensor, and ethernet cable that runs to the control panel) went into a control box - which I installed right next to the anti-siphon loop for easy access. The holding tank sensor is a sensor that sticks to the outside of the holding tank and measures the capacitive value to determine if the water is above the patch or not. If the level of the tank is above 90%, it will turn on a light on the smart panel so we know to empty the tank.
I expect this upgrade will make for a much more comfortable time on the boat - having a low maintenance/easy to use head on board is pretty important to overall good times on the boat.