A tale of two heads

Repair time!

So, this story begins with our protagonist trying to follow, "the best advice a forum can give" and maintain the two heads (sailor-talk for "toilets") on our boat in proper condition. Nothing was wrong with them at the time, but that doesn't mean I can't make something wrong with them if I really dedicate myself to the task. 

The best of intentions

The advice was to put vinegar in the heads to reduce the scale that inevitably builds up because salt-water and urine don't mix. If you're at all squeamish about "potty" things, it's best you abandon this story now, as it only gets worse. A crusty scale develops wherever you give time for the salts to precipitate out. This scale can be dissolved using various chemicals, but vinegar is one of the cheapest and safest to use. A few months ago, we were going away for a week, so I poured a whole bunch of vinegar into each head, thinking that a week would be a good period to dissolve any scale and give us fresh heads to live with.

Problems arise

A few weeks after returning to the boat, I noticed that one of the heads was leaking a bit at the base of the bowl. Hmmm, kind of disgusting, what should I do about it? I tried wiping it up and then ignoring it for a week, but it refused to just go away. Dang, looks like I'm going to be grappling with the most disgusting project a boat owner has to face - taking the head apart and fixing it. 

I prepared as much as I could by flushing the horrid thing a thousand times and covering it in a strong bleach spray cleaner. I then started removing screws, nuts and hoses until I had the throne separated from everything else. Now, my head is "modern" in that it is electric-driven with a motor that macerates the unmentionables. That does keep things a little simpler than the older mechanical pump models, but it is still quite a few parts that need to go back together again in the right way with the right seals properly positioned.

Testing procedures need improvement

After several tries, I felt I had replaced enough of the seals that I had working solution. The only way to know if I had cured the problem was to rebuild it and try it. So, after assembling everything, and being overly confident in my own abilities along with a certain bladder urgency, I put it to the test and filled the bowl. Now, the wise move would have been to pump the bowl with some clean water, but wisdom is still chasing me everywhere and hasn't quite caught up with me. It turns out that I had assembled the seals improperly so when I turned on the motor to flush the bowl, it caused fluids to spray everywhere. Definitely going to need that shower after I get this fixed now...

I think I assembled and disassembled that head about a dozen times as I slowly figured out how it worked and all the possible places a leak could happen. I learned to test using clean water until I could make sure the most recent leak was resolved. Eventually, I had a completely rebuilt head. My family was thrilled!

Practice makes perfect

Why am I telling this story? Well, today was my opportunity to repeat what I learned on the other head. It turns out it started leaking a month ago, but ignoring it didn't work any better than the first time. At least today it only took me 5 hours to resolve the problem and I probably only assembled/reassembled a half-dozen times, so that shows some hope for the future.

The moral of the story

In both cases, the culprit was a little rubber seal that sits on the motor shaft to keep water where it belongs. I'm sure the vinegar attacked that material because it was decomposing when I tried to remove it. I'm absolutely positive that if I hadn't messed with the damn thing I could have saved a couple days of my life bent over a head and dealing with things that can only be described as disgustingly foul.

At some point, we'll be bobbing in front of a deserted beach with a palm trees swaying in the wind and I'll be able to reflect on these moments that got us there. It can't happen soon enough!