Macerator Installation

[Lance Jones]

Kitty's Cat did not come with a macerator installed (Removed by a PO). Now that we are beginning off-shore trips were pump-outs aren't available, I would like to install one. I've read all the articles I found using the search. However, there are few PICTURES of the installation.  Does anyone have any good images of their installation? I have an electric head which macerates as it pumps to the holding tank. I think, because of that, I can have sharper turns in the hose routing to the second macerator.

[mark_53]

Lance:
Below is a photo of my mercerator installation.  Hope it helps.  It came from PO so I can't help with the install.  Why would you need it if your head already has on?

[Lance Jones]

Thanks Mark. I need the macerator, I think, to be able to pump the effluent out of the through hull.

[Stu Jackson]

Photo

[Rick Allen]

I'll add three fun photos.. Good Luck!

[Lance Jones]

Thanks Stu and Rick! Where is the Y valve located on your arrangements?

[Noah]

Lance, the overall theme here is; it's a very tight, knuckle-busting space to work in--and of course, potenitally stinky too!

[Lance Jones]

Really?
With the 7 years we've been in Kitty's Cat, I come to expect nothing less! 

[Rick Allen]

Thanks Stu and Rick! Where is the Y valve located on your arrangements?

No Y valve in my arrangement, the holding tank has 4 dedicated openings.
1. Inlet from head.
2. Outlet to pump-out.
3. Outlet to macerator, then macerator to dedicated thru-hull.
4. Vent line. (Not shown in photos).

[Lance Jones]

I thought a Y valve was required.

[Noah]

The only place/reason for a Y-valve in your waste tank set-up would be after the toilet but before the holding tank. This would divert waste to a thruhull to enable you pump directly from toilet over the side, without going through the holding tank first. Rare event these days.

[Ed Shankle]

Lance, I think it's the other way around. Y valves illegal in some ports.

Ed

[Stu Jackson]

Lance, my arrangement "looks" a lot like Rick's, but does have what is essentially a Y valve that chooses either overboard or to the tank, with a design like what Noah describes.

YOU have to figure out how you want your system to operate:  EITHER everything goes through the tank and pumps out through the macerator overboard or the deck pumpout OR you choose to go overboard or through the tank.

I think it's silly to put stuff in the tank if you can go overboard, but lots of people do that and it's one that WM recommends in their Advisors: http://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/Selecting-a-Sanitation-System.  They don't even show one with a Y valve between the head and the tank.  Dumb.

[Fred Koehlmann]

In our boat we had the "Y" as it came out of the holding tank and then either to the pump-out or to the macerator. Of course it was wired fast in the pump-out position with a seal to it to ensure no one tampered with it, since we're on the Great Lakes. I took it out the following year to get a bigger holding tank in. Come to think of it, it is available to anyone that would need it. Its just been sitting in our boat-box doing nothing. Not sure that I would be able to use it for anything, while sailing the Great Lakes anyway. I wouldn't be able to get to it until spring though.

[Ralph Masters]

On Ciao Bella the hose from the toilet comes into a T-fitting and out the other side to the holding tank via a ball valve. The bottom leg of the T fitting has another ball valve and it goes down to an over board through hull. So you can isolate the tank and discharge direct to the ocean.

The change out of the macerator pump was the hardest job I have done on the boat in the 6 years we have owned the boat.  All that work for a stupid pump I never use.

Ralph