Chip & Debbie Willis on s\v Elegant'sea: Hoses on the 1 1\2" thru-hull and three-way valve

This project turned out a bit easier than we had thought it would be!

Got to love that! It was a bit messy but not by much. All done and working. October 2020 - We are currently in Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay Mexico (by Puerto Vallarta)

This is the 1 1\2 " gray plastic hose barb that I needed to connect the sanitary hose to. They are notoriously hard to work with compared the bronze hose barbs. There were no bronze ones here in Puerto Vallarta.

I did get the hose on using lots of laundry detergent and a paint brush to lavish it on the fitting and then inside the hose after the hose was heated.

It went on surprisingly easy. Wearing gloves helped me all around and helped me test the hose for softness as I heated it. Without the gloves the hose gets too hot to feel for the right amount of softness. Too soft and it crumbles. Not enough the hose will get stuck part way on.

Of course it is a working upside down job for the thru-hull valve hose barb!

More "boat Yoga"😀

Ok the hose is on and clamped! Now to put in the three-way valve. I call it a three-way but it really only send the fluid one of two ways.

The hose going from the toilet (J series vacuum tank) to the holding tank I cut with our Japanese saw and it worked good.

Like this.

When I cut the hose I looked down in it (first wiping out some poo and rubber from the cut) and the hose was clear. No hard stalactites of hardened poo in the hose. These hoses can get so that only a finger size hole is left inside for the flow to go through. I think the fact we put a some laundry detergent through the hose and put some in the toilet while it is sitting helps a lot. It smells nice also. I soak the J Series Vacuum Tanks at least once a month overnight with a 1\2 cup of detergent and water. That was a recommendation from VacuFlush,

For this valve we marked how far back on each piece of hose to heat with a magic marker. Then I cut the hose and left it the length it was. We inserted the valve putting the source at the toilet side and then the holding tank hose on the valve. That left the new thru-hull hose with the loop in it to cut and attach. I cut it a bit longer than I thought it should be as it seems it is easy to cut it too short. Anyway, that worked out good and it is all together. We tested it by flushing the toilet with soapy water in it and watched the outside of the boat.

This is the "out to ocean" hose and as you can see it is a loop to the through hull below so it rises above the water line to prevent and ocean water coming into the hose. The hose rises above the water line then into the three way valve. It is not conected to the three way valve yet.

Another picture of the "out to ocean" hose as it loops up.

Works good...see the soapy water!

So because there is not any pump out service at any marina around here except here at Puerto Vallarta. We get here and tie up - they come around to our boat twice a week and pump us out. Not at any other marina around here do they do that. Once we leave here we are at anchor for months so we pump out over the side. Upping anchor and going out to sea twice a week is not practical and few, if any, boats do that.

So we open the thru-hull valve and then change the valve from holding to the ocean. Then months later when we come back to the marina we reverse the process for the remainder of our stay in the marina.