December 13, 2015

"Agh! Jay! The toilet's spitting back at me!" I was yelling from the bathroom.

"What? It was working fine. What's wrong?"

"I don't know. It just seems to be harder to pump." But it was late and we were tired so we just went to bed.

This went on for about 24 hours. Our new head sort of worked. And it sort of didn't. It would flush but it seemed more difficult than it should have been. I got up in the middle of the night and heard a hissing sound coming from the closet when I flushed the head. Like a short burst of air and water. Not good, I thought to myself. But again, it was late and I was tired so I went back to bed while making a note to myself to check it out in the morning.

I forgot. Jay didn't. He figured it was time to call Sergio back as he was the man who installed it.

"What happened?" He asked as he climbed up onto the boat. His helper followed.

"I don't know, Sergio. It was working beautifully then it started acting up. I'm thinking it might be the y-valve is plugged."

After some investigation, it turned out that our new head has a much stronger pump and loosened up the accumulated scale, proceeding to clog it up, forcing one of the y-valves into a half-open, half-closed position, which then diverted all the liquid into two different sections; one overboard and one into the holding tank. The head spitting at me was telling me the holding tank was full. Before we could replace the y-valve, we had to get the holding tank pumped out.

Naturally, the marina was going through a Navy inspection and we couldn't get pumped out for three days. Yea! I got to get up in the middle of the night and run to the hotel bathroom in the pouring rain! (By now you probably understand why I was thrilled - albeit short-lived - with having a new head.)

"Should we replace the hoses that connect to the y-valves, Sergio?"

"I recommend you replace all the hoses." So Jay headed back to the chandlery for more hoses in addition to the two new y-valves he had just purchased for $92 (American dollars) a piece.

All put back together and ready to work, right? Wrong. It still had a leak. This time it was the macerator. Our wonderful new head has so much pressure it blew out a seal on the macerator and it had to be replaced also.

Back to the chandlery. Drop another $360.

And now, we not only have a wonderful new head, we also have new hoses, new y-valves and a new macerator. And no stink! I think this might do us for awhile. Let's hope so.

P.S. In answer to your question, Bill, it is a Jabsco.