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The best answer, tho some consider it gross, is to flush no paper products.
Nothing goes into the head that didn't enter through your mouth - except
cleaning and deodorizing products, of course. A small container with a lid
kept beside the head works great to collect the paper - line it with the
plastic bags you get in the vegetable section of the grocery store. Some
use a disposable diaper container to collect the paper . Other advantages
of not flushing the paper, besides not clogging pumps, is less buildup in
the holding tank and
less water required for the flush.
Jim Woodward
KK3609 Moby Duck
Houston, TX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Grant" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 11:14 PM
Subject: TWL: A tale of two pumps
> I just went through an interesting exercise that I thought other
> VacuFlush owners may benefit from.
>
> My recent cruise was cut short when my VacuFlush head pump packed it
> in. The motor fried so bad the resin was dripping from the case.
> Subsequent research indicates it was over-fused with a 25A fuse instead
> of a 10A. Initially, I found an old "spare" pump left on-board by the
> PO and swapped it in, but it wouldn't pump up to vacuum, so I took the
> motor off the spare and put it onto the bellows assembly of my dead
> pump. This worked fine for about four days, when the motor shaft
> sheared. Since we couldn't get another pup or parts shipped in for
> several days, and the cost appeared to be astronomical, we decided to
> make the trip home.
>
> A new Series vacuum pump was going to run me about $800 (CDN) (how can
> they charge that much?). The parts to rebuild it (motor, o-rings,
> bellows, bushing and check valves) were going to cost about $700! Our
> local marine supplier, who supplies the fishing fleet, suggested that
> the T-series outlet pump was exactly the same, except that the outlet
> nipples had threads reversed from the S-series, and it only had two
> duckbill check valves instead of four. He confirmed this with someone,
> who I assume was the SeaLand rep. The T-series pump was only $340, and
> he had one in stock!
>
> I extracted the old pump, stripped it down and cleaned it well (gross),
> and then tore apart the new T-series pump and true enough the components
> seemed to be identical. So I just moved the guts and motor from the new
> pump into the housing of the old pump, wired and plumbed it in and away
> it went - no problem reaching and holding vacuum and it's quieter to
> boot. The instruction insert for the T-series pump says not to use it
> as the vacuum pump, but the motor is the same replacement part # as for
> the S-series, as are the o-ring kit and duckbill valves. The bellows
> does show different part #'s but they looked the same to me.
>
> I retained the housing for the old PO spare pump, so if this works fine
> after a few weeks, I'll buy another T-Series pump, and build a new spare
> pump - just in case. As an aside, when I tore open my pump, I found
> that the bellows was seized, because it was packed with a ring of
> "fibrous" material - which resulted in the death of the motors. I'm not
> sure if this originated with the PO, but I'll certainly be be more
> explicit in my instructions about head use and what doesn't go into it.
>
> Thus for less than half the cost of even some of the rebuild parts for
> an S-series pump, I got essentially a new pump by buying a T-series and
> putting a little work into it.
>
> Rob Grant
> 41' Canoe Cove, "RaeLeah"
> Delta, BC
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