Shangela

I’m glad you’ve got on well with it. Do think they have potential but just can’t get it to work for me. I do wonder if mine was badly fitted or neglected a bit which led to all the clogging and build up problems. Last owner was a bit clueless and let a lot of problems build up. Can’t see how I’ll be visiting the Elsan daily with maybe two uses a day as I’m out at work? Jerry can holds about 60l, which is why I struggle to carry it fill. My thinking is a 20l cassette will be more manageable! Don’t mind extra visits to the Elsan as is a ten min job on the marina.

You’re right, I’m not using it as a composter as can’t see how that would be practical on a boat, at least in my set up.

Interesting. Mine is disposed of in a similar manner to a cassette so no problems here, but can see why some marinas dont want bags of waste being chucked around! Edit: the bloke I bought this off actually said to me he “just emptied the urine on the nettles” ?

This is what I’ve never understood - so many claims of this, but I just can’t see how. Mine is a pretty standard model by all accounts, but could only see it lasting beyond a few weeks if you didn’t put loo roll in and didn’t line with a bag (which loses a few centimetres) and literally manually packed the waste into the edges with a stick or something - awful!

That’s my thinking. All the reviews I read of these things assume you have a huge garden compost heap! And the only UK business that did parts for it has gone bust recently. I’m not squeamish about using Elsan disposals either. Am getting a floorboard repaired in the bathroom soon, so if the toilet has to come out then, I’ll be tempted to chuck it. Just wish previous owner hadn’t cut a bloody great hole in the wall to fit the massive thing in, including electric fan and an air pipe on the roof!

Hello all, Boat came with a Separrat Villa composting toilet. Owner before last has rigged it up some bizarre system so the wet waste goes through some pipes and a bilge pump shoots it into a Jerry can housed in the engine room, so the capacity is much increased. The thing is, it drives me mad with all the things that go wrong with it. Sorry for the TMI, but the pipes get clogged with urine build ups and now the (noisy and temperamental) bilge pump has done the same and has packed in. It’s constant nasty clean up jobs, especially when visiting children manage to get “waste” all over the bloody retractable door despite many lessons in how not to! The Jerry van also has to be emptied when it gets a third full or it’s too heavy to heave out. The dry waste I find fine, doesn’t smell, but the bag-lined tub it goes into fills up after a week and a half of light use at best, especially if using toilet paper. I dispose of all contents into the Elsan on my marina, but I can’t imagine how you could actually compost on a boat as you need to leave each tub a year or two to ferment. So after a month you’d be out of tubs! Iv’e just bought a cheap £80 Thetford Porta Potti from Argos to tide me over til I fix the pump issue, and it seems so much more straightforward. So I’m now wondering why I don’t just rip the bloody thing out and go to a cassette. Don’t have the room for one with a large pull out cassette, but was looking at those luxury Thetfords so it at least would be a like for like replacement rather than going cheapest option. Has anyone done this? My main worry is taking value off the boat as capacity would be reduced I suppose, but would buy an extra cassette too. I’m torn! thanks

Morning all, Just to update you how it worked out. Had a look myself, but really wasn’t confident so left it. Managed to get an excellent local boat electrician to come out this morning at short notice. Few things he found - the cable hadn’t been crimped with the proper tool, so that’s why it fried. There was also a loose connection that he fixed and the charger was hooked up to the middle battery in the sequence which was unbalancing the draw so he swapped that too. He changed it to a much more resilient fuse box holder too. Thanks again for all your help. Have lovely Sundays all!

Thanks for the advice on stripping back the wires for now. I’m thinking of giving it a go - anything I need to avoid so as not to mess it up completely? Just looked to see whether a new fuse would hold it until tomorrow when I’m getting a replacement holder - but it looks totally melted and think this will be riskier.

I’m West London. I’m currently waiting to hear back from a boat electrician I’ve used a couple of times, and he’s pretty fair at telling me when it’s a fix I can do myself. I never considered it could have overheated in there. Seems much more sensible to have it outside the box. Will have a search around for a decent solution. Thank you all so much for all your helpful input and suggestions. It’s so easy to get frustrated with trying to work out what boat quirk has gone wrong this time, and it’s reassuring to know the community’s knowledge is on here!

Amazing detective work from all concerned. Opened up the fuse holder and it’s a mess. Looks to be snapped and fried. No idea as to why it would burn out, but had a lot of problems on this boat from previous owner not maintaining stuff/using wrong materials! looking like the whole thing needs to be replaced, any ideas? The meter was new yesterday and hasn’t worked out of the pack - angry letter to Rolson ahead!

Thanks again for all your helpful tips. Still getting absolutely no response from the meter. Maybe that’s broke too. Just tried it on an AA battery and nothing either. It’s this one:

Okay, I’m trying to test at the terminals and getting nothing from the meter. Where on the terminals should I be poking to test it?

Thanks all for your suggestions. I’ve tried to have a look, but the darkness isn’t helping! Starting to suspect it’s the charger - Volts are at 13.6, Amps at 0.1 and Charger Output is showing 0%. The Pro Charge U manual I have might as well be written in ancient Latin for all the sense it makes! It’s cutrently on Float charger mode. Does anyone have experience with these? thanks again.

Thanks both for replying. I have turned the isolator on and off a couple of times this morning. The battery charger is on and seems to be working as usual. There is some charge coming through still, presuming it’s just reduced. Will get a meter tonight and check the batteries properly in the morning and will report back! Sounding like there’s a connection issue at the battery somewhere.

Hello all, Sorry if these are stupid questions, but I don't know where to start with this! I've just returned from three weeks away. I'm constantly on shoreline power in my marina. The 240v stuff is working fine, so the shoreline cable etc is all good. The problem I'm having is the stuff ran on 12v off the battery (charged via shoreline with a Sterling Pro Charge) seems to be struggling. The lights are flickering when the toilet pump is on, the water pump is making an awful noise and the fridge won't get cool enough. Is this likely to be a dead battery issue or an issue with the battery charger? Don't know what I should be looking at. Any help is gratefully received :) Many thanks, Alexis