Head Fresh Air

davidbrooks

Has anyone come up with a way to get a little more fresh air in the head?  I could run the A/C but would prefer not to.  Leave the side portal window open....then deal with rain.   it just gets really stagnant in there.

Liberty44140

I wouldn't leave the port open, the wide lip will catch and dispense a lot of rain and make it worse. After showers or cleaning I leave the door open so the ac dries it out faster. When we leave for the week i put fresh water in the toilet as the raw water in the bowl will smell. I will just grab a cup and flush water from the sink faucet down a couple of times dry until the only water in the bowl is fresh, made a big difference for me when returning to the boat after 6 days. I used to put a splash of bleach in heads before leaving for the week but that lead to rebuilds every couple of years, I think the bleach ate at the seals. Sometimes I'll put a splash of head tank treatment in and flush it to freshen it up, we only need to pump out every few weeks and treatments don't last that long so I'll add some in the bowl every couple of weeks. 

davidbrooks

Thanks @Liberty44140. The freshwater idea sounds great. Gonna start doing that. 

Dream_Inn

& leave the head door open when you are gone for the week.  It'll keep it aired out as well.  My head uses fresh water, so that helps.  I always add a little head chemicals to leave in the toiler at the end of each weekend (admiral also uses chlorox wipes in there after each weekend).  The bleach in the head isn't good for the seals.  If you don't want to use the marine head chemicals, put some vinegar in the head and flush, then top it off again.  It will smell like Italy when you come back  , but the seals will be happy as well.

J3ff

I never put salt in any of them, always use the blue stuff and fresh water from the sink...then again number two is avoided at all costs... 

Black_Diamond

Alswagg had a posting on here able adding a fresh air vent to the head on a 342.  Ran a blower from the A/C area to the head with an added exhaust vent going out one of the fresh air intakes on the port side.  Separate from the A/C.

Michael T

On both my 310 and 360 I used a small 12V fan with a suction cup on the bottom. Opened the window and turned the fan on to suck air in through the door of the head then blow the air out through the window. Worked great. Used Captain Phab toilet bow freshener in the bowl when away from the boat (a little bit was plenty) - never any smell. BTW, never worried about number 2 - Just asked people to not put kleenex etc. or feminine hygiene products into the bowl. The Admiral provided bags for those items.

Dream_Inn

The way we literally live on our boat in the summer, I couldn't imagine not doing #2 (couldn't for those times 4 nights on the hook )  I think the issue for a lot of people is using the seawater thru the head.  Definitely use the fresh water at the end of the weekend at least.  Then a couple drops of smelly stuff.

J3ff

Dream_Inn said:

The way we literally live on our boat in the summer, I couldn't imagine not doing #2 (couldn't for those times 4 nights on the hook )  I think the issue for a lot of people is using the seawater thru the head.  Definitely use the fresh water at the end of the weekend at least.  Then a couple drops of smelly stuff.

Lol, yeah, I'm a little spoiled...have a nice boat club less than a mile from where we all hang out all summer.   Going to have to just let it go on the few trips I have planned this year..

tniggel

I always fill the bowl with fresh water and flush. Helps a ton.  I have been using Happy Camper tank treatment. It has made a huge difference and is much better than the deodorant treatments.

Michael T

.....as others have said but may bear repeating for any new members - any time you can find a similar RV product it is often waaaay less expensive. Walmart often has RV product selections.

davidbrooks

Thanks all.  I am going to start using the Fresh water in bowl option before leaving.  Now I am curious how you all have fresh water heads vs raw water fed.  Did you modify this or was it an option at the time?  If you modified this sounds like a useful change.  Filling with fresh water is easy as my shower hose pulls out nicely to do the job.  But I am always looking for better ways.  I definitely treat the tank and have been using Valterra Odorlos and it works well.  The original comment was really just about air circulation.   Gonna have to bug @Alswagg to get more info on his fresh air vent modification in the head.

Liberty44140

both my 2001 310 and my 2006 342 had raw water flush. I think that the fresh water flush was more an option or add. If I was in salt or brackish I may consider changing to fresh water flush. 

Dream_Inn

I assumed it was the larger cruisers had the fresh water head.  Like 350 and up.  I don't know of any 342s that had them (could be wrong).  But I know of plenty of 360s, 370s, 390, 400, 410, 420 all had fresh water heads.

frenchship

My 300 2007 has fresh water head

cassiola

Being on the Hudson River, NY Harbor mostly, I have closed the seacock for raw water intake into the head and for 2yrs now have just used the shower hose to fill the bowl and flush. It has tremendously decreased the amount of smell!

Liberty44140

Good point cassiola, my parents keep their sailboat in a nasty, muddy, river off of Lake Erie and leaving raw water in the toilet will stink after a day. So, they keep a red solo cup next to the sink in the head and always "dry" flush and use water from the sink in the solo cup to flush while at the dock. We've discussed routing one of their two fresh water tanks to the head but they would rather just use the solo cup while at the dock.