Waste tank questions...

Weber

Couple questions on the waste water on my 2004 Rinker 312. This weekend we pumped out, visually could tell the tank was empty. The next day when the toilet was flushed it would pour out the vent, full stream. It has never done that before. The gauge shows that it is very low, and judging off past experiences I doubt we could have filled it that quickly, but I did not have time to lift the hatch and take a look at the tank. Any ideas? Second, do the 312's come with a macerator setup from the factory?

TikiHut2

The vent for our '04 270 is in the very top of the tank and the ONLY way waste water can possibly come out is if the tank is completely full. Time to disregard the gauge and visually inspect the volume in the tank......and probably empty it.

If you have a waste tank vent carbon filter it may have filled with rainwater and mungus that you mistook for waste when the air purge displaced the volume of the newly flushed waste.

I had to add a macerator and Y valve (with a lock) for our tank since it's legal to flush only when we're over 3mi offshore, which happens now/then, although a pump-out is typical otherwise.

Weber

How do you add the macerator?

raybo3

Adding a macerator is a lot of work. You need to cut a "Y" valve to the waste hose. This is the hose that goes to the cap that says waste when you get pumped out. The other side of that valve goes the the intake of the macerator pump. Then the discharge of that pump has to go to a thu-hull with shut off valve for discharge. Then you need to run 12dcv to the pump with a switch and in-line fuse. My switch is mounted on the battery charger housing. This is just a quick overview and hope this helps....

Capt Ron

Why would anyone want to pump waste into the water that we boat and swim in. Macerators should be banned just like they are in Canada. People wonder why we have Red Tide and other issues in the ocean??? Just stupid in my opinion.

raybo3

Capt Ron we can not pump out unless we are 7 miles off shore. I very seldom pump but if I have to I always treat before pumping. 

TikiHut2

Stupid?? Really, Red Tide!?. Where does your pump-out end up, in some blissful canadian daisy patch?

Every state in America AND idyllic canada have quiet "accidental" releases into the waterways that are measured in the hundreds of millions of gallons every week. They make the tiny few gallons from a legal mariners treated tank released miles offshore completely moot. Factory pig farms, feed lots, poultry operations and even the crap you put in the gutter from your suburbanite dog in EVERY city eventually make it into the environment along with your leaky landfill and pesticide/herbicide encrusted yards and farm fields. Don't even get me started on factory waste that we want to believe never gets loose in huge volumes.....and I'm causing red tide...omg what a piece of work.

Remind me to have my tires dumped in that giant candian tire dump that's probably still on fire next to the chemical refinery and wood pulp plant. Throw that rock the other way.

I'm sure this'll get pulled (and that's ok) but that's a raw nerve . The Eco-Nazi snow birds living in denial in their shore-side condos in Fl are already hyper zealous, convincing themselves that there must be a boater pollution issue but they won't listen to reason or even start where it counts...on-shore.

RedTide from my boat..omg...what a hoot.

Black_Diamond

lol. We get 'no contact' warnings on the rivers by us. Every big rain, millions of gallons of raw sewage dumped in the rivers flowing to Lake Mich.

Dream_Inn

Tiki, I know what you mean and agree that it won't cause red tide, but I'd still have a hard time dumping my crap anywhere in the water.  But yes, it's done all the time in much larger quantities by sewage plants.

browncbr1

Where does fish poop go?

MarkB

Tiki not all of us Canadians are bad you know ...

TikiHut2

Geeze Mark. Didnt mean it that way. No offense intended my friend. Just struck a nerve as the non-boating crowd presses in on us as the land bound retirees are bringing unprecedented pressure to legit boaters on this very issue down here.

>-

raybo3

Hey guys I do not think Tiki was calling anyone a bad person. Capt Ron is a strong contributor to this site and the old RBO. He was just giving his opinion. While I agree pumping out a boat out in the ocean is really not a big deal and I do think it should be treated. 

Black_Diamond

A 'light-hearted' conversation here . We cannot discharge at all in the great lakes, but treated release makes reasonable sense in the ocean 3+ miles off shore (or the legal limit). Many a guy has wizzed off their boat I'm sure though. Lol. Actually a high precentage of drownings happen that way per the USCG, usually fishermen in small boats: pants down and dead.

TikiHut2

Light hearted family discussion  Sorta sounds like we're saying the same thing but my somewhat insensitive defense (my apologies) to using your boats head isn't about borders or a boater, it's the denial of the true root, and massive abuse of runoff that our water endures. If it became a broader thought I'm pretty sure we'd agree on that.

Like an eye dropper compared to Niagara Falls, boaters are a virtually insignificant distraction to the enormity of on-going municipal releases including herbacide/pesticide runoff (consumer and agribusiness) along with hundreds of thousands of tons of drug compounds the consumer digests and flushes each day. ALL of it eventually ends up in the water. So I'm not in denial nor squeamish about what we soak in on a hot summer day.  

The volume of accumulated toxic runoff is simply inconceivable. 

The discussion here became the misplaced concern of using a properly equipped boat head. In Fl it's been a battle of the reasonable and those who can't be reasoned with but are sure that boaters are the root cause of every high bacteria count near a mooring field. We'll probably loose, because like a good magicians slight of hand, the majority of the treated boating waste argument is merely an easy target to distract the consumer from the enormity and complexity of a vastly larger and more expensive issue of run-off and over stressed or poorly designed utilities. 

.....so 90% of the time I pump out my few gallons of completely safe, properly treated organic slurry on-shore, where it runs through miles of leaky pipes to an over taxed sewage plant that often merely overflows my meager addition right back into the bay or worse, pumps it along with millions of gallons daily underground. Many of today's modern boat waste treatment options are doing a far better job than the utilities. 

And don't even get me going on deep well injection of treated waste that's been widely practiced down here for waste "disposal".......coming soon to an aquifer near you.

Instead, lets go have a beer at the sandbar to briefly forget the things we know are imperfect. And like I always do, I promise to lock down my macerator and hold my pee ......until I'm downstream.... >-

Black_Diamond

Always up for a beer!

Michael T

Yeah, I'm a Canadian. Have gone to school in the U.S. for three years. Lots of American Friends. Parents lived in Florida for 20 years (no one there seemed to mind that they shopped there and paid about $8,000.00 a year in property taxes). No country holds a trophy for stupidity. All that aside, why would any boater ever pump sh!t into the water. In my opinion, it's not about freedom , it's about damaging our oceans. So a city pumps effluent into the water and we say because of that we might as well too? I'm with Capt. Steve on this one. MT

Michael T

I guess that's Capt. Ron I'm with on this one.MT

TikiHut2

:-@ :-@ :-@   wonderful.....

This one certainly veered off course rather predictably when a simple question about how to do a common boat mod changed to insults and an attack on the validity of the OPs inquiry.

Can't we just pull the whole thing starting at CRs comment/opinion to get back on track??

Black_Diamond

Well put!

 

I think the bottom line is that his tank gauge is not reading correct as he assumes (gasp!).  Get a pump out.  Either fix the sending unit or make a visual check on it to see how full/empty it is.  If he has a filter, it is messed up now and need replacing/repacking for sure.

 

 

Lifes Good

havent seen a swimming mammal use a porta potty yet. but as silly as things progress I am sure thats next. b-(

Capt_Steve

Glad to hear some voices of reason bringing this topic back on course. No reason to start an international incident over a simple mod question!

explore7425

You think your tank was empty but it wasn't. Been there done that. DO NOT TRUST THE LEVEL INDICATOR. They are notoriously wrong and most times do not work at all. 

Michael T

Captain Steve and fellow contributors - good comments. This may be of interest to some: In my three years in American schools I learned a lot of valuable lessons - but the one I NEVER forgot was that if you show disrespect for the American flag, the United States of America or its citizens you WILL be challenged by Americans. That's as it SHOULD be. I learned my lesson in the U.S.A. and I learned it well! I really liked that particular lesson! I brought it home to Canada with me and I have practiced it ever since. Yes, it IS time for a beer! MT

craigswardmtb

On a more lighthearted note, how do you guys jiggle the turds off your sensors?  I got a pump out last week and the gauge now reads higher, 2/3 full, than when I actually got it pumped out at 1/3 full.

Capt_Steve

Of all the things I never thought I'd read!

Michael T

Install a macerator before your tank - then no problems?MT (just kidding, but.....)

rinker342cr

well almost a year later i have a question.... where in the heII do you activate the macerator on a rinker 342?? the thing is there but we have no idea on how to make it run 

Stodge

My 342 has an electric head and I believe it has a macerator between the toilet and the tank.  As far as I can tell hitting the red flush button makes it go.  I have no "Y" valve.  No way to go overboard.  Here in the Great Lakes the requirement is to have your "Y" valve locked in the tank position if you have one.  

DanD2

I have the same set up on my 342 ^^^^^^

rinker342cr

my 342 has the macerator next to the fresh water pump all the way on the rear in the engine room its wired and all and has white piping with a lever you turn and some white piping going to the outside of the boat but have no idea how to make it work mines is a 2003 thou