Lavac

We purchased a Lavac after extensive research on the web and discussion via Cruising Bulletinboards with other cruisers. The instructions were rather straight forward but as the years have gone by we've found information that was provided to be lacking. There was never any suggested hose length runs. Lavac suggests 10 pumps with the Guzzler hand pump and then a pause of 3 to 5 seconds for the vacuum to go be eliminated; then a couple of pumps to clear the toilet.

They also provide no information on how tight the base bolts are to be. As you can see by the photo the flange that aids in keeping effluents in the toilet is not of the same dimensions all the way around the ceramic base. This cause a small leak into the space where the exhaust hose exits the base and we found a small seeping from the pedestal with accompaning odors. I had at one time tried to torque the bolts that hold the pedestal to the base to the recommended torque value for the bolts but stopped well before reaching the 7 ft lb value. I was begining to watch the edge of the base distort! I emailed Blakes- Lavac and as to how tight to make the bolts and received NO REPLY. That IMHO is reason enough to remove them from an A to ba B. Further; we have two Lavac heads on our boat and Both bases broke in roughly the same place. I JJ B welded the first one together and it's been holding fine. On this one the cracks were more extenisve so I ground out the cracks on both sides of the base and then JB Welded both sides. I've since orderd two new plastic pedestals.

I've since had the bright idea to have two bases made up in Bronze as then I can tighten enough that there will not be any leaks. In Trinidad where labor is a good value and prices are fair I had an outragous quote of a $1,000.00 / base (that's in US dollars). I worked hard to not laugh as I exited the shop. I'll order the bronze; have it sent somewhere down the line and have them made up somewhere at a; I hope, reasonable cost.