Head Bowl Fills

F

FlyMeAway

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2020
Messages
544
Fluid Motion Model
C-302 SC
Vessel Name
Beagle
We have a weird issue on our R-31 that has been persisting for months. The bowl of the head fills with water (clean water, it appears) when we aren't on it.

Sometimes the water pressure is left on by accident when we leave the boat; I haven't yet figured out whether this only happens when the pressure is on... But would be interested in thoughts for how it would happen either way.
 
On our C28, this happened when the joker valve needed to be replaced. Depending on how well you are flushing, the water that backflows may look clean. Incidentally it's happening again, but was easy to spot as I had just winterized it using the pink antifreeze, and the bowl filled up pink. So this could be a way to test, either using antifreeze or something else colored, to see if the bowl fills back up with the same color.
 
Our C28 was doing the same thing so I replaced the joker valve and it solved it.


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Interesting. So the thinking is that the bowl is filling with black water? This did not occur to be as a possibility, and I'll admit I'm a bit confused by it. I've owned and rebuilt half a dozen other marine heads, and never have I had backfill through a joker valve when the head is just sitting stagnant. Other joker valve issues, absolutely.

Wouldn't the black water tank have to be located physically higher than the head bowl for this to be an issue? I'll admit that I'm not on the boat right now and have never located the black water tank before. If so, that seems like a design flaw (but I'm also used to sailboats which have a lot more room for such things).
 
Where is the joker valve located? thanks,
 
Where is the Joker valve located?
Click to expand...

Probably as close to the head as possible on the outlet hose. The closer to the head, the less amount of fluid that can back flow.
 
What I think happens is that the outflow hose has to go up a little, before it goes down to the holding tank. The liquid is pulled back down by gravity through the leaking joker valve. That’s just a guess on my part though - I haven’t inspected the hose height to see, but since it only ever fills back up to a certain point this seems to make sense. On the SeaEra toilet, the joker valve is right before the hose. There’s a bracket with 4 screws that needs to be removed. Other than the potential liquid issues, the Joni itself is fairly easy, at least on ours.
 
Our head is filling all the way up to the point of overflowing (though it seems to overflow very slowly).

This is why I'm skeptical that it's the joker valve, but I might check it. I like the idea of flushing pink antifreeze and seeing if what comes back is pink.

If it's indeed filling from the other, clean side -- any thoughts? Has anybody encountered this before?
 
If you have a freshwater head, the solenoid valve can leak because of plastic debris lodging in the valve (the same way it affects some faucets). This can cause the bowl to fill slowly. It’s an easy fix. Here’s a video for servicing the Jabsco solenoid valve….I’m sure other brands are similar: https://youtu.be/Abmga5i53Wg. Hope this helps.
 
snydzy":408nhlgt said:
If you have a freshwater head, the solenoid valve can leak because of plastic debris lodging in the valve (the same way it affects some faucets). This can cause the bowl to fill slowly. It’s an easy fix. Here’s a video for servicing the Jabsco solenoid valve….I’m sure other brands are similar: https://youtu.be/Abmga5i53Wg. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

This would be in a valve at the head? Does anybody know where I would find this in the R-31? This is an excellent point; something lodged in the valve at the head preventing it from filling.

I would think that the solenoid would be integral to the toilet set-up and not at the FW pump... Though I can't remember without being down on the boat whether our toilets have an integral pump or rely on the FW pump. (my last boat, the electric toilet had it's own pump for FW flush but when I was speccing that upgrade I saw both kinds)
 
should be behind where the button to flush/fill is.
Snydzy
 
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