Sunday 11 September 2016

A Heritage Pump-out

With about 90 minutes boating to do today, we didn't even start getting ready to leave until half eight and were underway at quarter to nine. Sheila steered on a cool but bright day – apparently we are due a mini heatwave later this week. There were a few boats on the move, though not as many as we'd expected, given that a lot of people not bound by school holidays like to get out on the cut in September. It was a very pleasant bit of boating. The canal here is not spectacular but highly picturesque.

The toilet tank was around two thirds full, so probably wouldn't last until we get back to Mercia, especially if we take an extra day or two. There are a number of pump-out opportunities on the way, but none so good as the Heritage yard at the end of the Macc. The service wharf is easy to tie to and the pump-out, though a bit pricey at £17, is second to none for the quality of the rinse.

Alan that does the pumping is a former Braidbar owner, having sold Dreams Fulfilled earlier this year, so we had a good old natter with him as he ran quantities of water through the tank. Finally it was coming through as clear as might be expected and we settled up and set off again.

We got to Hall Green just on half eleven and had a bit of a relax until lunchtime. Since then, I've sorted a poor connection in the supply to the lamp we stand on the slide in tunnels and we've had a quick trip to the Co-op at Scholar Green. We didn't buy much –it's a fairly basic Co-op – but enough to keep us going until we shop at Sainsbury's tomorrow.

The plan is to top up the water tank whilst we breakfast in the morning, get through the tunnel and on to Etruria for the night.

6 comments:

Jo said...

Hope it's all gone well today. We fall into your category of 'September' people and would probably have been out this week if the diary allowed it! Buy we ARE going out on Sunday for a week - bound for the Soar - along with Mel and Peter.

Janet said...

Hi Bruce,
Would you mind elaborating on 'running quantities of water through the tank' please? We are fairly new to pump-out toilets and despite using Odourlos as per instructions on the bottle and giving the tank a bit of a rinse, we have a smell through the breather pipe which enters the boat through open windows and hangs around outside the boat on the toilet side. I think our rinse technique might be the problem.
Janet

Bruce in Sanity said...

Hi Janet

I've never had much success with Odorloss, though lots of folk swear by it and it's certainly better than the dreaded blue. We like to run water down the rinse out hole and rock the boat as we do so, thus flushing the whole area of the tank. Braidbars have the advantage that the rinse out pipe goes in at the top of the tank – some builders put it right next to the pump out fitting. If that happens, you have to stop pumping out, run water into the tank and rock like fun before pumping again.

The aim is to have the palest possible colour coming back out.

We use Brewers yeast tablets these days, just as good as anything else and much cheaper too. I put twenty of Holland and Barrett's best in when the tank's just been pumped, then ten more when the tank is a quarter, half and three-quarters full. It takes around three tanks use to really get the fermentation going, then you don't need to bother too much any more.

Note, however, that over zealous use of toilet cleaners, even the ones specially for pump outs, will kill the yeast or friendly bugs. Don't clean the loo more than once a week!

Hope this helps

Bruce

Janet said...

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Bruce.

I think we are going to give up on the green stuff and try yeast tablets. As for rinsing out, we don't have a separate specific hole and usually stop pumping while we add some clean water through the pump-out hole. It's always a bit of a panic though before the pump-out time is up and something of a trade off between one and the other.

Late this afternoon we pumped out and when the indicator showed empty we put clean water into the tank via the toilet using the shower hose and carried on pumping. We did this until the water coming out was relatively clear as you advise and the pump-out time was up. Hopefully, this will improve things as well.

I note your cleaning advice. Although we've never used blue, bleach or normal toilet cleaner, I do wipe around the bowl, rim and seat with a flash wipe most days and then dispose of it in a bin. I don't know if this might have affected things.

Bruce in Sanity said...

Hi again

I guess that's you on CWDF on the same topic... Some good advice there, too.

Flash wipes shouldn't be a problem. The other "advantage" to a dump through is that you can shine a torch down the hole and see how clean you've got the tank, though I wouldn't recommend doing it straight after a meal ;).

Cheers

Bruce

Janet said...

Yes, that was me on the forum and agree some good advice. Our toilet is a Jabsco macerator and I was able to fill the bowl from the shower hose and then use the 'empty' button. I did this about 4 or 5 times. So far so good.