Porta Potty on 2019 R5 Surf

[Plastik]

So, I’m lost. New boat and unfamiliar with heads and the various elements.

We have a porta potty that also has a hose (with upholstery vinyl wrapped around it) out the bottom right back. Does this mean we have the ability to pump it out?

We also have a waste port on the front port side but the cap doesn’t seem to do much more than pop up partially and not remove.

Also related to this: do we have a freshwater tank that would fill the porta potty or do we fill it manually via the rear right potty port?

[Lifelongbtr]

I have the porcelain head / macerator and it draws water from the lake or whatever you’re floating on, and puts it into a pump out tank (or there’s a 3 way valve that dumps it into the water, mine came zip tied to go to the pump out tank). There’s a black flush button on the wall. I’d assume yours works similar. I filled with water once and pumped it out at a dock just to see how it worked.

You should see the water plumbing in the ski locker, water draws from bottom of boat in the back, runs up center and turns towards the front of the ski locker.

Is there two pipes under the vinyl?

[Plastik]

No ski locker on a Surf as the center ballast box is there.

I see what might be a fresh water tank but the hose from it goes aft ward as it might for a transom shower…but we don’t have that either.

Your pump out port…does it twist pop up? Then is there some way to remove it to put a vacuum? Or is their a potential that mine is simply a vent?

[Titaniumboy]

Does your pop-up deck fill look like this? The tool shown just goes in the two holes on the cap if it is stuck too tight.

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If your porta potti is like ours (we have a SaniPottie by Dometic), then there is just a small hose to a vent and a larger hose to the Waste deck fill. I have no idea how a pump out is supposed to ever work on one of these little toilets. I have to think there would be a fair amount of “residue” after pumping out? Maybe they then pump in fresh water and then pump that out again? Maybe it would clean out nice after four or five cycles?

We skipped over all of that as pumping out isn’t really convenient for us where we boat. I removed the two hoses and capped them off. I just remove the potty from the boat when full and dump it into a regular toilet. Fill up the freshwater reservoir and add 8 ounces of the blue stuff into holding tank and we are good to go.

[Plastik]

Yes, figured out today that the waste port twist pops up then it required me to utilize more of my manly strength to turn the cap off completely. This tells me that we DO indeed have the ability to pump out.

Now, how to figure out 1) if the container under the port cushion is the freshwater tank and 2) how to fill it.

I’m yet to understand if we need to pour water into the toilet or if it draws from a tank.

[Titaniumboy]

Porta Potties have a built-in water tank. The cap to the right (above your hoses) is where you fill the water tank. The doohickey to the left is how you pump water from the water tank into the bowl. There should be a slide valve on the front side to let the bowl contents flow into the built-in holding tank

Do you have a “Macerator” switch at the helm. It should make noise if you have a macerator, which you probably don’t have.

Can you post the model number of the Thetford Porta Pottie?

[Lifelongbtr]

Maybe with that setup they use a fresh water tank. If the port says waste I’d think that is a pump out, mine is on the port side on top by the windshield. If you have the fresh water tank there should be a pump switch. Mine is located below dash on the right. My fresh water tank is where you’re seeing yours.

My freshwater tank is only for the shower, or a sink in the head. My surf has the ski locker, apparently they removed that tank at some point, mine is 2019 also, R7S though. Other threads here say the center ballast doesn’t help, may even hurt the surf wave.

[Lifelongbtr]

And my water fill is port side basically directly across from gas fill.

[Plastik]

Ok...I think I've confirmed the following:

We have a pump out - good.
We do NOT have a freshwater tank - meh.
We have to fill the porta potty with water manually - super meh.

Some real first-world problems here.

[Titaniumboy]

Good info that you have discovered.

Even if you had a freshwater tank, it would only be for a transom shower and maybe a sink. Portapotti’s don’t really have a way for the built-in water tank to get filled by the boat freshwater tank. You would need a real marine toilet to be able to be flushed by a freshwater tank.

I would be interested in hearing how the pump out works in real life on a Porta Potti.

[bruceb58]

I have had pump out porta pottis. Hated them. Would rather just pull the bottom off and carry it over to a toilet and dump. In fact, if my Cobalt came with a pump out head, I would change it to a portable first thing.

[LakeLife77]

I have this same set-up and need to pump it out maybe twice a season (One of the requirements by better half was to have a bathroom to use for early spring and late fall cruises). The Marina we go to pump-out has a very powerful vacuum pump to it. I get it emptied out and then put maybe another 3-4 gallons of water in there to rinse it, pump-out a final time and then fill the reservoir tank in the corner. I also add some "Happy Camper" that keeps the smell away.



It looks like the lower holding tank has a siphon system going, to move everything into the larger pump tank under the port bow seat.
That cap is a solid piece of metal with no safety chain to is, so be careful when removing it!

[jhnmdahl]

Plastik, here's a link to the manual for your boat. https://cobaltboats.com/art/manuals/201 ... ies_OM.pdf

Note you have to scroll to "Operating Information" to find the "Marine Toilet - Head" section, also marked as pages 3-32 to 3-34.

[Titaniumboy]

I have had pump out porta pottis. Hated them. Would rather just pull the bottom off and carry it over to a toilet and dump. In fact, if my Cobalt came with a pump out head, I would change it to a portable first thing.

We modified our pump out portable to become a normal portable. Since our marina doesn’t have any pump out capabilities, nor do many of the lakes we trailer to, it is very easy to dump the portable into a normal toilet like Bruce says.

Plastik, I’m guessing you have the Thetford Porta-Pottie 260P model? If you verify the model number, we can help you convert your portable over from the pump out style if that is the route you want to take.

[Lifelongbtr]

There is a company that makes a portable pump and tube, etc. that you can dump at any RV dump or the cleanup at your house. I thought of getting one since I have the porcelain and macerator, then found they have pumps at a lot of marinas and most are free. Still haven't found an actual need to dump it though, it never gets used.