Exodus has six macerator pumps and it seems like there is always an issue with at least one of them at any given time. Each head has two of them, one between the toilet and the tank, and one at the tank exit (so when we empty heads its all nice and ground up. TMI?) The latest issue was the exit macerator on Alex’s head, so his head had been out of commission/off limits for awhile. Tim tends to (understandably) procrastinate these repairs because we have 3 heads on board so one being out of commission is not that big of a deal, and, well, they can be a little messy. Unjamming or repairing the macerator is usually not a difficult task. The difficult part is detaching the macerator without partially emptying the tank into the bilge. Yes, sadly, this time we ended up with a bilge full of poo. It was HORRIBLE. The smell drove us all from the boat except poor Tim who had to endure the smell and deal with the mess. Would you believe we even had the tanks pumped out at the marina beforehand hoping that would minimize mess, but to no avail. For several days, Exodus was known as the poo boat.
Many times Steve and Carolina have told us how they learned from Steve’s parents not to flush their toilet paper. It doesn’t matter if it’s the special kind of paper that dissolves it still messes with plumbing systems and clogs pipes, and perhaps, jams macerators. So, we finally started taking their advice and don’t flush our paper. It’s kind of gross because we have to keep a bag near the toilet to collect it, but we have only had one macerator problem since.
Gresham Family Exodus 