Posted by lance_ryley (lance_ryley@…>)
Ok, so “Diamond Necklace” is my wife’s euphemism for the
ElectroScan/Hold’N’Treat system that I installed, first on Bright
Star and now on Glory. Her reasoning is the cost is about the same,
but she gets more use out of the electroscan. I’ve uploaded some
pictures under “Electroscan Install.”
The previous owner had replaced the forward holding tank with a
slightly larger one, and the installation was a good one. The tank
was just forward of the drawers in the V-Berth, well supported, well
ventilated, and the hoses were relatively new. He installed a good
waste transfer pump for outside 3 miles, but as liveaboards, this
arrangement puts too much reliance, especially in the winter, on the
marina’s pumpout boat. If you’ve ever lived at Constitution Marina,
then you know what I’m talking about. Also, although it was pretty
good quality, I’ve never been thrilled with the black sanitation hose
with wire reinforcement. On Bright Star, some of that hose failed
when the wire essentially rusted through the hosewall. Some failures
you can live with. Others… not so much.
Step 1 was sending my wife to CT for the weekend. Then I started by
removing the hoses and the transfer pump from the starboard “locker”
where the unit would go. I made marks on the hull and the inner wall
to indicate how deep the unit could sit, then made a cardboard
template for the StarBoard shelf the unit would sit on.
After I made the template, I painted the interior of the compartment
and the V-berth cover bottom with “Silent Running” sound deadening
paint. It’s really supposed to be sprayed, but I don’t own a spraygun
so I brushed it on. It goes on very thick, and I don’t know if it’s
very effective, but I believe it helps. I also painted the body of
the macerator pump to help reduce its noise too.
While the paint was drying, I built the StarBoard shelf and bracing
for the ElectroScan, including the strapping to hold it in place. The
shelf has an L under it, and that is bolted to the wall with 4 thru-
bolts. By the time I finished, it was time for a second coat
of “Silent Running.”
While the second coat was drying, I replaced the hose that would
become the new overboard discharge, and built a new piece for the
tank to the macerator pump. Once the paint was dry, I mounted the
shelf, tied down the unit, and called it a day.
The next day was spent wiring the units up. The problem with the
Raritan documentation is that it is a little outdated, but it’s still
pretty straightforward. The big issue is making sure that the right
sized wire is run from the batteries to the unit. In Glory’s case,
this was 4ga battery cable - not quite as big as the windlass, but
still capable of carrying 30 amps. The other big thing is stringing
wire through small openings, but that’s pretty much any boat job. Oh
yeah, and the last big thing is calibrating the tank level indicator.
Raritan ships the Hold’N’Treat with the foil-style tank indicator so
you don’t have to mount anything inside the tank, which is obviously
a plus. The minus is that it seems to be a little finicky about the
total foil area that it uses. I was toward the minimum, so I
increased the foil area by about half and that seems to work well.
By 5pm on Sunday, the wiring and the plumbing were done, the system
was tested, and my wife had returned from CT. She was so appreciative
of the system that my reward for my dirty job is right field seats
for Game 2 of the World Series. Go Sox!
Lance
“Glory”