One of the new ideas at METS that impressed me most was one of the simplest. Jabsco has made a significant improvement to the outlet pump of the marine toilet which fitted as standard to most production yachts.
And everybody who has one is familiar with its less desirable habits. No matter how carefully installed they are, with vented anti-siphon loops and all the rest, when the yacht heels they have been prone to what Jabsco describes as “siphonic flooding and waste backflow.”
But at last the company has come up with the answer: a new Twist'n'Lock design, which uses a remodelled piston in the pump-out assembly. At the end of normal pumping out, at the bottom of the pump stroke, the user turns the handle through 90° which locks the piston down on to the base outlet valve, keeping it securely shut.
Turning the handle to the normal operating position opens the lock again. The company says: “even in a big seaway, with a less than perfectly installed unit, no water, or worse, waste, will find its way into the cabin.”
The new Twist'n'Lock system is being installed on all Jabsco manual toilets, both compact and regular bowl sizes, at no addition to the retail price. And the really good news is that you don't have to replace your loo to benefit from this leap in technology: the new pump can be retrofitted to existing facilities.
