Pump Outs?

[Hylander]

You hire a boat with two heads.     Some of which although it states two heads  , they actually go into one tank.        This being so do you have to pay as if they were emptying two tanks?

 

[rightsaidfred]

You pay per pump out.

Fred

[Hylander]

Thank you.   The reason for asking is , I can recall having a boat with two heads but as explained to us , they went into one tank and yet when we went for a pump out , they asked how many toilets and we, numpties that we were said, two and we got charged for two pump outs.

 

[bucket]

On the one occasion that we needed a midweek pumpout on a hire boat, it turned out that the heads shared a holding tank, we were charged for one.

[Meantime]

Most places ask how many toilets you have and charge per toilet, which is a con. 2 people on a boat will fill one tank at the same speed, no matter whether they are using one or two toilets.

My boat has two toilets which feed into the one tank. When asked the question I always say we use one toilet. No one has ever questioned further, but if they did, then the simple answer is that one of the toilets is in with the shower and therefore often soaking wet, so that is the shower room, the other toilet is the only one used. That may be stretching the truth slightly, but I'm not being conned. If they had to pumpout two tanks, then that would be a different matter.

[Hylander]

I assumed that having the two toilets , you got two tanks, hence , the more people on board not a problem as more capacity with the two tanks.    How wrong can you be.

 

[dom]

1 hour ago, Meantime said:

Most places ask how many toilets you have and charge per toilet, which is a con.

The whole thing's a complete con in most cases these days. I could understand charging £30 to pump out an old style flap and tank below toilet, as it was a disgusting job, often requiring specially made hoses, regular blockages and removing random items dropped into the tank. A typical modern system bares no resemblance to that though and pumping one out is no great ordeal.

I'm quite surprised that DIY pumpouts haven't become common on the Broads - especially with private boats. Seems to work fine elsewhere, with tokens typically a tenner or so.

[NeilB]

1 hour ago, dom said:

I'm quite surprised that DIY pumpouts haven't become common on the Broads - especially with private boats. Seems to work fine elsewhere, with tokens typically a tenner or so.

Lost track of how many pump outs I’ve done so I’d be happy to see some DIY ones about.  Not sure how reliable they are, or should I say how protected against mis use as the ones on the Thames are often out of action.  

[Hylander]

Next question - how do you pay,  card or cash these days for Water, and pump outs please?

[BrundallNavy]

We had a pump out at Norwich Yacht station a few weeks ago. Advertised price £15. He had trouble pumping the tank having to close off the valve many times to maintain pressure. Asked if I had a gauge and if I did was it showing empty. No it was not it still showed quarter full. Would you like a rinse, yes please that will be £3 extra. But it did empty the tank second time around. 
 

How can you do a pump out without rinsing it why not just say a pump out is £18. Not much blue and very watery.  
 

Best pump out I’ve have ever had was Maycraft £10 3 buckets to rinse and nearly a litre of proper blue. 

[MargeandParge]

3 hours ago, Hylander said:

Next question - how do you pay,  card or cash these days for Water, and pump outs please?

Any of the above but never in kind

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[Hylander]

24 minutes ago, MargeandParge said:

Any of the above but never in kind

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

God help that idea, I think that ship has sailed.

 

 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

So what would those moaning expect to pay if you`re on a large hire boat with 8 or 9 berths and three toilets after 2 weeks of use? Some yards can pump straight into the sewers others have to hold it in a tank and then pay to have their large tank emptied. The equipment can block and over time parts wear out, unblocking or replacing parts is not a clean job!  Lastly, for a smaller yard stopping work on an indoor boat repair and downing tools to carry out a pump out outside in the rain all for (say) £20 is hardly worth while is it? Now whatever you may think of yards that still provide this important service for us, the word conned is too harsh a word in my book.

The DIY stations as found on the Thames and canals mentioned very rarely work when you need one and as I cant see there being local sewers handy they will need holding tanks and tankers to empty them so dont expect BA to start installing them anytime soon.

And if I may touch on the subject of diesel. Those that bring their own diesel from supermarkets will have nothing to complain about if the day comes where yard owners will only supply diesel and pump outs to those that moor there.

With pubs the cry is use it or lose it, in my view this should apply to what is left of the infrastructure of the broads as god knows what will be left in another ten years time.

[Hylander]

Hardly,  just two us and we pump out after 4 days and we have two toilets.    I think we contribute our share.  

[OldBerkshireBoy]

20 minutes ago, Hylander said:

Hardly,  just two us and we pump out after 4 days and we have two toilets.    I think we contribute our share.  

If you are paying per toilet as you stated then yes I would agree.

Not sure what you meant by Hardly but its not important, or is it?

[dom]

I'm not aware of any reason why self-service pump-outs are any less reliable than staffed ones. I think the availability issues tend to be more to do with the organisation running them than actual inherent issues.

I've often thought a service station type arrangement, somewhere like Acle bridge might be a viable option as a stand-alone business if you offered fuel, gas, water and pump-out. These days, you could even make it largely self-service, so staffing needs could be minimal too.

It'd also be interesting to see what the uptake would be like if someone did similar with a floating version of the same thing, like the fuel and pump-out boats on the canals. Especially if run by someone living onboard. It'd reinstate two historic precedents - commercial use of the waterways, and people living on board for justifiable commercial reasons, both of which would be nice to see, as it'd confound some of BA's attitude.

Round here on the Great Ouse, we also now have someone doing pump-outs on a mobile basis using a 4x4 and a towed pumpout unit.

 

[Turnoar]

A floater like Louise which pumps out the Thurne bungalows? Can’t find a pic., reg nr 376B, can also take black bags in the hold as well I think.

40 minutes ago, dom said:

… also be interesting to see what the uptake would be like if someone did similar with a floating version of the same thing, like the fuel and pump-out boats on the canals….

 

 

[dom]

11 minutes ago, Turnoar said:

A floater like Louise which pumps out the Thurne bungalows? Can’t find a pic., reg nr 376B, can also take black bags in the hold as well I think.

Something along those lines, although I suspect you'd need to use something larger and combine services on the Broads to make it commercially viable. Pumpout boats seem to be becoming more common on the canals - presumably due to more liveaboards and people not wanting the hassle of Elsans.

I suspect if you did it, you'd find lots of little niche things to sell or do to make additional money.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Leaving the cost of buying and altering such a boat to one side I wonder where would I be able to empty the tank and at what cost if I was to start providing this service?

[Turnoar]

I think Louise empties at Repps staithe straight into the mains sewer. Must be plenty of access points close enough on the rest of the broads, I guess they can always get a honey cart otherwise, seem to recall one operating at Brundall riverside when there were several hire fleets still, depositing in the vicinity of the pub!

[grendel]

Acle already has bridgecraft for pumpouts, Richardson's new development if approved will also provide a similar service 

 

[expilot]

For the record, Louise, is owned by Thurne Bungalows Management Company Limited, a not-for-profit private limited company that is administered and managed (on a mutual basis) on behalf of its 184 Leaseholders. Each TBMC Ltd Leaseholder is required to become the holder of a single share in TBMC Ltd. In this way, each Leaseholder becomes their own landlord.

Louise was commissioned by TBMC Ltd and designed to be able to empty the cesspits of all those TBMC's bungalows on the Martham and Repps banks that are not connected to a mains drainage system.  Louise can carry 7,000 litres of effluent before she has to pump out her tanks. She actually empties the contents of her tanks, not at Repps Staithe, but at TBMC's boatshed on the NE riverbank above Potter bridge. To enable her to do this, TBMC Ltd has to have an Environment Agency waste broker licence, Louise's operative has to have an Environment Agency waste carrier licence.  Because this operation is deemed a commercial enterprise, TBMC has to pay many thousands of pounds quarterly to Anglian Water to permit such discharge into the AW's mains drainage system that runs the length of TBMC's bungalows on the NE and NW riverbanks of the Thurne. This cesspit pump-out system is charged to the bungalow owners on a not-for-profit, per pump-out basis, currently running at about fifty pounds per requested pump-out.

[Cheesey69]

12 hours ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

And if I may touch on the subject of diesel. Those that bring their own diesel from supermarkets will have nothing to complain about if the day comes where yard owners will only supply diesel and pump

I’m sorry, but a few years ago I had a complete nightmare getting diesel on a trip to Beccles. One place was out of service, one was closed down due to maintenance , two only to those who moored there, one not at weekends or hand over days, one so bloody expensive and miles out of our way. We did find a place, after 10 in the morning, a tad expensive but welcoming. Then on our way back we stopped at Bridgecraft, got caught up in an unknown queuing system that we honestly didn’t know about, got accused of que jumping because we pulled up on an empty mooring space in front of the pumps ( not by staff I hastened to add).

There are other places that involve long waits in tight quarters or miles out of our cruising path and one place I can’t use because the diesel will destroy my injection system 

But three Jerry cans of stuff from the supermarkets gives me fresh new diesel at a competitive price and with a transfer pump, painless. 
 

[grendel]

The southern brads is particularly lacking in this respect, for a while with the wrc not selling fuel, and availability at Beccles being patchy at best, there was nowhere above the new cut where fuel was available, the wrc pumpout is a DIY one now, with tokens you get from the kiosk.

[Meantime]

The pump out at the WRC is token operated, but they do prefer to do the pump out for you. They are not keen on you buying tokens and taking them away to use at your leisure. I think they have a shortage of tokens.

Pump out is £25, and it is a very good pump but is time limited, so not really enough time for a flush, which is probably why they prefer to do it for you. They probably end up using tow tokens, I don't know for sure.

We were lucky enough recently to have phoned ahead and been told it would be open till 4pm on a Saturday. When we turned up we were told it closed earlier on a Saturday. Explained the situation, that we had phoned ahead. Turns out it is was a central Tingdene number and they didn't know the times of the WRC. They searched around and managed to find a token for us and as a gesture of goodwill didn't charge us if we didn't mind operating it ourself, which we didn't have a problem with.