Airhead and new stove on CD 31

[jen1722terry]

Hello fellow owners (particularly 31 owners)

Jenn and I took delivery this week on a new Origo 6000 non-pressure alcohol galley stove as well as an Airhead composting toilet to replace the old marine head. We'll report on the install and product performance in the coming weeks.

So far, the only challenge has been positioning the Airhead on the small and oddly-shaped shelf where the old head stood. We decided to enlarge this shelf somewhat using 1/2" Starboard, screwing thru the Starboard down into the wood sub-base under the shelf, setting the screws in epoxy.

We ordered the Airhead with a 1/2" ID fitting on the lower side of the fluids tank. We plan to plumb this into the existing 1.5" hose down to our big (28 gallon) holding tank, using adapters. To enable a gravity drain, we plan to trim back the existing sanitation hose to a point in the bottom of the wet locker just forward of the head compartment. This mod will eliminate the need to empty the smallish (2-gal.) fluids tank frequently, a sure convenience.

Yes, we'll still have to pump the holding tank, but only a few times each summer. Adding some sugar to the tank should eliminate tank odors for good. We'll plug off the head seawater seacock, rather than remove it, so a future owner can reinstall a standard head, if desired.

More on this install as we go along and, of course, all comments and advice are most welcome.

For the Origo stove, the install looks to be very straightforward. We do note that no directions were in the shipping box from West Marine. The stove is nearly 3 inches narrower, so some blocking will be required. The payoff should be no propane, no hoses, no pressure alcohol flare-ups and no propane deck locker. More on this later.

We do add that Geoff Trott of Airhead has been a pleasure to work with.

Happy spring outfitting to all of you!

Jenn and Terry McAdams

[JAS]

Hope you can post photos when air head installed. I've contemplated arihead in my 31, but ended up trying to seal leaks in holding tank (a quart of barrier coat poured into cleaned and dry tank). If/when that fails I'll return to composting plan.
Jim

[jen1722terry]

Hello again sailors, particularly CD 31 owners!

OK, we finished the hard part of the new Airhead install on our 31. Some of you are familiar with the odd-shaped and small mounting deck for the toilet in the head compartment. Also, behind this deck is a sloping head sole that tilts in two planes, a challenge.

Since the footprint of the Airhead is basically round and much larger then the 5-sided polygon of the mounting deck, is was decided to build up the mounting deck 2.5 inches using two layers of 3/4" Starboard, cut to the same shape and the mounting deck. On top of this, we installed a much larger layer of 3/4" Starboard, cut oversized so we could test mount it with two screws while we positioned the Airhead (photos). This left one side of the top Starboard rather unsupported. So we cut a small piece of Starboard to match the head sole and screwed it under the end of the Starboard to add some support (not show in photo).

The next step presented some problems.

First, the Airhead is pretty high, so high that a shorter person's feet would dangle if the Airhead was mounted on a raised deck. We decided to address this issue by leaving a 2.5" reveal of Starboard around the front of the head, just wide enough to hook one's heels on without making it too difficult to stand on the head sole in front of the head sink and mirror.

Second: The Airhead needs clearance on one side for the solids mixing crank, on one location on the rear of the head for the vent hose and, in our case, on one lower corner of the liquids holding tank for a fitting to plumb this tank into the existing 1.5" sani-hose in the starboard hanging locker next to the head. So, much fitting of the head in and out of the head compartment and much drawing of lines with a sharpie pen (erasable with alcohol - pencils don't do much on Starboard). The major constraint was the vent hose: it cannot have any sharp bends, so it takes up some side clearance when is comes out of the Airhead and up the head wall to the ceiling vent with fan.

We finally chose a location slightly aft of midway fore-and-aft in the head compartment. Also, raising the original mounting deck with 2.25" of Starboard enabled us to mount the head more towards the port side of the compartment and not be impeded by the sloping head sole. Note that the Airhead requires 4 mounting brackets with 8 screws or bolts. Our mount required some of these fasteners to be screwed through the Starboard and down into the original head mounting deck. The other fasteners were bolted though the top layer of Starboard. It is advised to install these bolts prior to screwing the top layer of Starboard to the lower layers.

Once the four brackets were installed, the Airhead popped right in, though a small shim was required under one of the brackets. We screwed on the Airhead to the brackets and proceeded to install the vent hose and wiring for the small exhaust fan in the vent hose. The vent hose will run up along the aft head bulkhead to an existing mushroom vent in the place of the old dorade box. More on this later.

We also noted that we bought a new Origo 6000 alcohol stove. The install could not have been easier. The only issue was getting it low enough so the original cover/cutting board could still be used. Fortunately, the Origo is not as tall as the old Kenyon Marine it replaced, so we had plenty of bottom clearance. We glued up two, 4x9x 2.25"-thick blocks of oak and teak that just fit the gimbal mounts that come with the stove, and screwed them to the side of the stove alcove. The thickness of these block was necessary for the Origo is narrower than the old stove. Then we screwed on the gimbal mounts and simply hung the stove on the the mounts. The last thing we added was the original teak block that seats the throw-bolt to stop the stove from swinging when not in use. All in all, a very easy project. In fact, removing the old stove and pressure tank took more time, twisting and cursing.

Folks in the yard are quite curious about the Airhead, and we already had some visits and long discussions.

So, tune in next week for the final notes on the Airhead plumbing and wiring, as well as charging the Airhead with peat moss and compost enzyme to commission it.

Jenn and Terry McAdams

[jen1722terry]

Sorry. The fourth photo did not load in our prior post, so here it is

Jenn and Terry

[jen1722terry]

Sorry again that the photos are out of order and the photos captions don't match the photos. You can figure is out.

Jenn and Terry

[Howell and James]

Hello Jenn and Terry,

We have just replaced our old Hillerange pressurized alcohol cooker for an Origo 6000. After living on board for a week and constantly using the cooker I love it! No pumping, no getting the pre-heating wrong and nearly setting the boat on fire. The Hillerange was beautifully built and I don't suppose that the Origo will last the 30 odd years that the Hillrange managed but it is pretty sturdy. We thought long and hard about converting to gas (propane/butane) but were put off by the need for a special locker, long pipe runs and a specialized fitter to meet insurance demands.

I thought the Origo would be slow, but no, I thought it would be difficult to control the flame but no and as an added bonus the oven cooks really evenly (unlike the old cooker).

Disadvantages - it is smaller with only two rings, it is narrower than the opening but it was a simple job to add two pads to the existing gimble pads, it has no rail around it so I will need to get the saucepan clamps. Possibly it uses fractionally more fuel, but the jury is still out on that.

I'll be interested to hear your verdict.

Jenny

[jen1722terry]

Just letting you all know that we have been using the Airhead as live-aboards for a week and love it. Granted, with the liquids plumbed into our existing 28-gallon holding tank, we'll only need pump-out a and solids disposal about once per month.

No clogs, no risk of flooding, no odors, no flies. We love it.

Our bimini project from a Sailrite kit was another matter. If you're thinking of this kit, be advised that we found it a LOT harder to do than expected. The Sailrite sewing machine proved to be very finicky, to the point that sewing just the support straps alone took us nearly two days to complete. Then, after all that, the strap material was too thin to get any friction on the supplied buckles. So we just knotted the straps and we will replace them with the Gemini Marie folding support bars.

We do add that Sailrite has excellent phone support all day each weekday, but we can't say we are impressed with the machine they sold us for $800. It should not have been so finicky. Jenn is not new to sewing machines (her mother owns a sewing store), so we don't think it was us. We may return the machine if we can't get it working properly.

After all this, the bimini does look nice, if a bit loose. This should be corrected with the Gemini bars.

enough complaining.

Jenn and Terry

[jen1722terry]

UPDATE ON THE AIRHEAD:

Please refer to our "Disappointment with Airhead" posting on the general Cape Dory message board. Problems with leaking and need for frequent dumping of waste from the Airhead developed a few weeks into our 2-month live-aboard cruise along the Maine and Nova Scotia coasts. Airhead's assertion in the product literature that the unit should meet the needs of a live-aboard couple for a month without dumping of solids seems to be very exagerated, which has led to problems with storing the excess waste on board until legal disposal can be found (not at all easy). Also, liquid leaks at the solids tank fitting developed after about a week or so of use. Lastly, dumping the solids tank is not easy, for the sticky wastes stick to the interior crank and require manual removal, not pleasant.

More later in the general Cape Dory message board.