Expensive potty.....

[paladin]

Just was running down some goodies and happened onto a mail order site that sells Blakes and Taylors...checked on the price of a Baby Blake...
$4330.99, before shipping and customs, but with a 17.5% VAT......The dawggone potty will cost more than a homebuilt 20 footer sure glad I bought spares when I did, couldn't afford the stuff now. The Blakes thru hulls would be about $400 ($35) and I didn't check the rebuild kits, and things ain't agonna get cheaper.

[John Meachen]

VAT is not applicable to export sales.Still seems expensive though.

[erster]

Gee Chuck, I bet you have a helmet left over that would do double duty for a crapper. At worse many five gallon buckets that are thrown away by your local sheetrock brownies would also do the job. I know they work while hunting for white tail deer. You are beginning to sound like a soft 'merican fellar!!

[jverl]

Paladin,
Toplicht (http://www.toplicht.de/product/l15527) sells the Baby Blake at 2689 Euros or 3925 USD. This is still pricey - have you looked at their Lavac line - much more reasonable. John is right that VAT is not applicable to sales shipped outside the EEC.

[paladin]

Guys...I dunno need to buy a potty...I had a Baby Blake on Tana Mari and I have a brand new spare and spares kit in storage....but it was a helluva lot cheaper when I got it.......:D

[George Ray]

Do you still prefer the Blake to either a Lavac or and Airhead?

[paladin]

Absolutely.....The lavac is a cheaper version with basically the same valves, but done right, never ever a problem....like the whale gusher..ya could almost flush a pair of levis through it. I actually considered selling this one and going with another, perhaps the airhead or.....but I also had the lectrasan unit that works very well, and if you plumb it correctly as advised, never any odors...which means proper ventilation. Instead of putting two heads on Tana Mari, like most folks do with boats that size, I made one large comfortable head and went to a lot of trouble to do everything by the book.

[Ian McColgin]

I had LeVacs on both Goblin and Granuaile. Just don't flush while still sitting!!

Great unit.

However, I really like the AirHead better for my current use. Not sure it would work as well as the LeVac did were I still running charters and had thathigh a daily volume but for a cruising boat that lives one or two and has more just intermittantly, it's good.

[paladin]

whassamatta...does it try to flush you down.......I can see it now...plastic box draws vaccuum on raw human plug......:p

[boylesboats]

And where the waste goes?:eek:

[George Ray]

Which would you rather rebuild or clean up after a serious clog?

http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/
http://www.airheadtoilet.com/

http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/images/baby.jpg
http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/images/popular.jpg
http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/images/lavsetup.jpg
http://www.airheadtoilet.com/elements/images/airheadvertical.jpg
http://www.airheadtoilet.com/elements/images/installationchart.gif

[Ian McColgin]

If you're seated on LeVac when you try to flush you'll capsize your hemmeroids.

[Ian McColgin]

On the AirHead: Two glitches.

The fan motor is junk, not well marinized. I'm eventually going to spend beaucoupbucks on a proper solar/battery unit. The AirHead is still well worth it, but I wish the maker could address this problem more effectivly than sending out new fans and keeping to a merely one year warrantee.

Second, if you're inclined to major business of the firmer sort, lean forward and rise a little before wiping. There's not much space between the bottom of your butt and the bowl's hatch.

G'luck

[LeeG]

coffee is kicking in, brb

[paladin]

after looking at the drawings supplied by both parties....it appears to me that airhead just integrated all the designated features of the blakes into one device to get around poor installations problems. Folks buy a potty and just bolt it down without paying attention to proper installation details.....It's a lazy persons system......:D

[willmarsh3]

I got a Lavac Popular head several years ago thanks to a discussion on the WBF. I still like it. The only thing though is to not use Charmin or other similar TP.

[Bob Cleek]

Damn, I GAVE one away a few years ago. I'd salvaged it out of a junked boat. At least it has a nice home in a nice big restored Shock schooner.

[paladin]

Gee, Bob...I saw a used one go for a thousand bucks not too long ago....:D