Commercial macerator or homemade from garbage disposer

[mikestock]

I am looking to get a macerator and looking for recommendations.

One reason I am looking at a homemade is that it, to me, would be handier to have a 120 vac model than to have one wired to my batteries, located on the other side of my coach. I also expect to get a little more power from a 1/3 hp ac motor than from the 12 vdc motor.

The actual total cost of the homemade would be a little cheaper, but not significantly. Storage space required would not be a factor for me.

I am leaning toward the homemade model, at this point. It is claimed that it would pump waste 100 feet with about a 7-foot lift in elevation through a 3/4" hose. That is much more than I ever expect to need.

Primarily, the reason for the macerator is to allow me park my motorhome backward at one of my favorite spots, with the windshield facing a river. I need to pump about 35 feet to accomplish this.

[doughere]

Bought a used garbage disposal at the local "Habitat" store for $10 added about $20-30 dollars of parts have used it for years. Will pump 100 feet with about 3 ft rise (that's the most I've used).

Works perfectly.

Regards,
Doug

[GDS-3950BH]

ScottG wrote:
How a garbage disposal works

If it can do that to an Apple, the average turd has not a chance unless maybe if you had way to much swiss cheese, then all bets are off.

[ScottG]

How a garbage disposal works

[2oldman]

..

[ScottG]

NRALIFR wrote:
Got it. It’ll never work.

Centrifugal force = bunk.

If you’d ever played with one on a bench, you’d know that they don’t suck worth a dam, but as long as the flow of liquid into the top is continuous, they sure as heck will pump.

:):)

I had a plumber tell me that he finds foods scraps on the roof of houses where he's called to clear the drain line. So they will pump pretty good!

The one thing that makes me wonder how well this would work is that a Macerator cuts and grinds where a disposal pulverizes has no sharp parts for cutting.

[mikestock]

GDS-3950BH wrote:

NRALIFR wrote:
Must be, because with rv2go’s post I could now point to four individuals who claim that they do.

They all are lying?

There’s rv2go’s post, there was one on some RV brand forum site that I couldn’t view the pictures cuz I’m not a member, and there were at least two on the steampunk workshop site I linked to.

There were also a couple of adamant deniers on the linked site, and I liked the site owners response to one of them: “This is clearly not the website for you.”

He was probably making that Jedi hand wave motion in the air, too.

:):)

Lots of people claim lots of things, that does not mean squat.

Of coarse it will work with the disposal sitting on the ground lower than the tank, and the discharge hose level with the tank supplying it at a higher elevation. But I'm calling BS on the disposal overcoming 4' of downstream head. And that's with a 10' discharge hose let alone 100' that is claimed in your link. Centrifugal force my rear end.

A garbage disposal can't do that, even on Dagobah with Yoda putting it all together.

I am not nieve enough to expect the inlet to suck any negative pressure. My outlet is well above ground level and I don't expect the dump to ever be above the disposer outlet. In any near level situation, the inlet will be, 6 " to 10" directly below the dump outlet of the motorhome.

I have personally watched a fellow camper use the garbage disposer idea and didn't see any problems and he said he had none. At the time I was just a casual observer and not planning to purchase any macerator, myself. He was not trying to pump uphill and I can't see any situation where I would, either.

From the responses I have seen here, it looks like all the objections to the homemade thing are based on speculation. I was hoping to hear from someone who has tried both and had some real experience.

rv2go wrote:
I have been using a homemade garbage disposal setup for over 15 years while parked for months at my daughters house. I pump 75 feet thru a 3/4" hose. I am hooked up to city water so it's no problem to rinse the Black tank.
Also, what I like about my setup is that the gray water will drain as used.

Appologies to rv2go. I didn't read this post earlier.

[mikestock]

cooldavidt wrote:
A friend has a macerator on an Airstream. It is at ground level and the inlet is large diameter. I think their Airstreams has shower and bathroom sink plumbed through the black tank to provide plenty a liquids. Not sure if that is a common practice.

Yes. That's Airstream. Most have 100 gal. capacity. Partly a good idea and partly bad.

[cooldavidt]

Interesting how posts of simple questions devolve int who’s right. Enough said on this one !

??

[time2roll]

I would not go down the path of the garbage disposer. Get the right stuff.

[GDS-3950BH]

NRALIFR wrote:
Must be, because with rv2go’s post I could now point to four individuals who claim that they do.

They all are lying?

There’s rv2go’s post, there was one on some RV brand forum site that I couldn’t view the pictures cuz I’m not a member, and there were at least two on the steampunk workshop site I linked to.

There were also a couple of adamant deniers on the linked site, and I liked the site owners response to one of them: “This is clearly not the website for you.”

He was probably making that Jedi hand wave motion in the air, too.

:):)

Lots of people claim lots of things, that does not mean squat.

Of coarse it will work with the disposal sitting on the ground lower than the tank, and the discharge hose level with the tank supplying it at a higher elevation. But I'm calling BS on the disposal overcoming 4' of downstream head. And that's with a 10' discharge hose let alone 100' that is claimed in your link. Centrifugal force my rear end.

A garbage disposal can't do that, even on Dagobah with Yoda putting it all together.

[NRALIFR]

Must be, because with rv2go’s post I could now point to four individuals who claim that they do.

They all are lying?

There’s rv2go’s post, there was one on some RV brand forum site that I couldn’t view the pictures cuz I’m not a member, and there were at least two on the steampunk workshop site I linked to.

There were also a couple of adamant deniers on the linked site, and I liked the site owners response to one of them: “This is clearly not the website for you.”

He was probably making that Jedi hand wave motion in the air, too.

:):)

[GDS-3950BH]

NRALIFR wrote:
Got it. It’ll never work.

Centrifugal force = bunk.

If you’d ever played with one on a bench, you’d know that they don’t suck worth a dam, but as long as the flow of liquid into the top is continuous, they sure as heck will pump.

:):)

Got it, a garbage disposal has enough Centrifugal force to overcome 4' of head, including the additional friction from a 100' run of 5/8" or 3/4" hose.

[Dave_H_M]

:h Hope some folks learned something about garbage disposals. Dang what a nifty idea.

[rv2go]

I have been using a homemade garbage disposal setup for over 15 years while parked for months at my daughters house. I pump 75 feet thru a 3/4" hose. I am hooked up to city water so it's no problem to rinse the Black tank.
Also, what I like about my setup is that the gray water will drain as used.

[NRALIFR]

Got it. It’ll never work.

Centrifugal force = bunk.

If you’d ever played with one on a bench, you’d know that they don’t suck worth a dam, but as long as the flow of liquid into the top is continuous, they sure as heck will pump.

:):)