Head / Toilet water fill solenoid valve fix and replacement part improvements

[Claudia Allison]

HI All,

Just learned and wanted to share if others have encountered similar:

New style of Jabsco solenoid value, part number 37038-2012, around $150; attached pdf from Jabsco

Previously we would take apart, remove any debris, and put back together.  This works well and is free, bit of a pain to get and do; would fix when the head water fill switch would stop working; attached photos.  circa 2018 part

For the water in our area, will be buying the new part noted above to try out the new and improved design,.  

To quote Jabsco "new solenoid valve that has a double check valve and filter to protect the solenoid from debris.  Also, the new solenoid does not need to be mounted above the height of the toilet so if you decide to update to the new solenoid, you can possibly remove some of the plumbing hoses."

Happy Sails,

Claudia

SV Salvation Hull #152 (2019)

[Mike Maksimchuk]

On that same vein... 

Has anyone replaced the black push-button that operates both the macerator and the water pump on their toilet?  I am thinking about installing a "fill", "flush", and "fill & flush" type switch in it's place.  Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this, and any insights or recommendations. 

Also - on a separate note - I have found that there are not enough red lights down below to see at night (racing, etc) without turning on regular lights and destroying your night vision.  I found these lights from Marine Beam - an exact retrofit for the LEDs in the boat already, and are red when you turn them on.  A quick flip off & on, and they then turn white.  

Red / White / Blue Switchable LED Side-Mount G4 Bulb - Item # SP-G4-13-RWB 5 $14.50

They will be here later this week, and I'll report back out as to how they work!  I have a dock-mate who swears by these lights on his boat - including replacing the deck light with similar. 

~Mike 
Amadeus, #94

Thank you! 

Mike Maksimchuk
295 Indian Bluffs NE | Sparta, MI 49345
email: mtma...@mtu.edu | mobile: (231) 225-5060

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[bill pittore]

When I converted to fresh water flush I converted to two buttons, one for fill and one for flush. The buttons go to two relays that control the appropriate valves and pumps. It’s selectable in that I can choose salt water or fresh but once I started using fresh water I never went back.

Bill

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[ken magida]

Several years ago I purchased a second switch from raritan and installed it below the existing switch. Simple job for small young guy. More difficult for me. 

Ken Magida 

Sent from my iPhone

An allegedly smart device

On Aug 20, 2025, at 08:54, Mike Maksimchuk <mtma...@mtu.edu> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/catalina355/CAFK_Gn8tDgzNu0ZakSHRoEYiDq9Vrn4gMHarYTaJJrOp%3Dr%2BSKA%40mail.gmail.com.

[cata...@thehares.com]

When we bought Solstice, Jon had mentioned that the Head switch had a tendency to fail after a while and provided us with a spare.  When it started showing signs of failing, we went a different route.  So, having a switch that would run both the macerator and also the fill pump at the same time is both noisy and also really hard on the contacts of the switch since it will arc across the contacts when the switch is released.  (Maybe the motors have a flyback diodes to help protect the switches, but I kind of doubt it given how frequently the switches can fail).

 

What we did was separate the Flush and Fill motors with 2 switches.  But instead of the switches operating the motors directly, they simply controlled a pair of heavy duty automotive switching relays to handle the current.  That let us get more creative with the switches.  We chose stainless steel IP-65 waterproof, lighted, momentary pushbutton switches. Red for flush and blue for fill.  I designed the mounting panel using Front Panel Express’s simple design tool and they fabricated it and shipped it to me.  Very cool company for doing one-off specialty parts.  It is a bit larger than I wanted, but since I was removing the curtesy light as well as the push button, I wanted to cover the holes they left behind.

 

Since we used a Red light for the flush button, whenever the head breaker is on, there is a red nightlight on in the head, so that’s convenient since we don’t often turn on the nightlights.  If we were going to use seawater flush, I’d probably have used red there as well because I kinda think blue is a terrible color for night, but Shelly liked the blue for fill well enough.  And yes, we changed out the sink and faucet arrangement and now find it much easier to use without the faucet blocking half the sink.  I posted this project a few years ago.

 

 

To control the motors, I used some heavy duty automotive relays that included sockets they plug into and mounted them on a control board.  Since we always use fresh water to flush, we decided to add an internal switch to disable the Fill switch and prevent someone from running the fill pump when we rarely have that thruhull open.  It’s not a big deal to reach in and turn it on if we needed to use seawater fill.

 

 

While this project wasn’t free, it wasn’t very expensive, at under $100, for what we get which is inexpensive plug-in replaceable parts should anything fail and a much quieter head operation since in our case we only use the macerator. We think it looks nice enough from the outside to not look like a hack, although if I were going to be doing this multiple times I would have made a conformal coated printed circuit board for the relay board.

 

Parts:  (today’s prices)

• APIELE 10 Amp 22mm Momentary Push Button Switches   - $14.50 each
• 2 pack EHDIS 4-Pin Car Truck Motor Heavy Duty 80A 12V Relays with sockets - $12.99
• Custom aluminum panel - $56.42
• Misc switch, terminal strips and misc - $6

 

-Jeff Hare

#17 Solstice

 

 

[bill pittore]

When I converted to fresh water I did something similar electrically, using a couple of heavy duty automotive type relays, one to run the seawater pump and another to run the macerator. I mounted them into an aluminum project box with an external switch that could switch between fresh and sea water. I mounted this to a board onto which I also mounted a Watts back flow preventer as well as the electric valve that controlled the fresh water into the toilet. I mounted this assembly under the head sink area. The water output goes to an anti-siphon vacuum breaker then another check valve and tee’s into the hose that feeds the toilet. 

Bill

On Aug 20, 2025, at 8:07 PM, <cata...@thehares.com> <cata...@thehares.com> wrote:

When we bought Solstice, Jon had mentioned that the Head switch had a tendency to fail after a while and provided us with a spare.  When it started showing signs of failing, we went a different route.  So, having a switch that would run both the macerator and also the fill pump at the same time is both noisy and also really hard on the contacts of the switch since it will arc across the contacts when the switch is released.  (Maybe the motors have a flyback diodes to help protect the switches, but I kind of doubt it given how frequently the switches can fail).

 

What we did was separate the Flush and Fill motors with 2 switches.  But instead of the switches operating the motors directly, they simply controlled a pair of heavy duty automotive switching relays to handle the current.  That let us get more creative with the switches.  We chose stainless steel IP-65 waterproof, lighted, momentary pushbutton switches. Red for flush and blue for fill.  I designed the mounting panel using Front Panel Express’s simple design tool and they fabricated it and shipped it to me.  Very cool company for doing one-off specialty parts.  It is a bit larger than I wanted, but since I was removing the curtesy light as well as the push button, I wanted to cover the holes they left behind.

 

Since we used a Red light for the flush button, whenever the head breaker is on, there is a red nightlight on in the head, so that’s convenient since we don’t often turn on the nightlights.  If we were going to use seawater flush, I’d probably have used red there as well because I kinda think blue is a terrible color for night, but Shelly liked the blue for fill well enough.  And yes, we changed out the sink and faucet arrangement and now find it much easier to use without the faucet blocking half the sink.  I posted this project a few years ago.

 

<image001.png>

 

To control the motors, I used some heavy duty automotive relays that included sockets they plug into and mounted them on a control board.  Since we always use fresh water to flush, we decided to add an internal switch to disable the Fill switch and prevent someone from running the fill pump when we rarely have that thruhull open.  It’s not a big deal to reach in and turn it on if we needed to use seawater fill.

 

<image002.png><image003.png><image004.png>

 

While this project wasn’t free, it wasn’t very expensive, at under $100, for what we get which is inexpensive plug-in replaceable parts should anything fail and a much quieter head operation since in our case we only use the macerator. We think it looks nice enough from the outside to not look like a hack, although if I were going to be doing this multiple times I would have made a conformal coated printed circuit board for the relay board.

 

Parts:  (today’s prices)

• APIELE 10 Amp 22mm Momentary Push Button Switches   - $14.50 each
• 2 pack EHDIS 4-Pin Car Truck Motor Heavy Duty 80A 12V Relays with sockets - $12.99
• Custom aluminum panel - $56.42
• Misc switch, terminal strips and misc - $6

 

-Jeff Hare

#17 Solstice

 

 

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