That fancy marine toilet pump I swore by? Total garbage.

Spent 3 years rebuilding my Jabsco pump every 4 months. Neighbor on dock 7 showed me his cheap manual pump that's been running 5 years straight. Why do we all chase the expensive brands when the simple stuff just works?

3 comments

3 Comments

brian_jackson7d ago

...and that's exactly what I ran into with my old Jabsco. I finally got tired of rebuilding it and switched to a cheap diaphragm pump from a guy at the marina. It's just a simple lever and a rubber flap, no fancy seals or springs to fail. My theory is those expensive marine pumps are overengineered to look high-tech but they just create more points of failure. The simple manual pumps (like the one on my old Boston Whaler) will outlast us all if you just keep the rubber bits wet. Sometimes the cheapest solution really is the best one, especially when it comes to stuff that's just supposed to move seawater.

christopherwilliams7d agoMost Upvoted

Actually those cheap diaphragm pumps are still positive displacement pumps, not that different from a Jabsco in principle. They just don't have the same kind of valving or seals to go bad. I'd argue the Jabsco is overengineered for what it does, but the diaphragm pump isn't really any simpler, it's just different parts that fail instead of the same ones. You ever have one of those rubber flaps split on you mid-trip?

patricia9055d ago

So you're telling me a cheap pump with a flimsy rubber flap that can split at any moment is actually better than a properly built Jabsco? I've had those flaps go bad in the middle of nowhere, and you're stuck with a bucket instead of a pump. @christopherwilliams might have a point about different failure points, but I'd rather rebuild a Jabsco every few years than trust a piece of rubber to get me through a season without snapping. Overengineered? Maybe, but overbuilt means it works when you need it, not just when it feels like it.